Tango LaCrosse, WI

                Wow! What a wild weekend: a tango birthday party on Friday, a milonga at the Cardinal Bar on Saturday and, to top it all off, some excellent tango in LaCrosse, Wisconsin, of all places. Whouda thought?

               When I first arrived in Wisconsin ten months ago, there was almost no tango in southwestern Wisconsin, now there are two, albeit small, communities: one in Viroqua and the other in LaCrosse. I had been to a workshop and milonga in Viroqua but was not aware that there was anything going on in LaCrosse, a small city located on the Mississippi River.

               More information can be found on their Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/groups/562945070471278/. Practice/lesson is Sunday evening from 6:00 to 7:30 at the Moonlight Dance Studio at 601 3^rd St. South. There is plenty of parking.

               It was a mostly young crowd of college students led by a local tanguera named Diana Greene. There were nine people attending, six women and three guys. I found all the tangueras to be absolutely delightful and extremely dedicated to continuing their tango education.

               I have faith in the survival of this community because it has support of the students and faculty of the local college: University of Wisconsin LaCrosse. 

               It was a long drive for me, taking me from Wisconsin Rapids on Friday to Madison, then to LaCrosse and back home Sunday night, but it was worth it. I will definitely be back every Sunday!

Tango Poetry: The Tango Let Down

               Tango,  

               an exhilarating experience

                making life seem plain.

               Struggling for words,

               trying to socialize,

               I have nothing to say.

               What could I say?

               They’ll never understand.

               They could not understand

                entering another’s soul,

                running free inside of it,

               riding a roller coaster of emotion

               on the melody of a song

               and the touch of her heart

               beating against mine.




For more kayak hombre, check out my books:

The Ties that Bind

                Women and men are different. The disparity between the sexes is a fact that is often ignored. Recognition of a partner’s distinction is the glue that binds in the tango connection. 

               Girls think about getting married; guys think about getting laid. Ladies pray for peace; men prepare for war.  

                I live in an apartment. It is a cottage house divided into two apartments: upstairs and downstairs. A young man lives in the upper level. He has two trucks, a fishing boat and a motorcycle. 

               This is a lot of stuff considering that he is the estranged father of a two-year old baby girl.  

               The young man’s mother arranges visitations for her son with his daughter because he won't do it on his own. She is making sure her grandchild gets to know its daddy. 

               It is interesting to watch the events unfold as the toddler inevitably brings the father around to the idea that he’s got to grow up and start providing for his offspring.

               The father and child getting to know each other is a bonding process and a very strong one at that.

               Entire societies revolve around this paradigm: sex, babies, responsibilities. Not everybody chooses this path but its existence shapes our worlds and the education of the sexes. Women seek commitment and men resist it.

               I meet many tango dancers who refuse to adhere to the status quo but it still makes up a big part of their perspective, whether they like it or not.

               In tango we must accept that there are things we can never understand, primarily the opposite sex.

               I don’t understand the words to most tango songs because I don’t speak Spanish. I would never tell someone I speak their language when I don’t. This would be an insult, as it would be if I claimed to know what it is like to be a woman.

               To admit to yourself that you don’t understand is a humbling experience. Humility is the beginning of all learning and that is where the couples must begin when they make contact.

               When you join in the tango embrace you are dancing with a stranger from a strange world. You must always keep in mind that you know nothing about that person. Every move your partner makes should be unexpected. If it is then the unexpected can happen.

               This is tango, a dance like no other. Every encounter is a gamble. For some, the outcomes of the unknowns are devastating, but for others the results are beyond their wildest dreams. 

               

Tango's Unforgivable Sin

           Memories are events recorded in our brains based on emotions experienced by our entire bodies. An idea is a person’s interpretation of memories. Music is the acoustic expression of an idea.

           When two people join in the tango embrace they attempt to make something unique and pleasurable; they endeavor to convey in movement the emotions that became a song.

           This is not always a harmonious union; sometimes one of the partners is more worried about appearance than connection.

           An insult shouted at you from afar is not as hurtful as one spoken to your face. An injury inflicted when two people are connected physically, emotionally, mentally and possibly even spiritually can be extremely painful.

           We think not just with our heads but also with our hearts, our hands and much, much more.  

The dancer who gives 100% to the endeavor experiences 100% of the disappointment in the the couple's failure to connect, not just with each other but to the song as well.

           The unforgivable sin in tango is to join in the embrace and then to dance alone.

For more of the Kayak Hombre, read my books Fear of Intimacy and the Tango Cure and River Tango. Available at Amazon.com in paperback or Kindle editions.