Musicality: More than a dance class

"Musicality is not a learned skill.
It's a natural skill that you
uncover."
Anonymous musician

You dance tango.  Nearly everyone, but certainly you were born to be musical.  That is part of what it means to be human for you and every dancer. Watch children dance without a single worry about who is watching. That's uncovered musicality before your eys. No lessons. No coaching. Just uncovering with is naturally there.

Musical expression is truly an essential part of being human until we are shamed or told not to "dance around so much" by parents or teachers. Then, here come the blocks to our natural expression!  So, the work of getting through the blocks is a psychological and spiritual quest more than merely a dance or music skill to be learned.  Knowing this fact allows you to relax and let nature take its course.

The reason you love tango, I believe, is because of your inner self who pushed you to start this dance and your desires to embody and express the music which your inner self hears.  More than just a desire for a new hobby--the inner self is driven to express itself musically.

So as vague and huge as the task of expressing yourself musically appears to be, musicality is the center of why you dance.  The quest is to uncover and unblock. Also, you can think of musicality as a drive. Think about other drives.  You are driven to breathe, drink, eat, find shelter. Put on music and you are driven to move, even if your musicality drive has been stamped on and has dwindled down to merely tapping your feet.  Musicality is a drive to be you.

So as a start and especially while alone . . . listen to the silence, then put on the music, then feel it in your body and soul. Let it go. Be the music. Add the "E" to "Motion" and see how musicality pours out of your dance. This expression is who you truly are.


Part II:
More about a word I used above-- the Quest--and how to consciously begin this quest in the next post.  On the Quest of a lifetime, all drives must be channeled.  Let's talk about this.  Please comment below.


Photo credit:  https://medium.dancedeets.com/musicality-in-dance-7f0e6b89ff1e

Honorable mention: Regarding adding E to Motion, please see Aydan's wonderful post on this, http://www.dancingwithpresence.com/blog/tangotouch-adding-e-to-you-motion

Foresight has 2020 Vision.

Tango, one of my main creative passions in life, is connected to my use of social media to keep up with people and events. Social media is a problem for me. Something needs to change in 2020. So this year I hope for foresight, not hindsight, having 2020 vision.  I am dedicating myself to JOLO--the Joy-Of-Living-Omnipresent, which is my new term for a pervading awareness to care for my physical and psychological health.  "Omnipresent" sounds like something only Divinity can do, but perhaps that is what the Universe wants more from us--being all-present and present-in-all. 

And for my 2020 foresight, I guess I will need a smarter SMART phone to help me with more joy and less obsession . . .

Spiritually
Mature
Aware
Resilient 
Transformational Phone

Oh, yes.  Another clarification is needed for a my new SMART phone.  Literally, a "phone" is a sound and a "telephone" is transmitted sound.  The sound that I plan to make will be more in person and less through technology.  

Here's how I'll use my not-so-SMART telephone:

1. SMV.  I have deleted Facebook, Messanger, Apple News, and the YouTube app off of my cell phone.  This will help.  I still keep connected to the news, but I don't want to be obsessed. Also, I don't know about you, but for me, Social Media Voyeurism (SMV) engenders FOBLO, the fear of being left out of tango events one sees on social media. (FOBLO is not just fear for millennials who made up the term.) I wish to have a 2020 vision with less and less regret that I am not present in all the photos of my favorite dancers dancing at a festival or milonga I did not attend. I am changing notification settings on my not-so-smart phone and spending more time on my truly SMART phone--talking to a diversity of people.  The decision to turn off the notifications takes some smart common sense.

2. Engage my maturity and resiliency skills.   Being-happy-with-what-you-have is a difficult task for everyone striving to mature and grow spiritually.  So FOBLO is a monster not only for a generation who has grown up on selfies but everyone engaged in social media. As for me, I want to be continually working on "growing up," being on a path of an ever-maturing person, and on a path of multiple passions to pursue in life.

3. Time for depth.  An example just in tango is my resolution to even celebrate "being left out." I can celebrate having time for other things, such as reading that book on tango orchestras; practicing more by myself. (I will have week-long quests to dance every day--even at work with my door closed, but every day.) Also, I may enjoy just giving my feet a needed break. Who knows? Perhaps, I enjoy a needed vacation from tango to broaden my life in things not related to tango, such as, reading more, writing, learning French, working out or hiking more, exploring more tai chi and getting great sleep.

4. The spiritual part:  There's just no time for missing out or having FOBLO if my 2020 foresight gives me "JOLO," the joy of living omnipresent.  Coming into the New Year, I am happy to focus on my health and well being more than ever before. Back in 2017 my resolution was to give up [unhealthy] tango--late-night tango.  I have done really well at that, and I recommend it to everyone that we all eschew late milongas for the most part or at least promote early milongas in our local communities because sleep and health are two sides of the same coin. So my first tango event in 2020?  Houston--a marathon--but I will only attend the early events. This is the practice of living JOLO. Foresight has a 2020 Vision.


Photo credit:   https://www.balfour.com/Blog/2019_October-22-Theme-Ideas