Tango Way Poem by Susan Detlefsen

It's not about the ganchos
Not about boleos
It's not the tango shoes you wear
Or how you cabeçeo.

Tango is the quiet way your body will discover
Delicious wordless messages coming from the Other.

Tango's about the way you breathe
The way you stand so tall
The proud strong way you hold your chest
With perfect balance, invisible weight change
Slowly, from right foot to left foot, always with the Other
Reaching always skyward finding
Divine tango energy
Energy you need today
When you start to dance the tango, the tantric tango way.

Tango means taking charge
Inventing every step
Tango is being surrendered
Waiting for the Other
Responding to the Other.

Of your Tango Other's axis
You must never be dismissive
Tango means being dominant,
Simultaneously submissive.

Tango's never having to say you're sorry
When your tango falls apart
There's always another tanda coming
Always a fresh new start.

Tango means laughing instead of cursing
When after a perfect leg wrap
Instead of with her right foot on the tango floor
Landing, taking root
Her stiletto slips into your shoe grazing your left foot.

Tango is a way, a delicious foreign way
The way the body moves, the way you feel your core
Speak a wordless language you never knew before.

Tango is the language of your inner core intention
Sending clear surprising signals in her right leg's direction.

Two bodies two minds wound around each other
Two cores, two souls in deep deliberation
Tango is a kind of meditation.

It's not the steps you know
Or how to swing your hips
It's a tango kiss from soul to soul
Not a kiss for lips

Vertical expression of a horizontal desire
Sometimes when the music's right
When you dance a perfect tanda
If you're not very careful you can feel yourself on fire.

Tango is embracing that simple magic way
Two bodies two minds two souls
Moving with each other
Two lovers or two strangers, maybe just two friends
Briefly bound together like Siamese twins
Moving in that strange symbiotic way
The tawny tantric tango way.
- Portland, February 9,2014