Two (2)

The nub of the matter.

It takes two to tango.

We probably heard this from the beginning.  We get told it many times.  We dance together.  If we don't dance together, we dance alone.  Dancing alone is not tango.  It might be something else, but it's not tango.

We have to go into each tanda knowing this.  Knowing it in our bones.  I hear a lot of people talking about this.  They all say the right words.  And then a surprising number of them go out onto the dance floor and perform for their partner, rather than dance with them.

It may be the leader, who takes his duty as the 'shaper' of the dance too far and claims all the music for himself, leaving his partner to hang on and try to enjoy the ride.

It may be the follower, who takes every opportunity the leader offers her to decorate, embellish, flick, kick (or stick her heel into an innocent passerby), with no reference to the music or to her partner's dance.

If you don't go into each dance feeling like you're a team, or at least feeling like you might become a team, then what actually is the point?  Who's it all for, if it's not for you two, together, at that moment, in that place?

We learn early on that if you don't commit to each step completely, things go wrong.  Why does it often take so much longer to learn that we need to commit ourselves to each dance in the same way?