你如何跳舞决非无关紧要

开发潜力，征服未知，拓展极限，拥有更多的愿望是驱使我们的动力。这人类本性一方面导致了许多成就，另一方面也造成无数滥用。我们社会中充满着这样的滥用或过激行为：无限自由，个人主义，资本主义，女权主义，极端保守主义，极端自由主义，政治上的极左和极右，宗教原教旨主义，恐怖主义，极端的科学技术，垄断性的商业模式，穷奢极侈的生活方式，宣扬暴力的娱乐和体育活动，金融及商界的欺诈行为，枪枝游说集团，过度消费，过度税收，过度使用自然资源，人为造成的气候变化，环境污染，人口爆炸，腐败，经济衰退，贫困，饥饿......

所有这些不导致一个和谐融洽的人类社会，而导致两极分化，冲突，仇恨，敌对和战争。我们从一个极端走向另一个极端，却没有意识到所有的极端主义来自我们里面共同的本性：贪婪，自私，无知，狭窄。我们不能也不愿从自身利益以外和自我角度以外来考虑问题。我们看不见整体和全貌，在其中我们仅仅是一个小点。我们依靠权势和实力来解决问题，却不明白失衡可能带来的后果。我们对私利永无休止的追求甚至可能导致文明的毁灭，如果人类的贪婪无知不受到制约和平衡的话。这并不是危言耸听。鉴于二战以来世界所发生的剧烈和飞速变化，地球母亲对我们的贪婪还能支持多久？人类之间的和平还能保持多长时间？

我不是唯一忧天的杞人。不管你意识到与否，探戈的流行反映了人们对正在失去的和平的普遍怀念，和对这个非人化的时代的反省。探戈让许多人着迷是因为他们在其中发现了一个不同的现实：人类的共同利益，相互依赖，一起生存，亲密合作，彼此联系。在探戈中我们在顺服他人，安慰他人和取悦他人中找到快乐，而不是在互相竞争中找到快乐。在探戈中我们找到了一个没有敌意和冲突的避难所，一个可以依靠的肩膀，一个通过沟通，合作，适应，和解和妥协来和谐相处的方式。在探戈中我们发现了宣扬爱的耶稣，倡导非暴力的甘地，主张朴素和回归自然的老子，和提倡中庸的孔子的智慧。在探戈中我们找到了和平，情爱，亲密，和一个我们希望现实世界也能够变得如此的，更美好的世界。

这就是为什么人们被探戈所吸引。这就是为什么我深为探戈也被人推向极端而感到悲愤。他们使这个爱的舞蹈变成了作秀，怪异，政治上正确，和以盈利为目的的舞蹈。这样做不仅改变了探戈的精髓，也出卖了它的理想主义，把它从一个教世界学会爱的舞蹈降低为与这一目的相反的舞蹈，把一个升华人性的舞蹈降低为减损人性的舞蹈，把一个象征着希望现实世界也能够变得如此美好的舞蹈降低为一个映照着我们想要改变的这个丑恶世界的舞蹈。

很多人现在承担起保护自然环境和合理使用自然资源的责任，因为地球是我们唯一的家园。难道我们不应该同样承担起保护社会环境和维持社会稳定的责任？新入探戈的人需要认识到，你怎么看探戈影响到你怎么学探戈和跳探戈。你可以把它只看成个舞蹈，或者你可以把它看成是教世界学会爱的舞蹈。你可以仅仅学习舞步，或者你可以学习如何与人成为一体。你可以用跳舞来显示自我，或者你可以用跳舞来显示爱心。你可以改造探戈，或者你可以让探戈改造你，并通过你改造世界。你如何跳舞决非无关紧要，因为通过跳舞你会留下影响，无论你选择怎样跳舞。

How You Dance Matters

Our desire to realize our potentials, to conquer the unknown, to expand the limits, and to possess more, is a part of what drive us. This very nature is the cause of our accomplishments on one hand and abuses on the other. Our society is full of such abuses or extremisms—unlimited personal freedom, selfish individualism, heartless capitalism, militant feminism, ultra conservatism and liberalism, extreme political right and left, religious fundamentalisms, terrorism, radical sciences and technologies, monopolistic business models, extravagant life styles, violent entertainments and sports, bank fraudulences, gun lobbies, over spending, over taxation, overuse of natural resources, manmade climate changes, environmental pollution, population explosion, corruptions, economic downturns, poverty, hunger…

All these result not in a cohesive and harmonious human society, but polarization, conflict, hatred, hostility and war. We go from one extreme to another without realizing that all extremisms come from the same human nature within us—greed, self-interests, ignorance and intolerance. We are unable and unwilling to consider interests and perspectives beyond our own. We cannot see the whole picture of which we are only a small part. We rely on power and might to solve problems, and we do not understand the consequence of unbalanced approaches (See Tango and Integrity). Our relentless pursuit of self-interests could lead to the destruction of civilizations if we let our greed and ignorance go unchecked and unbalanced. This is not alarmist talk. Given how rapidly and radically the world has changed since World War II, how long can mother earth support our greed and mankind remain peaceful with each other?

I am not the only one who worries. Whether you realize it or not, tango’s popularity reflects the universal nostalgia for the missing peace and the rebellion against the dehumanization of our times. Tango is fascinating to many because in tango we find a different reality—common interests, mutual dependency, togetherness, closeness, and connection. In tango we find joy in complying, comforting and pleasuring others instead of in competing with each other. In tango we find a refuge void of animosity and conflict, a shoulder that we can rely on, and a way to reach harmony through communication, collaboration, accommodation, reconciliation and compromise. In tango we find the wisdoms of Jesus who taught love, Gandhi who advocated nonviolence, Lao Tzu who pleaded simplicity and naturalness, and Confucius who argued for the golden mean. In tango we find peace, love, intimacy, and a better world that we wish ours could become.

That is why people are attracted to tango. That is why I am sad to see that tango too is polarized by the extremist tendency to make this dance of love a dance of show, a dance of exoticism, a dance of political correctness, and a dance for profit. By so doing they not only change the essence of the dance, but also betray its idealism and degrade tango from a dance that teaches the world to love to that against its ordained purpose, from that sublimates the humanity to that debases it, and from that symbolizes the world we want ours to become to that reflects the world we want to change.

Many people now take responsibilities to keep the natural environment clean and resources wisely used, because earth is our only home. Should we not also take responsibilities to keep the human environment clean and societies stable? People new to tango need to awaken to the fact that how you see tango affects how you learn and dance it. You may see it as just a dance, or you may see it as a dance that teaches the world to love. You may learn just how to do steps, or you may learn how to be one with each other. You may dance it to show your ego, or you may dance it to show your love. You may reinvent tango, or you may let tango change you and through you the world. How you dance matters, because by which you will leave an impact, either way.

