A Little Machismo Goes A Long Way

               One of the most difficult things leaders have to learn is how to put some machismo into the tango connection. The tiniest amount will do but exuding it without offense is not easy. It is the most important spice in the stew; without it there are no women and without women there is no tango.

                 I do not bring machismo to every tango embrace I enter. It happens naturally and it cannot be faked. There is no substitute for it and it must be made with original ingredients. The hardest part for me was to allow myself to let it show and risk offending my partner. Taking a risk, I learned, is part of the spice’s appeal.
                Machismo is the expression of a person’s inner warrior and it is not solely manufactured by men. It is the fighter inside of us that the follower finds so alluring. 

                I think some ladies have questions inside, subliminal and primal in nature, which they have asked so often since adolescence that they don’t realize they are asking them yet immediately recognize the ‘answer’ once it appears in the form of machismo: Does he hunger for me? What will he do to satisfy his need for me?

               Tango is an attempt at spontaneous movement with a partner but it can be about much more than that; it can be poetry in motion; a physical, spiritual and mental union that occurs because of an unbridled communication between the leader and follower that leaves both participants fulfilled. A question that has been years in the making has found the answer which it sought and, like a child, it can be asked, again and again and again.