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Proprioception
means, literally, our sense of self. It is an awareness of existence
through
information coming from senses in the body telling us where it is and
what it is doing.
In
tango we need to extend our sense of self to be aware of our partner.
Each dancer needs to be proprioceptive about the other. To be one
dancer with four legs we need to be self-aware and know where the other
person is and
what they are doing. Tango is fundamentally about the continual
communication of axis by both dancers.
Experts
in any movement have acquired this skill through deliberate practice
and can use it without much conscious thought.
It comes naturally to a carpenter who extends his sense of self to
include a hammer as he calculates how to use
the tool as an extension of self to drive a nail into wood.
A
blind person extends their sense of self to the tip of their cane, a
musician becomes part of their instrument. To all of us, a knife and
fork become more than utensils, they are extensions of our
fingers.
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In
dance, especially in tango, to become experts in shared, collaborative
movement, we
need to learn how to extend ourselves through our partner's body - an
extension that is continually changing shape, balance, axis and
position as we both try to express music as movement.
Consider
what would happen if the carpenter's hammer, for example, had a
flexible rubber
handle or the blind person's cane had a free moving articulated join in
it. 'No sense, no feeling' goes the old adage.
Only
when both dancers can continuously feel each other's contact with the
floor through the embrace will they be able to dance like one body with
four legs. Then they have both extended their self-awareness to
encompass the other's axis and can experience the dance through the
person in their arms.
The
Argentinians say that the first moments of an tango embrace tell them
everything they need to
know about a partner. They are commenting on the essential need for
proprioception in tango.
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