07 August 2013
BEIRUT: Slow-quick-quick-slow-slow the tangos formulaic eight-count routine comprises these inherent steps that channel flow and balance weight, all while observing the law of gravity.
On Tuesday nights Mazen Kiwans studio in Badaro is sprightly with bodies in flux and silken legs in high heels learning a new double pivot figure.And this is easily done, says Kiwan: Just make sure the legs are stretched, the core of the body is engaged and on axis, shoulders are down and the right elbow is up but not too high.
Women, hips may pivot, but not swivel; this isnt the salsa. Men, be direct, clear with the intention behind your movements. Dont overanalyze the technique; its about feeling something, after all. Breathe. Oh, and remember to relax.
When youre observing the dance, you might be able to imagine what it must be like, by the expression on the faces. But actually dancing tango is a different experience, Kiwan says. Its like diving into another world.
Something happens to the senses while dancing tango, and the very effort to describe what that is leaves enthusiasts grasping for words.
Pure joy, some say. An addiction, others proclaim.
At the core of the tango and its seemingly complex figures are three traditional modes of changing direction, communicated to the female partner through the movements of her male counterpart: She can move forward, to the sides, and back.
But these movements are just the building blocks, which are then combined to create a sophisticated and passionate dance which tango lovers of Beirut say is moreish.
Kiwan, satisfied with his first instruction, puts on some music, and instantly the ambiance in the room shifts, its vertiginous effects apparent only to the outsider: A woman dances to the right of her male partner, steps forward and daintily crosses to his right with her right leg.
What was once a whorl of bodies on the studio dance floor becomes a group of dancers tuning into the common rhythm, as the faint outline of a narrative begins to take shape.
One step, the man keeps the woman. Two step, the man keeps the woman. Three step. Four step. Five step, he lets her go, she turns, pivots, and they face each other again.
If you do not step back as you pivot, you will fall, scolds Kiwan, with both the severity and warmth so characteristic of dance teachers.
Having spent 18 years in Europe mastering a variety of dances, he found tango and became entranced with it as many do for pleasure.
You can go very deep with tango, as deep as you want to, explains Kiwan. It becomes a philosophy of life for a lot of people because everyone is looking for joy, and the best thing you can hope for is to live in the moment. And tango is literally, technically and spiritually the secret to live in the moment.
To realize the full potential of such moments requires both technique and years of practice rather than merely rote learning of the wide array of necessary movements.
Those who have trained for years say the greatest challenge is the ability to open the body, by relieving tensions and clearing the mind, to the possibility of spontaneity.
At its core, the tango is an improvised dance.
Sometimes we work to understand a movement until it feels organic in the body so that it lives in the body the same way a sound would, says Kiwan. You have to understand the movement; sometimes this means letting tensions go, so it can resonate in the body.
It becomes, in effect, a sort of conversation: Once bodies are tuned into the movement, he says, then the man can initiate it, and the woman is capable of receiving it and expressing it.
This element of conversation is as vital verbally as it is physically, and at the dance class, one woman is unabashed enough to tell her partner what she really thinks.
Youre a little too soft with me, she says.
Indeed, tango is a dance with strict gender roles, and for men who begin the movement, this means finding the balance between being tender and brazen, without giving way to aggression.
But that is not to say that women are followers, the dance offers them much latitude, says tango dancer teacher and performer Nadim Choueiry: Women are not told what to do, they are invited to do it.
Despite the sensuality inherent in the dance, Choueiry says something you have to learn in the tango is how to deal with women in a nonsexual way.
He adds: At the end of the day you feel the music and you try and express what it is communicated to you, to your partner, and in that way its something very genuine.
The tango community in Beirut is small enough to comprise one big family, and it is often described as such.
The members have trained together to become a tight-knit troupe. Some had danced before and found tango to be aesthetically pleasing. Others the vast majority were looking to fill a void in their lives.
I did tango because I was looking for something new, says Choueiry, who is also an engineer, But I didnt know then that I would get stuck to it.
Everyone feels a deficit in their lives at some point and thats why they dance. Tango feeds their needs on a psychological level, its always the case just like a drug.
Some are drawn to tango, much like Choueiry, as an escape from daily trials, as a means to mitigate various life crises, be it a breakup or a divorce, or even just to connect with another person in a city where loneliness can be crippling.
Milonga nights offer more experienced tango enthusiasts an opportunity to dance. Held in bars across Beirut, dancers cast searching glances to seek out an acquiescing partner.
Once the three-set song of the first tanda, or dance, commences, the flurry of movement across the dance floor is subdued, and couples tune into a transfixing rhythm of their own.
Most have 9-to-5 jobs and come rushing to the venue after work, their dancing shoes tucked away in their bags, keyed up for the night to escape the stresses of the day. Most dance knowing full well that they have to return to such vagaries in the morning.
The people I work with dont know I tango although its a big part of my life, says Joel, a Lebanese mathematics professor based in the University of Manchester. He practices four to five times a week and dances almost every weekend, but says: I dont like to mix professional work and tango.
Finding the dance technically more intelligent than others, Joel started pursuing tango five years ago.
I found the tango very close to science the means of transferring weight from one partner to another and the more you discover about it the more exciting it becomes.
And people of all ages seem to gravitate toward tango. Seventeen-year-old Amer, Kiwans nephew, says he began dancing when he was 12, and blushes deeply when asked whether this know-how gives him an unspoken advantage with the girls at school.
Yes, he replies.
On the sidelines of the dancefloor is Nayla, a mother of four, taking a break from dancing. Its a strange passion, I guess, I cannot live without [it] for long periods of time.
We are conditioned to think that to dance intimately with someone we must be in love with them, she says, but with the music, this sort of embrace comes naturally and doesnt have to mean anything beyond the span of the dance.
Sometimes when I get angry about something, she adds, Ill think back to the milonga the night before, and Ill feel calmer.
Patricia, who works for a humanitarian organization in Lebanon, says the dance offers her therapeutic relief from her emotionally demanding job of mitigating the Syrian refugee crisis. I see a lot of despair, and tango helps me channel out the anger I pile up inside, she told The Daily Star by phone during a mission in Akkar.
Asked about the role that tango plays in her day-to-day life, she sighs.
Lets just say, Ive been on the field all day, talking to refugees, hearing sad stories, totally stressed out, and if there was a milonga in Beirut tonight I would rush home to change and be there in a heartbeat.
Maybe other people would turn to alcohol, she muses.
Copyright The Daily Star 2013.