探戈中的女人味和女权主义

在布宜诺斯艾利斯的舞会上所跳的探戈舞是男人和女人之间友好，亲密，关爱与和谐关系的写照。男人和女人从起初就是好朋友。男人喜欢女人。他们选择女人而不是男人做他们生活的伴侣。他们对女人比对其他男人好，也更慷慨。他们为女人与其他男人争斗竞争，并为自己所爱的女人拼命工作。女人也喜欢男人。她们总想吸引男人，赢得男人的心。她们把自己信托给男人，与男人结为一体，向男人奉献出自己的爱，并顺从男人的带领。男人和女人互相珍惜，彼此成就。他们的友谊，从总体上说，是一个爱情故事。

布宜诺斯艾利斯的探戈舞会让我想起这个爱情故事。在那些舞会上，我经验了与阿根廷妇女的美好关系。从外表上看，阿根廷妇女并不让我觉得比其他妇女更美丽。但她们却因她们的舞蹈在我心中留下了深刻的印象。她们是我所知道的最有女人味和女性魅力的女人。她们头上插着花，眼睛友好地望进你的眼睛，双手热情地拥抱你，把她们的胸脯亲切地贴在你的胸膛上。她们翩翩起舞，摆动她们的裙子。热烈，多情而富于诱惑，她们在你怀里扭动她们的身体，用她们的腿缠住你的腿，用她们的身体裹住你的身体。女人味并不是她们的弱点，而是她们的力量所在，而且她们知道如何用它来​​让你感觉特别。在现实生活中她们可能是教授，医生或老总，但在舞会上她们却只是单纯，自然，简单，可爱的女人。探戈由她们发明绝非出于偶然，因为那是在她们的血液中。阿根廷妇女是女人味和女性情感的人格化。与她们跳舞的确是人生中最令人满足的经验之一。

离开了女人味，探戈就不一样了。探戈需要男人强壮，果断，可靠，对女人很保护，也需要女人温柔，顺从，有女人味，妖娆美丽。男人和女人在探戈中扮演不同的角色，就如同在生活中一样。一个象枝干，另一个象花朵；在一起他们成为一棵盛开的大树。一个象画笔，另一个象颜料；在一起他们绘出美丽的画图。在欧洲和北美，有些人认为这种想法是性别歧视和男权控制。他们不希望探戈中有大男子主义，性别不平等和亲密的举动。他们希望舞伴之间保持距离，没有身体接触，用开式拥抱跳舞，以避免性刺激。他们希望男人不是带领女人，而是“邀请”女人做动作，并尊重她们拒绝邀请，率先动作，和带领男人的权利。他们还希望探戈在同性舞伴之间跳，女人带领女人，男人跟随男人。总之，他们希望探戈成为中性化的舞蹈，而舞会则象工作场所那样，在其中所有的人都以“政治上正确”的方式对待他人。

在欧洲和北美，妇女的男性化对探戈的跳法有着不可否认的影响。在那些社会里，现代生活方式鼓励妇女穿上工作服，隐藏起自己的性别特征，加入劳动大军同男人一样战斗。许多妇女把职业生涯放在婚姻之上，把个人成功放在家庭之上，把独立自主放在配偶关系之上。她们推动保护妇女权利和机会平等的法令，禁止男人把女人视为性对象。结果，妇女也越来越不把自己看成是女人，而把自己越来越看得象男人一样。为了与男人竞争，女人需要具有象男人一样的强势，事业心和挑战性。许多女人变得粗暴，讨厌，邋遢，肥胖，因为她们不再关心男人怎么看她们。她们养出粗暴，讨厌，邋遢，肥胖的女儿，因为希望她们长大后也与男人竞争。暴力的女人培养出暴力的杀人凶手，正如全世界刚刚在康涅狄格的Newtown所目睹的那样。当女人的行为变得如同男人，男女之间的关系便恶化，家庭便解体，孩子便失去父母。当女人不再有女人味时，她们对男人就不再那么有吸引力了，男人于是到同性关系中寻找替代。你想知道为什么“婚姻平等”日益成为我们社会中的热门话题吗？当女人失去其温柔仁爱的本性——这原是对男人好斗本性的一种平衡，这世界将成为一个更加危险的地方......

女人味之与人类，就象绿色之与环境。我为我们的妇女身上正在失去的女人味感到遗憾。我想，世界也在为此怀旧，这是为什么全球各地的人们都发现阿根廷妇女和她们的舞蹈如此迷人。如果你跳探戈舞跳得足够多，就象阿根廷妇女那样，你就会知道把女人变成男人在探戈里是行不通的，正如这在其他社会生活领域也造成了许多麻烦，却没有解决任何问题。在说了这些以后，感谢阿根廷探戈，我仍然对未来抱着希望，因为在探戈里，男人和女人为他们共同的利益必须保持他们之所以创造出来的样子：不同，然而是统一的；独特，而又不失平衡，多样，却互相补充，相反，但仍是平等的。

Femininity and Feminism in Tango

The tango that is danced in the milongas of Buenos Aires reflects a relationship between men and women that is friendly, loving, intimate and harmonious. Since the beginning of time men and women have been best friends. Men like women. They choose women over men to be their life partner. They treat women better than they treat other men. They are more generous to women than to other men. They fight for women with other men, and they work hard for the women they love. Women, too, like men. They always try to attract men and win men’s hearts. They trust themselves in men, devote their love to men, unite with men, and follow men’s lead. Men and women cherish and complete each other. Their friendship has been, for the most part, a love story.

In the milongas of Buenos Aires, I am reminded of this love story. I find myself experience a wonderful relationship with Argentine women. On the outside, Argentine women do not particularly strike me as more beautiful than other women. But they surely leave an impression in my heart when I dance with them. They are the most feminine and attractive women that I know. They wear flowers in their hair, look friendly into your eyes, embrace you warmly, with their chest intimately touch yours, and dance gracefully, waving their skirts. Passionate, sentimental and seductive, they twist their body in your arms, entangle their leg with your leg, and wrap your body with their body. Femininity is not their weakness but strength, and they know how to use it to make you feel special. They may be professors, doctors or CEOs in real life, but in the milongas they are just pure, natural, simple and lovely women. That tango is invented by them is not an accident—it is in their blood. Argentine women are the personifications of femininity and affection. Dancing with them is truly one of life’s most gratifying experiences.

Without femininity, tango will not be the same. Tango requires men to be strong, decisive, dependable and protective, and women to be soft, submissive, feminine and beautiful. Men and women play different roles in tango, as they do in life. One is like the stem and the other flowers; together they make a blossomy tree. One is like the brush and the other pigments; together they draw a beautiful painting. In Europe and North America, some people reject this idea as sexism and male domination. They want tango to be void of macho posturing, gender inequality and intimate displays. They want tango partners to maintain a distance from each other, keep away from physical contact, and dance in an open hold to avoid sexual stimulation. They want men not to lead but to “invite” women to move, and respect women’s rights to decline the invitation, to initiate their own steps, and to lead men. They want tango to be danced by same-sex partners as well, women lead women, and men follow men. In short, they want tango to be a gender-neutral dance and the milonga to be like a workplace where everybody conducts in a politically correct manner. (See Tango and Gender Equality)

The masculinization of women in Europe and North America has an undeniable impact on how tango is danced in these societies, where the modern way of life encourages women to put on uniforms, hide their gender identities, and join the work force to fight like men. Many women choose career over marriage, success over family, and independence over relationships. They push legislations to protect women’s rights and equal opportunities, and prohibit men to see women as sex objects. As a result, women, too, see themselves less and less as women, and more and more like men. In order to compete with men, women need to be strong, ambitious and aggressive like men. Many become violent, mean, sloppy and over weight, as they do not care about how men see them any more. And they produce violent, mean, sloppy and over weight daughters, as they want them also to grow up competing with men. Violent women produce violent murderers, as the world has just witnessed in Newtown, Connecticut. When women behave like men, the relationship between men and women deteriorates, the institution of family disintegrates, and children lose parents. When women cease to be feminine, they become less attractive to men, who then turn to same-sex relationships for help. You wonder why “marriage equality” increasingly becomes a discourse in our societies? When women lose their soft, loving nature that has been the balance to men’s aggression, the world is becoming a more dangerous place…

What femininity is to the humanity is like what green is to the environment. I am nostalgic for the missing femininity in our women. I think the world, too, is nostalgic for that, which is why people around the globe find Argentine women and their dance fascinating. If you dance enough tango, as do the Argentine women, you will know that turning women into men just doesn’t work in tango, as it has caused more problems than solving any in other social discourses. That said, I remain hopeful thanks to Argentine tango, because in tango men and women have to be who they are created to be for their common well-being—divergent yet united, distinct yet balanced, different yet complementary, and opposite but equal (See Femininity and Feminism in Tango (II)).

