In one of the many posts I saw while scrolling through social media, this photo immediately caught my attention.
I found it interesting how a common product we use every day (well, maybe a little less nowadays) keeps its form and usefulness over the years, in this case, even decades.
That doesn’t mean the product hasn’t been improved. We simply don’t see its process of improvement.
And I asked myself, what’s the connection between this photo and tango?
And what about the slogan used?
It often happens, that we think that moving a lot, dancing with super-complex structures and elements is the way to express ourselves and communicate, while neglecting what really matters.
As if the beauty of our dance depends on how much we’re capable of doing, often overdoing, rather than focusing on how much we’re capable of conveying.
There’s a learning process, of course, at the beginning (but in many cases, unfortunately, not only) characterized by a lot of quantity and little quality.
Years go by. Our experience grows, the body learns, and the mind shifts its perspective. The quantity I mentioned earlier should be decreased as quality increased.
And we begin to ask ourselves different questions.
What truly remains of everything we’ve learned?
We discover that it’s not necessary to do more, but to better understand what we already know.
A step, but taken with awareness.
An embrace, but one capable of sharing.
A pause, but experienced together.
A simple movement in which both partners can find their own space without losing the quality of communication.
And it is precisely the quality of communication, the mutual listening, the ability to find a balance between one’s own body and that of the other that we should set as our goal. Being able to give meanings to a simple gesture, without needing to add anything else.
Our journey should consist of becoming capable of expressing more and more by doing less and less.
Simplicity is not the absence of complexity.
How complex can “el paso básico” be, for example, especially when considering the musicality we use, the quality of the embrace, or even the quality of the lead?
In this case, the product in the photo can be related to the basic step, an ocho cortado, a turn…
Over the years, the form doesn’t change, and who knows, perhaps the highest quality isn’t immediately apparent to the eye, but deep down, it has already changed.
Quality tango consists precisely of this:
not always showing what we’re capable of doing, but managing to give value to what we do and above all, doing it together.
In short,
LET’S DO LESS. AND EMBRACE MORE.
GIANPIO CAPPUCCI