Tango Story

You walk down the city street towards your destination – an unassuming post-industrial building – your [[shoe bag]] slung over your shoulder.

You reach the alleyway and turn. Music begins to fill the air. Music that is like a secret code to so many, meaning nothing to (cycling-link: "those who don't know", "practically everyone", "friends", "family", "coworkers"), but meaning (cycling-link: "so much", "connection", "joy", "community", "falling in love with strangers", "tango") to those who do. You [[step into the warehouse]]

The air is full of music as you enter, music that is full of (cycling-link: "duende", "joy and sorrow", "blood and passion", "hope and loss", "loneliness", "love", "our lives"). You hand your $10 bill to the hostess and [[part the curtain]] into the main room.

Description of the hostess might go here

You step into a large room, beautiful and comfortable, full of people dancing, talking, sitting and watching. Chairs line the walls. A table has been set with some grapes, cheese, and humble wine for the dancers. You see some familiar faces, some teachers you've had over the last number of weeks along with a number of [[other regulars]] you've seen at milongas around the city. You [[take your seat]]

You find a chair and change into your shoes while your eyes scan the room. In the dim purple light of the long room, eyes closed, in the embrace of another dancer, you see a woman you danced with for the first time last week. Anticipation climbs up in your chest, expanding and tightening, warm and cold, effervescent. You (link-reveal:"finish tying your shoe.")[(show: ?finished_tying)] |finished_tying)[When you were younger romance seemed difficult. You would do your best to yell over the tumult in conversation at bars or at parties, doing your best impression of someone who is coy and knows how to flirt. It seemed so important to //say// the right thing in order to entice or impress. Here, the bodies do the talking. Nothing is ambiguous. If you let your body listen, you will [[hear your partner's body speak]].]

(link:"You dance with your first partner")[Sometimes they feel nervous. Their body says <span class="speaker elder">You are such a vibrant young man. I am just an old woman!</span> You think about your grandmother who died, and your own mother who is getting older. With your body you try to say <span class="speaker you">I love you</span> with the sweetness you have for an auntie.(show:?thinking)] |thinking)[(link:"Then your next")[Sometimes they're in their head. You hear the body taking commands: <span class="speaker head">Back straight. Chin up. Extend the leg when you step.</span> Your body says <span class="speaker you">You are a great dancer. Can we enjoy this together?</span>(show:?fear)]] |fear)[(link:"On into the night as the hours pass")[Sometimes you can feel fear, trembling. Their body says <span class="speaker fearful">This is hard for me.</span> You hold them with as much tenderness as you can. You try to say <span class="speaker you">You are safe. I've got you. While we're together I will care for you.</span> Slowly, over the first two or three songs you dance together, the tension melts from their body. <span class="speaker relaxed">I feel good here. Thank you.</span>(show:?wonderful)]] |wonderful)[[["Sometimes, something wonderful happens"->Something Wonderful]]]

The last song of the [[tanda]] ends and the [[cortina]] begins to play. You thank your partner, smile, and return to your seat. People are smiling, hugging, thanking each other. Old friends keep talking. A couple stays on the floor, talking, unselfconcious and relaxed in the way you see some married couples who have been dancing together for years. <br> As the floor clears, you lock eyes with the woman you danced with last week and you [[barely nod your head]].

At milongas, sets of tangos are broken up into "tandas", collections of three or four songs. Typically dancers will dance one tanda with a partner and then be done for the night; two tandas if you have both very much enjoyed the experience. More than two tandas is usually reserved for those with an intimate connection extending beyond the magic circle of the milonga. (link-undo:"Go back")

The cortina, "the curtain", is a short clip of a non-tango song which separates tandas. Sometimes it is a pop song, sometimes another form of dance music, sometimes something extremely silly. Besides choosing what songs to play, the cortina is a place where a DJ can inject their own flavor and character into the milonga. (link-undo:"Go back")

Talk about tango DJs here

She returns the [[cabeceo]], ever so slightly nodding her head as well. Your heart swells. Will it be like last time, you wonder. You approach her and (if: $first is false)[(link: "put out your hand.")[put out your hand.(set: $first to true)]](else:)[put out your hand.] (event: when $first is true)[<span class="speaker you">Hi.</span> (if: $second is false)[(link:"She takes yours.")[She takes yours.(set: $second to true)]](else:)[She takes yours.]] (event: when $second is true)[<span class="speaker her">Hello.</span> (if: $third is false)[(link: "You are both still smiling.")[(set: $third to true)]]](event: when $third is true)[There is no ambiguity. No confusion. Your body is happy and unworried, and your mind is quiet. For one tanda, this is the whole world. Just you and this person whose [[name]] you don't know. For four songs, she is (cycling-link: "the world", "your partner", "in love, and so are you"). With no rush or worry, you step into the [[line of dance]]. [[The music begins]]. ]

The cabeceo is one of, if not the most important of the //codigos//, the social rules that guide behavior at traditional milongas. If a leader or follower wish to invite someone to dance, they simply make eye contact and make a small nod of the head. If the person they are inviting wishes to dance with them, they will do the same. If they do not, they will simply look away as if they didn't even notice. Like most of the codigos, there is a very good reason it has been around for decades. Using the cabeceo prevents the inviter from being embarrassed publicly if the invitee says no, and the invitee in many cases retains some benefit of the doubt that they didn't even notice the cabeceo. It saves social face for everyone involved. Furthermore, when the cabeceo is used, the person being invited doesn't feel the pressure to say yes to someone who is standing right in front of them asking them to dance with their hand out, or to come up with an excuse. When observed, it maintains the autonomy of dancers (especially followers) to not agree to dances they don't want to dance, and so keeps the milonga more equitable and relaxed. [[Go back->barely nod your head]]