探哥是一种感觉

舞步只是用来表达感情的工具，正如词语是用以表达思想的工具。探戈不是舞步，而是对感情的表达。正如有人著名地说过的那样，“探戈是一种舞出来的感觉。”感觉是很难定义的，它可以是从心情，感受，情绪，梦想，激情，欣快到灵感的任何东西。简单地说，我们在探戈中感受到的是一种心境。虽然它难以言表，但在这心境中我们变得最活跃，最有创意，最雄辩，也最满足。如何进入这种心境是一个谜。它不能靠意志或努力达到。它不会每时每刻发生。当我们刻意寻找它时却找不到。但每个人都曾经验过它。我们沉迷于探戈主要因为我们都有过这样的感觉。

探戈能把我们带进这种感觉可能跟音乐有关。好的音乐是跳舞跳得尽兴的必要条件。它是将我们的潜力（创造力，想象力，能力，流畅性等）充分发挥出来不可或缺的激素。好的探戈音乐具有清晰的节奏和丰富的感情，不仅优美而适于跳舞，而且能制造气氛，激发情绪，提高士气，产生灵感，把我们带进那种心境。当我们记得一个音乐迷人，士气高昂的舞会，我们所记的是那种感觉，而不是步子。

当然，那种感觉不是单靠音乐产生的，拥抱也起着重要的作用。探戈之所以与众不同是因为拥抱。探戈的拥抱不象新手认为的那样只是一个框架或相互搀扶。它是使两人合为一体的连接，是沟通两颗心的交流，是抚慰灵魂的柔情，亲昵和舒适。它能满足深藏在人性中的需要，給我们一种相归属，相依连，相成全的感觉。它将我们带回到最早的记忆，我们儿时的摇篮，母亲乳房的滋养和慰籍，父亲怀抱的支持和保护，家庭的安全与温暖。探戈反映我们对“家”的向往。它提醒我们，不是当我们独自一人，而是当我们在一起时，我们才是最好的。最终，我们是在彼此中找到自己的“家”，因为我们属于彼此，需要彼此，成全彼此。我们跳探戈是为了与对方成为一体，从而使自己完整。没有拥抱，探戈就不是探戈，而只是一个普通的舞蹈了。

如果拥抱如此重要，那么舞伴也一样。同一个不会拥抱的舞伴跳舞是找不到感觉的。只重视步子的探戈教学法培养出来的正是这样不专业的舞者，他们回避拥抱，向后仰身，将自己与舞伴分开，把着舞伴就如同把着台购物车，在跳舞时不投入感情。这样的人完全不理解跳探戈是怎么回事。跳探戈就象是将婴儿小心翼翼地抱在怀里，哼着摇篮曲摇他/她入睡；或安息在父母怀中，听着赞美歌，被轻轻摇入梦乡。探戈是我们在舞蹈中体验到并与舞伴分享的那种温馨，安全，舒适，和亲密的感觉。的确，探戈优美的音乐，舒适的拥抱和节奏性的摆动有一种催眠作用，使我们深深坠入冥想或梦境，其感觉是如此惬意，以至于舞曲结束时我们仍不愿醒来。人们需要知道步子才能跳探戈，但步子的目的是为了方便拥抱，让两人得以在运动中保持一体。探戈就好象现实生活中的伴侣关系，虽然面临各种挑战，但两人团结一致，紧密相连，互相支持，不可分割。它需要爱心，信任，和委身。如果你能从这个角度看探戈，我向你保证，你会体验一种完全不同的舞蹈，浪漫，感性，梦幻，诗意，并难以置信的令人满足。

Tango Is a Feeling

Steps are tools used to dance feelings, just like words are tools used to convey thoughts. Tango is not found in the steps, but in the heart. As someone famously put it, “Tango is a feeling that is danced.” It is difficult to define feeling, which could be anything from emotion, sentiment, mood, dream, excitation, euphoria, to duende. Simply put, what we experience in tango is a state of mind. As ineffable as it is, we are most exuberant, creative, eloquent, and satisfied when we are in that state of mind. How this state of mind comes into being is a mystery. It may not come by will or effort. It may not come always. It may not come at all even when we try hard to find it. But everyone has experienced it at some point. We are addicted to tango mainly because we have experienced that feeling.

The reason tango can lead us to that feeling may have something to do with the music. Good music is essential to a fulfilled tango experience. It is an inspiration indispensable for bringing our potentials (originality, imagination, ability, and fluency) into full play. Good music, marked by a clear rhythm and rich sentiment, is not only beautiful and easy to dance to; it also generates a mood, stirs up emotions, lifts the spirit, inspires creativity, and leads us to that state of mind. When we remember a milonga where the music is enchanting and morale is high, what we remember is the feeling and not the steps.

The feeling, of course, is not generated by music alone. The embrace also plays an important role. Tango is unique because of its embrace. Unlike what novices may think, tango embrace is not just a frame or hold. It is the connection that makes us one, the communication that links up our hearts, the tenderness, intimacy and comfort that satisfy our soul. It serves the needs that lie deeply in our humanity, giving us a sense of belonging, connection and completion. It takes us back to our earliest memories, to the cradle of our infancy, the nourishment and comfort of our mother’s chest, the support and protection of our father’s arms, and the warmth and safety of our home. Tango reflects our longing for “home.” It reminds us that we are better not when we are alone, but when we are together. In the end, we find home in each other, because we belong to, need, and complete each other. We dance to be one with each other, thus make ourselves whole. Without the embrace, tango is not tango but another ordinary dance.

If the embrace is important, so is the partner. We cannot find the feeling dancing tango with a partner who doesn’t know how to embrace. The problem of a tango pedagogy focusing on steps is that it produces just such amateurs. They shy away from the embrace, lean backward, detach themselves from their partner, grab their partner like a shopping cart, and are not emotionally engaged. Such people completely miss the point of dancing tango. Dancing tango is like holding a baby tenderly in your arms, singing a lullaby, and swaying him/her to sleep; or resting safely in your parent’s arms, listening to the hymn, and being swayed to dream. Tango is the warm, safe, comfy, and intimate feeling that we experience and share with our partner in the dance. Indeed, the beautiful music, comfortable embrace and rhythmic motion of tango have a hypnotic effect, causing us fall deeply into a state of meditation or dreaming, so heavenly that we don’t want to wake up when the tanda ends. One needs to know the steps to dance tango, but the whole point of steps is to facilitate the embrace so that we may remain one in motion. Tango resembles the relationship in real life where we face all kinds of challenges but keep on united, connected, supportive and inseparable. It requires love, trust, and surrender. If you see tango from this perspective, I guarantee you that you will experience a totally different dance—romantic, sensual, dreamy, poetic, soulful, and incredibly satisfying.

