Tango is like no other partner dance for many reasons, two of which are its ready punctuation by silence and pauses. So much happens in the stillness, that the movement becomes a segue to the next silent pause with our partners. Tango is a dance done with with no words but full of dialogue and conversation between two bodies, mainly the torsos, but also wherever there is contact—between the palms, arms, backs, face, head. It is rich. It can be dense as a chocolate truffle and light as puff pastry. It can be ground deeply into the earth and so airy it’s not there. Tango is creative conflict with peaceful resolution—or revolutions. It channels the most naked meaning of the human condition—the urge to connect and be intimate with ourselves and other—like no other dance on this planet.
Notice the last frame— how the solitary milonguero sits, alone, alone, waiting, waiting for the resounding silence that fills him. In tango, waiting is a virtue.