As you might imagine, being who I am and doing what I do, one of my favourite activities is people-watching.
I like to watch people as they do what they love and especially as they learn or dance tango. And as obvious as it might be, one of the things that I have really come to appreciate is how much more people succeed in learning or dancing tango if they are in the “right” state of mind, for them.
Think about for a moment. Have you ever been at a lesson where the teacher was very “heavy” or “strict” and no one seemed to enjoy the lesson. In my experience, in those kinds of lessons, even if the students manage to do the movement that is taught, they never get to use it on the dance floor. Likewise, have you ever been to a milonga with a heavy atmosphere where people did not seem to enjoy themselves and noticed that even the better dancers well at their best a lot less of the time?
Simple as the observation I am offering you is, it goes to show how important it is that we put some effort to set ourselves up to have the right kind of experience, for us, whether it is at a lesson or at a milonga.
I am much more eloquent at controlling my state of mind now, using some of the tools that I use as a private consultant but for a long time I performed a ritual, every time, before I went out. I would put some music on that I really like and have an energizing shower before I get all proper to go out. That was enough for me to get rid of any stress that was left there from the week at work and put me into a fun, outgoing, ready-for-everything kind of mood. Over time, this ritual prepared me to have a lot of happy memories.
Now, this ritual is a little more intricate than I cared to describe here and there’s a reason for that. Even if you tried it exactly the same, it wouldn’t work the same for you.
Why?
Because first and foremost you are a different person to me and what works for me might not necessarily work for you “as-is” and secondly, I spent weeks and months (unconsciously) practicing this ritual before it gave the results that I am writing about here.
But, if you take another moment and think about this now, there is most likely a ritual that you have to get you into this kind of ready-for-everything kind of mood.
For some, this may be having a specially prepared cup of tea… or listening to a particular song… or doing your own private kind of dance in front of the mirror before you go out… or putting on your best shirt… or splashing on your favourite perfume or eau de toilette…
And if this ritual has not come up for you yet, ask yourself or get someone else to ask you:
“What are you like when you’re at your best?”
This is the very organic way of going about building your state of body and mind. To set yourself for fun, success, learning or anything else that you want to be doing.
There are other ways to do this, consciously or “manually”. These manual ways put you in the position of power as they allow you to enter this state of mind any time you like, even if you can’t perform this ritual. I will explore these more in future articles.
As you use this to have a better tango experience, we would love to hear about what your ritual is and how it manifests on the dance floor!