爱的艺术

探戈中最重要的规则之一是不责备，批评或指教你的舞伴。老舞棍们严格遵循这个规则，因为他们知道后果。最近，我的两个学生大吵了一架。起初也许是出于好心，她对他的带领提了点意见。他为自己辩解，并对她的跟随说了些什么。结果对话升级成了侮辱，并以两颗心的破碎而告终。他们也许不会再与对方跳舞了。

学习探戈就象学习语言，而且需要差不多长的时间。任何学探戈不到五年的人都算是新手，而新手是最沮丧恼怒的人。他们想跳好，但不知道怎么跳。有许多东西他们都不知道，包括规则和礼仪。每个新手都有许多毛病，而且都对别人有看法。有经验的舞者不与他们跳舞。所以他们只能自己一块儿跳，并为各自的毛病互相指责。五十步笑百步的讽刺是同类相讥。当一个人指责对方僵硬时，对方可能也在这样想。等他们学会了步子，感情也伤害了，关系也破裂了。

初学者往往没有意识到，不管你喜欢与否，跟你在一起学探戈的人是你探戈生涯中最重要的人。在很长一段时间内你可能都会与他们跳舞。每个社区中跳探戈的人是有限的。这些人是被命运召到一起来的。大家最好彼此接受对方，并给对方提高的时间。在现实生活中，如果你喜欢一个人，你对她说她很美丽。如果你说她是丑陋的，她不会跟你出去。若想与别人跳舞，你也得做同样的事。即使你被要求说实话也总是赞美一个人的舞蹈。有多少丈夫在说了实话后被妻子踢下床去的？记住，探戈不只是一个舞蹈。它是一种人际关系。它是爱的艺术。

耶鲁大学艺术史教授罗伯特·法里斯·汤普森在他的著作《探戈，爱的艺术史》中说：探戈“是教世界学会爱的舞蹈。”探戈的精髓是欢迎别人进入你的个人空间，接受那个人，向他委身，放弃你的自我，倾听那人内心的声音和感受，做个体贴，合作，谦让，顺应的人，享受两人间的亲密，与他/她合而为一，并给他/她以安慰，快乐和爱。这与我们的文化所代表的观念，即个人主义，独立性，自我利益，敌对好斗，是不同的。学习探戈是学习如何适应别人，不是要别人适应你。我希望探戈能使我们成为更好的人，用尊重，欣赏和关爱对待别人，接受别人如其所是，并把别人，而不是自己，当作生活和舞蹈的中心。在没有做到这些之前，我们没有足够的资格做探戈舞者，而且也跳不好探戈。

The Art of Love

One of the most important rules in tango is not to blame, criticize or teach your dance partner. Milongueros follow this code strictly because they know the consequence. Recently, two of my students had a big fight. It started out of perhaps a very good intention to help. She said something about his leading. He defended himself and said something about her following. The conversation escalated to insults and ended up with two broken hearts. They perhaps will not dance with each other again.

Learning tango is like learning a language and it takes about as long. Anyone less than five years in tango is a novice. Novices are the most frustrated people. They want to dance well but don’t know how. There are so many things they don’t know, including rules and manners. Each of them has loads of problems, and they all have opinions on each other. Experienced dancers don’t dance with them. So they stick together and blame each other for their own problems. The irony of “the pot calls the kettle black” is that they are two of a kind. When one blames the other for being stiff, the other is likely thinking the same. By the time they have learned the steps, feelings are hurt and relationships broken.

Beginners often don’t realize that, whether you like it or not, the people who are learning tango with you are the most important people in your tango life. You will likely dance with them for a long time. There are only limited people in each tango community. These are the people called together by fate. It’s better to accept each other and give each other time to improve. In real life, if you like someone you tell her how beautiful she is. If you say she is ugly, she will not go out with you. You do the same thing in tango if you want to dance with someone. Always say good things about one’s dance even if you are asked for an honest opinion. How many husbands are kicked out of bed after giving their wives their honest opinion?  Remember, tango is not just a dance. It is a relationship. It is the art of love.

Robert Farris Thompson, professor of the History of Art at Yale University, said in his book, Tango, the Art History of Love, that tango “is the dance that teaches the world to love.” The idea of tango is to welcome another person into your personal space, to accept that person, to surrender, to let go your ego, to listen to the inner voice and feelings of that person, to be considerate, cooperative, yielding and adaptive, to enjoy the intimacy, to be one with that person, and to give comfort, pleasure and love. It is a different idea from what our culture stands for, that is, individualism, independence, self-interests and aggression. Learning tango is learning to accommodate yourself to others, not asking others to adapt to you. Hopefully, tango will make us a better people who treat others with respect, appreciation and attentiveness, accept them as who they are, and put them, instead of oneself, at the center of one’s life and dance. Until then, we are not qualified as tango dancers, and cannot dance well anyway.

探戈与整体观念（INTEGRITY）

我们跳探戈的方式反映了我们是谁。我们是一个强国。我们习惯于弱小国家听我们的，而不是我们听他们的。我们习惯于我行我素，按自己的意愿行事，而不管他人的想法和价值观。我们不顾其他国家的主权，以自由的名义发动战争，推翻我们不喜欢的政府，侵犯别人对自己的创作——如阿根廷探戈——的 权利，并按我们的意志毫无敬意地对待它。我们的政治家只维护他们所代表的特殊集团的利益而不尽其职地平衡所有人的利益。“按我说的做，否则没门！”是他们 在华盛顿及国境内外的任何地方做事的方式。我们已经失去了当我们是小弱穷国时曾有过的伟大，宽宏和谦逊的气度，而成为一个自以为是，固执己见，不顾别人， 有失偏颇，蛮不讲理的人民。

在我们的舞会上常见的不尊重人，不守规矩，显摆卖弄，危及他人，侵犯别人空间，阻挡交通，撞人，以及其他许多不当行为，都是缺乏INTEGRITY影 响跳舞的例子。探戈讲究礼貌，尊重，体贴，合作，服从，礼让和关爱。自我中心，不顾他人，麻木不仁和自高自大的人无法超越自己，因而不能与人合作，也跳不 好探戈。探戈涉及内部和外部，运动和感觉，优美和舒适，身体和心灵等多种辩证关系。一个浅薄，偏执，片面的人无法超越表面而欣赏探戈的深度。这样的人往往 只注重步法而忽略舞伴关系，舞伴间的连接，感觉，舒适，态度，及探戈的礼仪和文化。他们认为能跳花步的就是好舞者，但事实未必如此。我们有时看到一个舞者过分表现自己而让他的舞伴相形见拙。这样的人是好舞者吗？一个好舞者不能只有技能，还需要具备INTEGRITY。

很多人认为跳得美的探戈就是好探戈，这也未必是事实。探戈既有看得见的一面，也有看不见的一面。人们可以发展旨在提高视觉印象的技能，也可以发展旨在增加感官快乐的技能。有人故意偏离探戈的精髓，开放拥抱，分离舞伴，牺牲探戈的亲密，深情，感性和舒适，只追求令人乍舌的视觉效果。这样的舞蹈纵然看起来惊险夺目，我也不认为是好探戈。一个好探戈是集多种元素，包括感性，亲密，感情，心灵共鸣，舒适，优雅和美丽为一体的。

INTEGRITY不 仅是人品和思维严谨的问题。探戈更适合重视整体价值而不是只重视个人价值的文化。在一个重视整体价值的文化中，人们学会超出自我考虑问题，学会体贴，尊重 他人和与人合作。过分强调个人自由和个人主义可以让人把“我”看得高于一切。当这样的人有机会说了算的时候，那往往是事情在我们的政治舞台和探戈舞会中会 如此一团糟的原因。

INTEGRITY是超越有形，外表和自我而理解他人对自己，不见对所见，实质对表面，内容对形式，感觉对运动，舒适对美丽等的重要性。探戈需要INTEGRITY，因为它涉及到很多元素。让我们希望，正如一位读者所说，“探戈是帮助这个文化走上正道的又一个工具。”

*注：INTEGRITY具有整体，全面，完整，完美品德等多种意思。

Tango and Integrity

The way we dance tango reflects who we are. We are a big, strong and powerful nation. We are accustomed to that small and weak nations listen to us, and not we listen to them. We tend to do whatever we want, or have our own way, despite what other people want or value. We disregard other nations’ sovereign rights, launch wars in the name of freedom, overthrow governments that we don’t like, violate their entitlement to their own creations—Argentine tango, for example, and treat which disrespectfully at our will. Our politicians fight only for the special interests they represent and fail to balance the interests of all people. “My way, or no way!” is how they do things in Washington and elsewhere within and beyond our borders. We have lost the greatness, magnanimity and humility that we used to have when we were a small, weak and poor nation, and become a self-important, single-minded, inconsiderate, unbalanced, obstinate, and arrogant people.

