Fifteen Years to Finally Find My Turn
There are two ways to dance Argentine tango: choreographed and improvised.
What I usually enjoy is the improvised kind.
All over the world, there are tango gatherings called milongas.
Argentina, of course, but also Shanghai, Beijing, Taipei, Hong Kong, South Korea, Singapore, Malaysia, and the Philippines. Los Angeles and Toronto. Barcelona and Madrid in Spain, and Vienna. Italy, Croatia, France, the United Kingdom, Romania, Germany, Switzerland, Poland, and Hungary.
Even the places I have visited make quite a list.
You can arrive alone in an unfamiliar country, walk into a milonga, and find people to dance with.
Even if you do not speak the language well, you can still dance.
And that is how you get to know people.
In that sense, tango is a very useful thing to have in your life.
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What I find interesting, though, is how the way I use my body gradually changes.
I take lessons and keep practising.
Then, one day, a movement I could not do before becomes possible.
In tango, there is a turning movement called a giro.
Diego and Aldana, whom I have studied with for nearly ten years, are the 2025 World Tango de Pista Champions—the improvised category.
Their giros are truly beautiful.
To me, they are the best in the world.
I have kept practising, wanting to turn like that.
And last weekend, I finally found the feeling I had been working towards.
The feeling of turning through my spine.
[Video: A moment from that lesson with Aldana]
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Of course, being able to do it with Aldana alone would not mean I had learned to do it myself.
She might simply be adapting so skilfully that she makes it possible for me.
So I tried dancing with other tango friends too.
I could still turn.
Even with a different partner, the feeling stayed with me.
It seems I have made it my own, at least to some extent.
Fifteen years since I started tango.
At last, I have reached the starting line.
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