What Argentine Tango is like...

Things I have recently discovered that tango is "like"1: Tango is like... improvising music You're moving within the freedom of a framework, and attempting to make yourself transparent and predictable to your partner while simultaneously bringing out the beauty in your movements. It's about precision, but also about compromise. It's about training your muscle memory enough that you can turn off your brain and just flow, because that's where the art appears. For the past few years I've been teaching myself to play the piano, with a focus on improvisation. It feels like tango scratches a similar itch in my brain... (I'm even worse at tango, though!) Tango is like... spinning tops A table full of spinning tops can be in a state of stability, but it looks like it's only one little bump away from a catastrophe. Other forms of social ballroom dance are more like... dodgems. Both a tray of spinning tops and a bumper car ride are much safer than they look. There's been a tragic pile-up on the…