Contempt, disobedience, showoff, self-glorification, endangering others, invading other’s space, blocking the traffic, running into people, and other misconducts in our milongas are examples of how the lack of integrity affects our tango dancing. Tango requires manner, respect, thoughtfulness, cooperation, obedience, yielding, love and care. A self-centered, inconsiderate, insensitive and arrogant person is not able to see beyond oneself, thus cannot cooperate with others and dance tango well. Tango involves dualities such as external and internal, movement and feeling, beauty and comfort, body and soul, etc. A shallow, obstinate and unbalanced person cannot see beyond the surface and appreciate the depth of tango. Such individuals tend to focus only on the footwork, and overlook the partnership, connection, feeling, comfort, manner, etiquette and culture of tango. They think that he who can do fancy steps is a good dancer, but in fact that is not necessarily true. We sometimes see a dancer so over performing himself it puts his partner into shame. Is such man a good dancer? No. Skills alone do not make a good dancer. It takes integrity as well.

Many people think that a beautiful tango is a good tango. That is not necessarily true either. Tango has both tangible and intangible sides. One can develop skills aiming at increasing its visual impression, or one can develop skills aiming at increasing its sensual pleasure. There are people who deliberately deviate from the essence of tango, break the embrace, drift apart the partners, and sacrifice the intimacy, soulfulness, sensuality and comfort of the dance, just so that they can achieve stunning visual effects for impression. I don’t think such is a good tango even if it looks dazzling and striking. A good tango embodies a pleasing integration of all elements, including sensuality, intimacy, feeling, emotion, soulfulness, comfort, elegance and beauty.

Integrity is not only a matter of moral character and sound thinking. Tango fits better a culture that values integrity than a culture that values self-interests. In a culture that values integrity, people learn to think beyond oneself and be more considerate, respectful and cooperative. Overemphasis on personal liberty and individualism could make people put “me” above everyone else. When such people gain the opportunity to be in charge, that is often why things get so wrong in our politics and milongas.

Integrity is the ability to see beyond the tangible, external and self, to understand the importance of others to oneself, the invisible to the visible, the substance to the surface, the content to the form, the feeling to the movement, and the comfort to the beauty. Tango needs integrity because it involves many elements. Let’s hope that, as a reader said, “Tango is one more tool to help this culture on its way.”

人们为什么跳探戈舞?

我们跳探戈舞的原因与生活中的阴暗面有点关系。有人说他们跳探戈舞是因为他们喜欢探戈音乐，但他们可以在家里听音乐。有人说他们是喜欢运动，但他们也可以做操锻炼身体。有人说他们喜欢探戈无拘无束的形式，但武术或许也能让他们得到这样的满足。有人说探戈在艺术上具有挑战性，但芭蕾舞在这方面标准更高。如果这些是人们跳探戈的原因，那就不会有探戈了，因为替代的东西很多。

探戈之所以为人们所喜爱有它独特的原因。大多数舞蹈都是为庆祝生活而创造的，但探戈却服务于不同的目的。它是由不幸的人们为躲避痛苦而发明的。他们来舞会不是为了炫耀自己，而是为了暴露自己的脆弱和寻求安慰，为了在舞蹈中跳出自己的孤独，思乡，怀旧和悲伤，为了找一个可以依靠的肩膀，为了躲入一个可以疗伤的避难所，为了满足对爱的渴望，为了触摸另一个人和被另一个人所触摸。这些都是普通人，穷人，移民，工人，服务生，店员，女佣，和出租车司机。他们也许貌不出众外表卑微，但你与他们跳舞时会感觉到，他们的怀抱是温暖而深情的，他们的心地是敏感而富于同情的，他们的感觉是深沉而真挚的，他们的动作是粗犷而有感染力的，他们的舞蹈是充满激情和感伤的。探戈是他们的避难所。这舞蹈的亲密，深情，感性和安慰，映照着并能满足他们内心深处人的需要。这种探戈，是仍然在不太富裕的社会如阿根廷和乌拉圭的舞会上跳着的探戈。

当然，并不是所有的人都有这需要。富裕，成功，自大和浅薄的人，举例说，喜欢探戈的美丽，却不认同它的目的。相反，他们用探戈来庆祝自己的生活，赞美自己的成功，夸耀自己的时髦，显示自己的傲慢，和炫耀自己的优越。传统探戈对他们来说是太朴素了，所以他们进行更改：采用开式拥抱，发明花哨步子，增添卖弄的技巧，使用另类音乐，交换男女角色，等等。结果，他们创造了一种作秀版的探戈。它看起来花俏而感觉空虚。这种探戈现在在我们这样的富裕社会成了一种时尚。

探戈在过去曾多次大难不死，我相信它也能战胜这一挑战，因为人的需要，欲望，渴望，柔弱，孤独，感伤，情爱，彼此依恋，和浪漫主义是人类本性的一部分，即使是心地最硬的汉子也在所难免。不幸的人当然更容易受伤害，这就是为什么他们创造了探戈。这也可以解释为什么探戈舞会在经济不景气的时候比经济繁荣时更加拥挤，为什么女性跳探戈的比男性更多，为什么探戈的复兴发生在世界上游子和移民比以往任何时候都多的现在。探戈永远是孤独，思乡，怀旧，渴求，脆弱，感伤和浪漫者的舞蹈​​。幸运的人也需要探戈，如果他们不被自己的成功和自大所盲目的话。毕竟，我们是人，而探戈是为所有向内寻找其人性的人创造的。

Why People Dance Tango

The reason we dance tango has something to do with the gloomy side of life. Some people say they dance tango because they like the music—but they can listen to the music at home. Some say they like the movements—but they can move their body in acrobats as well. Some say they like the unrestrained form of tango—but martial arts may give them the same satisfaction. Some say tango is artistically challenging—but ballet raises that standard even higher. If these were the reason people dance tango, then there would not be tango, because the alternatives are many.

Tango triumphs for a unique reason. While most dances are created to celebrate life, tango serves a different purpose. It is created by the less fortunate to shelter their sorrows. They do not come to the milonga to play peacocks, but to expose their vulnerability and seek comfort, to dance the loneliness, homesickness, nostalgia, and grief in them, to find a shoulder to rely on, to take refuge for their wounds, to quench their thirst for love, and to touch and be touched by another human being. These are the ordinary people, poor people, immigrants, workers, waiters, waitresses, shop assistants, maids, and taxi drivers. They may not be splendid in their appearance, but you feel it when you dance with them—their embrace is warm and affectionate, their heart is sensitive and sympathetic, their feeling is deep and sincere, their movement is raw and infectious, and their dance is passionate and sentimental. Tango is their refuge. The intimate, soulful, sensual and comforting nature of tango reflects and serves their deep, inward, human needs. This is the tango still danced in the milongas of less affluent societies, such as Argentina and Uruguay.

