It Takes Two

Yesterday I led Dan and Jenny (two of the cast for Threepenny) in an Argentine Tango workshop. Now granted, I have almost no formal training besides what I saw as a kid and a master class or two in New York. But since we don’t want a Strictly Ballroom flippy-turny tango, I was well cut out for the job.

Because the posture of the dancers in Argentinean tango is so difficult and so “unnatural” for the woman (she puts he balance in the man’s hands), we worked on basic balance, posture and weight shift when in a pair. I taught them to keep the energy toward each other even if they moved away from each other.

For example, in one combination, when the man and his partner are in the regular dance position (hands on backs and in hands), the man walks clockwise, using the woman as the center of circle. The woman turns slowly on her left foot while dragging her right in a small arc. Of course, the woman is relying on the man for all of her balance. But as we discovered, when the man walks, the small shift he makes in his energy away from her can destroy her balance. So as he takes steps away from the pivot point (her), to the outside of the circle, he must compensate by continuing the pressure onto her hands and back to keep her straight.

Anyway, that was really great. It is so much fun to work with people who aren’t self-conscious about their bodies or weight. That comes from being more adult, but also from the Island culture. Here, body image is not obsessed over like in the states. “Fat and happy” is a reality here. With so much poverty here, roundness connotes plenty, fertility, growth, happiness and stress-free living.

Anyway, so back to the tango. There is a song in the Threepenny Opera named the Tango Ballad, sung between Mac the Knife and one of his whores, Jenny Diver (the Lotte Lenya character). It’s a wonderful song. Here are the bawdy lyrics:

Mack:
There was a time, and now it’s all gone by,
When we kept house together, she and I.
I had the brains, and she had what you see,
I cared for her, and she took care of me,
I was the one who got her time for free.
And when a client came I’d let him have the bed
And be polite and go and have a drink instead.
And when he paid I’d tell him very nicely, “Sir,
Please come again when you are in the mood for her.”
That’s how it was, that’s how the job got done
In that bordello where we lived as one.

Jenny:
That was a time, and now it’s all gone by,
When we were good together, he and I.
When things were slow, he’d softly murmur, “Dear,
Let’s pawn your skirt, ‘cause we don’t’ need it here.
You look much better without a thing to wear.”
What a nerve he had, I told him where to go,
He kicked me hard enough to let the bruises show,
I answered back and then he slapped me in the face,
I lost a tooth that time I never did replace.
That’s how it was, that’s how the job got done
In that bordello where we lived as one.

Than it goes one to explain that when she got pregnant, he “didn’t want to compromise the merchandise” so he took the baby lovingly and “found a place where it would wash right out to sea.” Lovely.

And then they dance--a very co-dependant, slow, sloppy and sexy dance.

Today I go to the Antilles Middle School with Bethany to meet with teachers and try to drum up support for the Shakespeare Festival. I really hope it works, because it’s a very ambitious and wonderful project. All middle schoolers should have Shakespeare in their curricula because they can understand it. The language acts out what young teens imagine and daydream about--- confrontation of jealousy, infatuation, and rage, and introspection about identity, family, life’s meaning, etc.

It seems that the older we grow, the younger we think teenagers are. But returning to that time for us, we remember poignant feelings of maturity and struggling to confront the very issues with which we labor now. Of course there are marked differences, like fart jokes, using “like” every other word, and other behaviors that teens would never dream of. Haha. Just kidding.

Anyway, have a wonderful weekend, everyone.