The Knee Pain That Disappeared Through Tango
- Admin
- Jul 6
- 3 min read
Last Thursday evening, I got a message from a tango friend.
“Are you going to the milonga tonight?”
That was the invitation.
Work had gone longer than expected that day, and I did not see the notification until after 8 p.m.
I had no particular plans afterward.
I was only going to drive home, so I turned the car toward Yotsuya and met up with my friend.
⸻
Of course, I had not prepared to dance tango.
I took out the tango shoes I had left in the car and went straight in.
They were shoes I had not worn in a while.
I started dancing without thinking much about it, but my feet kept slipping.
Again and again.
So much that even I thought something was wrong.
The friend I was dancing with asked me,
“What’s going on with you?”
⸻
Later, when I looked closely at the soles, they were completely worn smooth.
There was no grip left at all.
No wonder I kept slipping.
That night, I must have been trying harder than usual to hold the floor with my feet.
I was using force in an unnatural way.
Still, I somehow got through the night and went home.
The next day, I noticed pain in my left knee.
When I bent it, a sharp, unpleasant pain ran through it.
This was not good.
I did what I could to take care of it myself.
About half of the pain went away.
But when I tried to bend the knee deeply, the pain was still there.
Past about 90 degrees, that unpleasant pain appeared.
I thought I should avoid pushing it for a while.
⸻
On Friday, I did not have anything major scheduled, so I went to the hot spring and took it easy.
I wanted to help the knee recover.
On Saturday, I had a private lesson scheduled with Diego and Aldana.
I wanted to get the knee into a better state by then, if possible.
So I avoided movements that would put stress on it.
No exercise.
No stretching routine.
I only worked and tried not to do anything unnecessary to the knee.
Then, in the evening, I got a message from Aldana.
Because of work, they had to cancel the lesson.
I was disappointed.
But part of me also accepted it.
Maybe this was a sign that I should not push myself right now.
So I simply took it that way.
⸻
On Sunday, Diego and Aldana had a show.
I had been looking forward to it, so I went out to dance.
To be honest, my knee had not changed much since Friday.
It hurt when I bent it.
When I tried to bend it deeply, that unpleasant pain was still there.
So I decided to dance without putting too much weight on my left leg.
No pushing.
That was the plan.
⸻
But the venue had a large open floor because of the show.
Once I started dancing, I felt better than expected.
Before I knew it, I had partly forgotten about my left knee.
I was dancing fairly intensely.
Actually, I was probably getting a little carried away.
A friend who was there said,
“You’re not in the show.”
Then added,
“You’re not doing a demo.”
She was right.
I was just a regular participant.
And supposedly, a person with a painful knee.
But somehow, when I see a wide floor, my body starts getting excited on its own.
A troublesome habit.
⸻
Only once did a sharp pain run through my left knee.
At that moment, I thought, this is not good.
After that, I avoided any movement that felt risky.
Still, with breaks in between, I kept dancing for three or four hours.
⸻
On the way home, I suddenly noticed something.
The pain in my left knee was gone.
I thought it was probably adrenaline or dopamine.
Because I had been dancing and was excited, maybe I just could not feel the pain for the moment.
By tomorrow, it would come back.
That is what I thought.
But today, there is still no particular problem.
My knee bends normally.
So far, there is no pain when I bend it.
Of course, I do not plan to push it.
For a while, I will keep using my body carefully.
⸻
Still, it is strange.
I danced in slippery shoes and hurt my knee.
Then that same knee pain disappeared by dancing tango again.
Sometimes the body returns by resting.
Sometimes it returns by moving.
Tango cured my knee pain.
I do not want to say something like that too easily.
But at least in my own body, something strange like that happened.
Comments