Not all people share these needs, of course. Rich people, successful people, arrogant people, and shallow people, for instance, like the beauty of tango but don’t embrace its purpose. Instead, they use tango to celebrate their life, to glorify their success, to show off their style, to display their ego, and to boast their superiority. The traditional tango is too modest for them, so they make changes—opening up the embrace, inventing fancy steps, adding ostentatious tricks, using exotic music, swapping gender roles, etc. As a result, they created a peacocky version of tango. It looks flashy and feels empty. This kind of tango now is the fashion in affluent societies such as ours.

Tango has survived many challenges in the past. It will survive this one as well, I believe, because needs, desires, yearnings, loneliness, tenderness, sentimentalism，mutual dependency, love, and romanticism are an intrinsic part of human nature even among the toughest. The less fortunate people are particularly vulnerable, which is why they created tango. This may also explain why milongas are more crowded in bad times than in good times, why more women dance tango than men, and why the revival of tango happens now when there are more travelers and immigrants in the world than ever before. Tango will always be the dance of the lonely, homesick, nostalgic, needy, vulnerable, sentimental and romantic. The fortunate people need tango, too, if they are not blind by their success and arrogance. After all, we are human, and tango is for all who search inward for their humanity.

探戈中的阳春白雪与下里巴人

通俗艺术是适合大众口味，需求，教育水平等等的艺术。高雅艺术是自以为或假装为比老百姓的品味更高且技术难度也高的艺术。阳春白雪，和者盖寡，因其技巧和音域为大多数人所不能及。下里巴人则音域适中，技巧容易，所以人人能唱。

然而，认为复杂困难的艺术比简单容易的艺术要高级的观点是有失偏颇的。简单的线条可能比复杂的造型更优美。简单的摄影可能比复杂的绘画更雅致。流行歌曲可能比歌剧中的歌曲更好听，虽然它比较容易唱。许多时候，东西之所以美丽恰是因为它简单。留白看着舒服。停顿产生情调。简约反映典雅。无言表达更多。过犹不及。简单并不意味着艺术上稍差一筹。容易也不等于技术上逊色。恰恰相反，间约容易需要更多的功底。在我看来，那些能让艺术显得简单而容易的艺术家比那些让艺术变得复杂而困难的艺术家要高超。

之所以如此，还因为艺术，尤其是通俗艺术，是为大众服务的。阳春白雪和为艺术的艺术是背时的观念。如果一首流行歌曲是大多数人唱不了的，这流行歌曲有什么价值？如果一种社交舞只有少数能跳，那还是社交舞吗？阿根廷探戈是一种社交舞。它原是个下里巴人的舞，由牛仔，水手，移民和街女所创造。今天它在阿根廷仍是个草根舞蹈。大多数跳探戈的人都是普通人。他们热爱探戈，因为它是一个简单，优雅和亲切的舞蹈，适合老百姓的口味和能力。恼人的是那些自名不凡者高人一等的态度，他们想把探戈变成只有精英才能享受的阳春白雪。我不认为人民大众喜欢这个主意。探戈的魅力和明天，我相信，将继续留在它的易学易跳之中。最终，通俗艺术总是比阳春白雪更受大众喜爱。

Highbrowism and Populism in Tango

Popular arts are arts suited to the tastes, needs, educational level, etc., of most people. Highbrow arts are arts considered or pretending to be of highly cultivated tastes/skills superior to those of the ordinary people. A highbrow song finds few singers because its technique and range are beyond the reach of most people. A popular song, on the other hand, is less in range and technique; therefore, everyone can sing it.

The notion that complicated/difficult arts are superior to simple/easy arts, however, is an erroneous one. A simple line can be more graceful than an intricate figure. A simple photograph can be more tasteful than a complicated painting. A pop song can be more beautiful than an opera song, although it is easier to sing. Very often, things are beautiful because they are simple. Margin brings comfort. Pause creates mood. Simplicity reflexes elegance. Silence often expresses more. Too much is as bad as not enough. Simple does not mean artistically inferior. Easy does not mean less skillful. On the contrary, it takes much sophistication to achieve simplicity and ease. Those who make arts simple and easy, in my opinion, are better artists than those who make arts complicated and difficult.

This is so also because arts, especially popular arts, are for people. Highbrowism and art-for-art’s-sake are obsolete ideas. What’s the value of a pop song if it is beyond the reach of most people? What’s the value of a social dance if only few can dance it? Argentine tango is a social dance. It was a lowbrow dance created by gouchos, sailors, immigrant workers and prostitutes. It is still a grass roots dance in Argentina today. Most people who dance tango are ordinary people. They love tango because it is an intimate, simple and elegant dance suited to the tastes and abilities of the common people. What is annoying to them is the chauvinist attitude of those who consider themselves above the crowd and want to make tango a highbrow dance only the elite can enjoy. I don’t think people want that. Tango’s charm and tomorrow, I believe, will remain in its dancer-friendliness. In the end, populism always triumphs over highbrowism.  

探戈与浪漫主义

当人们说某人跳探戈象做体操或耍杂技时，他们是指舞蹈中缺乏浪漫主义。体操是一种需要高度技巧的强身健体运动。杂技是涉及高难动作，如腾空翻滚，倒立劈叉，反弓曲体之类的表演。这些演习是用以显示人体的能力，为健身和娱乐观众的目的服务的。它们是对身体的一种挑战，并不是为了浪漫和舒适。

探戈则不然。它是一种艺术形式，用以显示身体随音乐节奏而运动时的优美与典雅。它强调身体运动的艺术方面，如情感，乐感和美感，而不是身体运动的物理方面，如力量，速度和特技等。对探戈来说，重要的是多么深情，多么舒服，多么有音乐感，多么优美雅致，赏心悦目，而不是在物理上多么具有挑战性，动作多么困难惊险，等。探戈创造出来乃是为了浪漫和抚慰。它与感觉，情绪，渴望，温情，肉欲和浪漫主义息息相关。它满足异性之间亲昵的需要，并暗示一种充满激情，令人兴奋，令人满足和理想主义的罗曼史。探戈在本质上是浪漫主义的，这是它与体操和杂技的区别。

如果我们把浪漫主义从探戈中剔除，剩下的就是体操运动或杂技表演。不幸的是，在电子游戏而不是经典艺术，体育竞赛而不是文学作品，科学技术而不是人文主义为主要影响的文化中，这却是探戈越来越变成的东西。今天的人们，尤其是在这种文化中长大的年轻人，表现出一种缺乏深度和持久品质的倾向。他们过于注重浮华的形式，而不是内在的本质，不断寻求新奇和刺激。为了保持探戈古典，简约，浪漫和优雅的风格，我们有许多工作要做。其中之一就是在我们的舞蹈和教学中反映出更多的浪漫主义，例如放慢速度，简化动作，流露感情，挖掘深度，并在优美典雅上多下功夫。科技和时尚会过时，但浪漫主义永远不会，它驻留在人类的本性中，我们只需要唤醒它。

Tango and Romanticism

When people comment on someone’s tango dancing as doing gymnastics or acrobatics, they are referring to a lack of romanticism in the dance. Gymnastics is an athletic exercise involving skilled physical movements to develop muscles and bodily strength. Acrobatics is a circus show of physical feats, such as flipping in the air, balancing on one hand while doing the splits, and bending the body 180 degrees backwards. These exercises are designed to show what human bodies are capable of for sportive and entertaining purposes. They are physically challenging and difficult to do, and are not intended to be romantic and comfortable.