Names are a funny thing in tango. You can dance with someone you see regularly for years and never find out their last name, what they do for a living, or really much of anything about their wordly life at all. And yet by dancing with them you will discover things much deeper about who they are as a person; how meek or adventurous they are, how calm or scattered, how different flavors of music and movement appeal to their body. It is not uncommon to chat a little with your partner between songs in a tanda, but when you experience a deep, pleasurable connection with your partner it is often much preferred to just maintain the connection for the entire length of the tanda, not talking, just embracing and dancing. This can happen the very first time you dance with someone, and so it is not uncommon to have an incredibly intimate, rich, life affirming dance with someone whose name you never discover. [[Go back->barely nod your head]]

Tango is danced in a counter-clockwise line around the dance floor called the line of dance. Because couples share the line, leaders must be aware of their distance from the other couples around them, making sure to not block or bump into them or clog the line by not keeping things moving forward. [[Go back->barely nod your head]]

(link: "You feel her hand in yours") [==You feel her hand in yours. Slowly, tenderly, you stroke her fingers with yours. Her thumb glides across your own. There is almost no movement at all whatsoever, nothing that anyone else could ever notice, but between the two of you this is the whole world, and in that moment your hands are like the ocean and cliffs, holding, crashing, carving and revealing. Your fingers whisper to one another. (link: "You feel her cheek against yours") [==You feel her cheek against yours, her hair against your face. When you breathe you breathe her in. You feel it when a smile appears on her face. <span class="speaker her">I am happy, I am at peace, dancing here with you.</span> (link: "You step forward") [==You step forward, your chest pressing against hers just enough to let her know <span class="speaker you">This way.</span> Your chest against her chest, your hand with hers, your arm around her back all say this to her. Your bodies are antennae, theads comingled, water in each other's cup. [[You pause.]]

Walking, holding, hand in hand, cheek to cheek, chest to chest, your bodies completely overcome by that (cycling-link: "special feeling", "bliss", "rapture", "heroin") only tango can bring, you spin around each other as you spin around the room, (link: "two bodies in a space...")[==two bodies in a space (link:"on a body in space...")[==on a body in space (link:"around a body in space...")[==around a body in space (link:"in a body...")[==in a body... You are guided by the music, (cycling-link: "turning", "walking", "settling", "and thrusting forward again", "taking every moment when it counts", "and exploding in a joyous flurry", "as long as you can") [[Four songs pass as quick as one.]]

[[You stay there]] <script>setCortinaStep(1);</script>

[[You stay there...]] <script>setCortinaStep(2);</script>

[[Just holding]] <script>setCortinaStep(3);</script>

[[Until it is time to go]] <script>setCortinaStep(4);</script>

One becomes two again. You smile, hands held lightly, your whole bodies smiling. <script>setCortinaStep(5);</script> [["Thank you"]]

//Thank you// is a magic phrase in tango. During a dance, either partner can end the dance at any time by simply saying //thank you//, and their partner is not allowed for any reason to demand why. //Thank you// can mean "The first two times you stepped on me were enough", or "I really have to fart and I don't want to do it here", or just "I really am not enjoying this music". In this case, "thank you" means... [["Thank you"->End]] [["I love you"->End]] [["I hope to see you again"->End]] [["I've never felt so good"->End]]

"Thank you", she replies.

poema: ./audio/poema.mp3 cortina: ./audio/cortina2.mp3

Even though you haven't been dancing for long you recognize that for many dancers this is what they do. It is where they go after work and dinner, whether to a class or a milonga or to practice. They spend hours with this dance, not because they're aspiring professionals, but simply because it is such a (link-reveal:"great pleasure.")[(show: ?more)] |more)[<br>The tango has always been a sanctuary for the body and the soul, a place where even the simplest labourer can put away their identity, put on their finest clothes, and go somewhere (cycling-link:"beautiful", "full of tenderness and warmth", "where they can love and be loved", "where life is royal"). (link-undo:"Go back")]

(link: "Eyes closed, you fall away from the milonga into another space and time.")[==<script>engageFilter(22050, 150, 8000); changePlaybackRate(poema, 1.0, 0.5, 8000); changeVolume(1.0, 1.5, 12000);</script>Eyes closed, you fall away from the milonga into another space and time. The world is your bodies and a song. As your hand moves all of a centimeter across the warmth of her back the tips of your fingers make sense of the smallest softest hairs. <span class="speaker you">I would hold you in this perfect moment forever.</span> She takes a deep, full breath. (link: "Exhales")[==Exhales Her body relaxes into yours. <span class="speaker her">Dance with me.</span> [[You dance.]]

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(if: $first is 0)[(set: $first to false)](if: $second is 0)[(set: $second to false)](if: $third is 0)[(set: $third to false)]

Hello! Just a few things before you begin. * iOS devices and Safari on desktop don't support audio well and will lead to a buggy experience, so if you want the real deal please play with another browser. * It is recommended you play this with headphones (music starts a few minutes in) [[Begin->Tango Story]]