Heresy. Insanity. Misguided lunacy. Procul, O procul este, profani!
Tango is not a solitary dance. It is not a dance only for two. It is a dance of community. Of course, you are absorbed into your partner. She is your entire world, and you are hers.
But you are also conscious, subconscious, of those around you - this is why we dance with consideration of others, so as not to put them ill at ease. We dance as a community. But more than that, the very fact that we dance amongst ourselves, constrains our dance, shapes it, colours it. And so our experience of it.
Constraint is no bad thing. The power of art, of expression, of experience, is drawn from self imposed constraint.
The power of art, of expression, of experience,is drawn from self imposed constraint.
The constraint of others around you, the constraint of the codes of the milonga. These constraints make the experience stronger. Dancing with no constraints would be a diluted, messy experience. Art expressed with only two shades has a power that art from all the coloured crayons in a child's set can not. In dance, as in life. Look at the sheer energy that wants to explode from the restrained disciplined simplicity of a Picasso line. In dance, as in life.
There is a "just right" crowdedness, an optimal distance between couples. Not too much, not too lonely. A ratio defined in nature, inherent in our nature, inherent in nature. Like bees in a living thriving hive - so alive, yet so perfectly beautifully musical in it's dance.
And this is why the best milongas are intimate, busy places, where as if by magic it all works, with no bumps, kicks or traffic jams. It's where you have to make your dance interesting through what little you have left to you - there's no space for much more than weight changes and embrace - nor should there be. Where you and your partner have to tune in and listen to each other to hear that subtle intention. And this brings you closer. There is no closeness in being thrown around in large acrobatics - that's lazy leading by shouting, not whispering.