Tango, on the other hand, is an art form that displays the gracefulness and beauty of the body as it moves in rhythm to music. It emphasizes the artistic aspects of the movement such as sentiment, musicality and aesthetics, rather than the physical aspects of the movement such as strength, speed and tricks. What matters in tango is how soulful, musical, graceful, elegant, beautiful and not how physically challenging, difficult and thrilling the movement is. Tango is created to be romantic and comfortable. It involves feelings, emotions, longings, tenderness, sensuality and romanticism. It serves the need for intimacy between the opposite sexes, and is suggestive of a passionate, exciting, fulfilling, and idealized romance. In the soul of tango is romanticism, which distinguishes tango from gymnastics and acrobatics.

If we take romanticism away from tango, what's left is a sport or show. Unfortunately, in a culture where games instead of classics, sports instead of arts, and technologies instead of humanity are the main influence, that is what tango increasingly becomes. People, especially young people brought up in this culture exhibit a lack of depth and lasting quality. They focus too much on flashy forms rather than substances, and constantly seek changes and novelty. To retain tango’s classic, simple, romantic and elegant style, we have work to do. One of which is to reflect more romanticism in our dancing and teaching, for example, slowing down, being simple, going deeper, showing more feelings, and focusing more on gracefulness and elegance. Technologies and fashions may be out-of-date, but never will romanticism. It resides in the humanity. We only need to awake it.

探戈的哲学

探戈是个复杂而深奥的艺术形式。它对不同的人意味着不同的东西。对男人来说它是带领，对女人来说是跟随，对初学者是步伐，对大师是音乐的诠释和感受，对舞棍是个人娱乐，对演员是娱乐观众的表演，对恋人是爱心的表达，对显摆者是出风头，对作曲家是音乐，对思想家是哲理，对外国人它只是个舞蹈，而对阿根廷人，它是一种文化和生活方式......不同的人有不同的哲学，所以他们跳舞也不尽相同。

探戈哲学所涉及的问题导致了探戈中不同的流派。以下所列举的是一部分这一类的问题。每个问题都可能有多种答案。舞者往往各持己见。有些见解可能较“正确”或“不正确”。其他则可能只是个人喜好，无所谓对错。但是综合起来，不同的见解和喜好决定了人们舞蹈和行为的模式，产生出不同的宗派。对这些问题的探讨和交流不仅可以帮助人们提高舞艺，而且还能促进彼此之间的理解，容忍和借鉴，并且，我希望，通过全面了解探戈的不同层面而使我们融会贯通，取长补短。

1. 什么是探戈？

2. 人们为什么跳探戈？

3. 在探戈中男人从女人那里想找到什么？

4. 在探戈中女人从男人那里想找到什么？  

5. 探戈中的性别角色

6. 男子气与女人味

7. 大男子主义与女权主义

8. 女权主义对探戈的影响

9. 性亲密与非性亲密

10. 探戈中的舞伴关系与现实生活中的人际关系

11. 娱乐与显摆

12. 灵与肉

13. 精致与粗犷

14. 运动型与感觉型

15. 外观与感觉

16. 闭式拥抱与开式拥抱

17. 社交探戈与表演探戈

18. 探戈音乐与另类音乐

19. 年龄对舞蹈风格的影响

20. 不同文化对探戈的影响

21. 带领与跟随

22. 独白与对话

23. 主动跟随与被动跟随

24. 合一与分离

25. 独角戏与同步化

26. 简单与花哨

27. 松散与紧凑

28. 快速与慢速

29. 节奏与旋律

30. 单调与变化

31. 浪漫主义与体操运动

32. 即兴舞蹈与编排表演

33. 简单与复杂

34. 优美与舒适

35. 内在美与外在美

36. 改革与传统

37. 创造性与标准化

38. 自由表达与舞会规则

39. 作为舞蹈的探戈与作为文化的探戈

40. 点头邀请与口头邀请

41. 布宜诺斯艾利斯与国际探戈

42. 精英与群体

43. 阳春白雪与下里巴人

Tango as a Philosophy

Tango is a complex and deep art form. It implies different things to different people. To a man, it’s leading. To a woman, it’s following. To a beginner, it’s steps. To a master, it’s feelings and interpretations of the music. To a milonguero, it’s an activity for personal pleasure. To a stage dancer, it’s a performance for entertaining an audience. To a lover, it's devotion. To a peacock, it's showoff. To a musician, it’s a music genre. To a thinker, it’s a philosophy. To a foreigner, it’s a dance. To Argentineans, it’s a culture and lifestyle... We all dance differently for who we are and what philosophy we have.

Tango philosophy involves issues that make us different. The following is an incomplete list of such issues. Each may have many answers. Every dancer entitles his/her own opinions. Some may be more or less “correct” or “incorrect”. Others may just be personal preferences and neither right nor wrong. But collectively these opinions and preferences define the way each of us dances and behaves, and divide us into different groups. Studying and exchanging opinions on these issues may not only help us better our own dance, but also help us understand, tolerate, and learn from each other, and, hopefully, achieve mastery through a comprehensive grasp of all aspects of tango.

1. What is tango?
2. Why do we dance tango?
3. What do men want from women in tango?
4. What do women want from men in tango?
5. The gender roles in tango
6. Masculinity vs. femininity
7. Machismo vs. feminism
8. Feminism and its impact on tango
9. Sexual intimacy vs. non-sexual intimacy
10. Tango partnership vs. real-life partnership between the opposite sexes
11. Pleasure vs. showoff
12. Spirituality vs. carnality
13. Refinement vs. rawness
14. Movement orientation vs. feeling orientation
15. Look vs. feeling
16. Close embrace vs. open embrace
17. Social tango vs. performance tango
18. Classic tango music vs. alternative music
19. Age and styles
20. Cultural bias and impacts
21. Lead vs. follow
22. Dictation vs. conversation
23. Active follow vs. passive follow
24. Oneness vs. separation 
25. Individual performance vs. synchronization
26. Simple movement vs. fancy movement
27. Compact movement vs. wide movement
28. Fast movement vs. slow movement
29. Monotony vs. alterations
30. Rhythm vs. melody
31. Romanticism vs. gymnastics
32. Improvisation vs. choreography
33. Elegance vs. comfort
34. Inner beauty vs. outer beauty
35. Simplicity vs. complexity
36. Innovation vs. tradition
37. Creativeness vs. standardization
38. Free expression vs. milonga code
39. Tango as a dance vs. tango as a culture
40. Cabeseo vs. verbal invitation
41. Buenos Aires vs. international
42. Elitism vs. community
43. Highbrowism vs. populism

探戈是一种人际关系

探戈是一种亲密的体验。它涉及两个互相连接的人。它允许你的舞伴接触你，亲近你，享受你的身体，进入你的内心，聆听你心中的声音，感受你的情感和个性。事实上，在舞蹈中你的舞伴可以了解到你的很多方面。你怎样与他/她连接和沟通，怎样跳舞，怎样配合和适应他/她，反映出你身体，心理，教养，道德，艺术和品味各方面的许多素质。你的行为毫无保留地揭示出你是谁：精致或粗糙，乐感好坏，态度冷热，平静或急躁，优雅或拙笨，适应性强弱，谦让或专行，合作或自我，尊重或傲慢......这一切都在舞蹈中暴露出来。

探戈是一种人际关系。就象夫妻关系一样，舞伴的利益是相互关联，互相依赖的。只有当你表现得最好时，你才能使你的舞伴表现得最好。在探戈中，正如在任何人际关系中一样，自我是你最大的敌人。是自我让你以“我”为中心，傲慢，专行，僵化，急躁，粗暴和抗拒。只有当两人的行动和谐一致时，探戈才完全成为一种享受。你需要克服自我，委身于你的舞伴，聆听其内心的声音，顺应其意愿，让自己适应他/她，默默地配合他/她，发挥其优势，弥补其弱点，使其能充分享受跟你跳舞的舒适和快乐。如果你只顾自己而忽略你的舞伴，即使你能跳所有的花步和点缀，你的舞蹈也是失败的。毕竟，探戈是一种礼尚往来的社交活动。学习探戈远非只是学习舞步。它除了培养品味，增加修养和学习一种文化外，也是学习与另一个人成为一体。不幸的是，这个非常重要的方面却往往被人忽视了。

