Category: Little Epiphanies

While dancing Friday night at the La Marshall milonga I was besieged by happiness. It was a full frontal assault armed with boiling elixirs. They surprised me, disarmed me and over-powered me mid-dance. I gave up without a fight. This sequence of events is common to me and, I think, most dancers. You see it…

I write softly so that you can hear me. This is between you and me. We are alone. In the almost silence, worlds step out from their place of hiding. Rivers spring forth in the sand. Mountains heave themselves out of flatness. There, in the quiet of a new-formed world, we stand alone, face-to-face, you…

One day in the 1990s after once again dancing away my lunch break at the Confiteria Ideal, I made to scurry back to my desk at the Chamber of Commerce. But as I stepped out into the street, there was a woman in tears crumpled against the doorway. I was so surprised that I stopped…

End of a voyage. I spent three nights in three different beds in three different cities and a last night strapped into a jump seat on a trans-Atlantic plane. Tonight I wake in the dark in another bed and I inquire with amused curiosity in which bed I lie. It is a while before I…

Given my line of work, I have the privilege of traveling the world. In each new city, I explore the milonga scene on nights when I don’t have a gig. Amazingly, wherever I go, I hear the exact same music. Old recordings from the Golden Age of Tango. Beautiful music no doubt and music I…

When we study tango, we often look down. We should look up. Or out. Or beyond. Anywhere but down. We concentrate on steps, on fancy figures, on balance, about where to place our feet. We should be wondering about where we place our soul. Can you approach a complete stranger, open yourself to their deep…

Anja advanced and acquired and absconded. Anja bequeathed and burnished and burst. Anja came and caressed and careened. Anja dreamt and drooled and drifted and derailed. Anja echoed and expressed and expelled. Anja found and fooled and felt. Anja got and gave and grifted. Anja had and hadn’t and held. Anja invested and initiated and…

I get happy when I dance. It is that simple. Dancing unleashes a fecund happy elixir that just spreads through me, knocking down obstacles, overcoming barriers that would dare to hold it back. I take a tentative step, extend my foot, start playing with balance and weight on the floor and it is like a…