Tango Is a Relationship

Tango is an intimate experience. It allows your partner to touch you, enjoy your body, your comfortable embrace, complete surrender, tender leading, obedient following, loving protection, sensitive accommodation, and supportive complements. It also allows your partner to access, listen and feel the inner voice, feelings, emotions, expressions and personality of you. In fact, your partner can learn a lot about you in the dance. How you connect, move, communicate, respond and adapt tells a lot about the somatic, psychological, ethical, artistic and aesthetic qualities in you. The way you behave unreservedly reveals who you are: refined or crude, musical or dull, passionate or indifferent, calm or irascible, graceful or clumsy, adaptive or inflexible, yielding or controlling, cooperative or egocentric, respectful or arrogant… all are exposed in the dance.

Tango is a relationship. Just like in any relationship where the well beings of the two are mutually related and dependent on each other, you have to be and do your best in order to bring out the best of your partner. In tango, as in any relationship, your ego is your worst enemy. It’s the ego that makes you self-centered, arrogant, controlling, inflexible, irascible, rude, and counteractive. Tango is fully enjoyed only when the two partners act as one in complete unison and harmony. You need to let go your ego, submit yourself to your partner, listen to his/her inner voice, follow his/her intention, accommodate yourself to him/her, tacitly complement him/her to make up his/her weakness and bring out his/her strength, and let him/her feel totally comfortable and enjoyable dancing with you. If you only concentrate on yourself and neglect your partner, you will fail the dance even if you can do all the fancy steps and embellishments in the world. After all, tango is a social activity that requires good manner. Learning tango is much more than learning steps. It is, among other things, such as acquiring a taste, attitude, and culture, learning to be one with another person. Unfortunately, this very important perspective is often being neglected.

探戈的异化

我从未见过象探戈这样自残的舞蹈。与其他舞蹈不同，探戈的音乐可以自由诠释，所以舞者可以对其随意处置。探戈的舞步也不像其他舞蹈那样有固定的套路，舞者可以在跳舞时即兴发挥创造。探戈的这种无拘无束的性质引起了它自身的剧烈变化，尤其是当“自由精神”的外国人大量涌入，带进来太多外来影响的时候。

无论何事总有人会越轨，探戈也不例外。人们在追求自由时很少想到没有制约的自由会扼杀自由。美国开国之父们理解人性中这个危险的倾向，这乃是他们创造了一个制衡与法治社会的原因。然而，在阿根廷以外，探戈却是个没有法度的社会。“自由精神"的外国人往往为所欲为。他们交换男女角色，用搀扶代替拥抱，用异类音乐取代探戈音乐，纳入非探戈因素，如腋下转，高踢腿和托举等，诸如此类。在美国的探戈舞会上，我们听到的经常是异国音乐，看到的经常是群魔乱舞。虽然他们仍然把那叫做探戈舞会，但其本质已完全改变，与布宜诺斯艾利斯的探戈舞会大相径庭。

探戈是个自由的舞蹈，但它不是个你想怎么跳就怎么跳的舞蹈。探戈有它的特征。例如，它是一个贴身拥抱的舞蹈。不用贴身拥抱而将舞伴分隔着跳舞不是探戈。探戈是个亲密热情的舞蹈。它与由音乐激起的情感息息相关。事实上，探戈更注重的是情感而不是步伐。不管人们试图发明多少新步，没有情感就不成其为探戈。探戈是富有男子气概和女人味的舞蹈，兼有阳刚与阴柔之美。男人是领舞者，他带领，保护，闪耀女人。女人是跟随者，她委身于男人并服从他的带领。拒绝委身，变换角色，或同性跳舞，都不是探戈。跳探戈舞所用的是专门为其编写的舞曲。外国人往往不理解探戈的神奇来自将舞伴连接在一起，激发他们的感情，统一他们的动作，点燃他们的创造力的音乐。把探戈音乐更换成非探戈音乐，探戈就不再是探戈了。

没有人能够阻挡一个允许自由发挥的舞蹈的变革。只有历史会告诉我们什么样的变革经得住时间的考验。探戈已经这样被考验了一百五十年。今天人们所尝试的任何革新，别人在我们前面可能都已尝试过，而大多数的改变未能留存。探戈现今的形式，包括它的音乐，舞步和在布宜诺斯艾利斯依然实施的舞会规则，是历史上不计其数的改革尝试中适者生存的结果。探戈当然会继续演变，但它的演变将延着相同的，使它依然是探戈的方向。任何将探戈改变为非探戈或混合型舞蹈的企图都注定失败。如果不是这样，探戈早就不是今天在布宜诺斯艾利斯所跳的那个舞了。

The Alienation of Tango

I never saw a dance that is as self-destructive as tango. Unlike other dances, tango music allows interpretations so dancers may treat it at their will. Also unlike other dances, the steps of tango do not have fixed configurations. Dancers are free to improvise and create when they dance. This rather untrammeled nature of tango induces dramatic changes to the dance at times like this when free-spirited foreigners pour in, bringing in too many foreign influences to the dance.

Whatever things people do, there are always some who tend to cross the line. Tango is without exception. We humans seek freedom, yet unrestrained freedom defeats itself. Our forefathers understood the danger of this human nature. That’s why they created a political system of checks and balances and the rule of law. Tango outside of Argentina, however, is a lawless society. People do whatever they please to exercise their free wills. They replace tango embrace with an open hold, supersede tango music with alternative tunes, exchange male and female roles, and adopt non-tango elements, such as underarm turns, high kicks and body lifts, into the dance. Now you go to a milonga in America, you often hear exotic music of foreign lands and see rogues of all kinds dancing wild. It is still called tango, but the essence of tango has been changed. There is nothing resemble the milongas in Buenos Aires.

Tango is a free dance, but it is not a you-can-do-whatever-you-want dance. It has its characteristics. For example, it is a close-embrace dance. Breaking the embrace and drifting the partners apart is not tango. Tango is an intimate and passionate dance. It lies in the feelings stirred by the music. In fact, tango is more about feelings than steps. No matter how many new steps people try to create, without feelings it is not tango. Tango is a macho dance. It is danced by a man and a woman and contains the beauty of both masculinity and femininity. The man is the leader who leads, protects and shines the woman. The woman is the follower who surrenders to the lead. Refusal of surrender, switching the roles or making tango a same-sex dance is against tango. Tango is danced to the music specifically created for the dance. Foreigners often do not know that the magic of tango is in its music, which connects the dancers, stirs up their emotions, synchronizes their movements, and inspires their creativities. Changing tango music to non-tango tunes, the dance ceases to be tango.

No one can stop the reform of a dance that invites free expressions, I suppose. Only time will tell which reforms may sustain. Tango has gone through the same trial for one hundred and fifty years. Whatever changes people attempt to bring in today must have been tried by others before. Most of those changes did not stay. The current form of tango, including its music, steps and codes as being practiced in Buenos Aires, is the survivor of the fitness among zillions of attempts to alter the dance along its history. Tango will continue to evolve, of course. But its evolution will be in the same direction that makes it tango. Any attempts to make tango a non-tango dance or hybrid will fail. If not so, tango would have stopped being the tango danced in Buenos Aires today long ago.