TAIPEI’S LOVE AFFAIR WITH DANCE HAS REINVIGORATED TROUBLED RELATIONSHIPS, AS THE CITY’S FALLING DIVORCE RATE TESTIFIES, SHARES SARAH WOODS
PHOTOGRAPHS BY DAVID JUANG
By its nature, dancing in the arms of another is an oh-so-romantic pursuit evocative of the heart-and-flowers era of Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire. Feeling the music and sharing its rhythmic pulse in close proximity to another forms part of its intoxicating attraction. Singletons can be held by an attentive stranger within a few seconds of a first introduction. Dancing nurtures a strong connection through shared trust, respect, laughter and social interchange as bodies intertwine. Whether it’s the lighthearted aristocratic foxtrot, cheeky jive or provocative Argentine tango: dancing mixes fun and frivolity with romance and make-believe. Dance requires imagination and the ability to role-play in order to bring a sequence of steps and twirls to life.
With increased flexibility, confidence and balance, dancers also benefit from improved self-esteem, greater fitness and suppleness.
Hip undulations, for example, strengthen abdominal muscles — resulting in a flatter stomach and more defined waist — but can also create an intense chemistry between dancing partners. At the heart of every couple dance, is the desire to make a partner happy: and in Taipei’s dimly-lit, sultry dancehalls, thousands of dance-lovers revel in the passion of Old Buenos Aires or Havana.
It is all about togetherness, according to Tony Dovolani of ABC’s hit dance show Dancing with the Stars:
“Discovering new steps together teaches couples to interact with each other. They’re looking into each other’s eyes, anticipating the next move. It opens up energy channels of feeling and connection — it rejuvenates everything.”
In Taipei, dance is credited with helping to lower the city’s divorce rate: a figure that dropped by 2,307 couples in 2007 — down 0.5% on the previous year and the biggest fall since 1999. On average, Taiwanese marry at ages 31 (men) and 28 (women), which means a couple potentially spends 50 years together — a long stretch if the magic is lost. The divorce statistics appear to correlate directly with a meteoric rise in Latino dance trends where high technical skills and stamina require a high level of cooperation and synergy with a partner — a very different energy from the Asian dance traditions. Tango, for example, is huge in Taipei — with thousands of homespun aficionados and dozens of Argentine-style dancehalls. According to a recent European study, tango not only helps to alleviate stress but can also patch up troubled relationships. That control, the repressed sensuality and minimal visible flamboyance activates a host of positive hormones to help couples rediscover the connection, passion and spark in their relationship and boost shared happiness.
“Couple relationships have a pattern like a dance, with certain steps and rules built in,” explains Martin Rovers, author of Healing The Wounds in Couple Relationships. When it comes to loving and being loved, people react in patterns. Becoming aware of our attachment patterns will help partners to know themselves in greater depth.
When UNESCO declared Argentine tango part of the world’s cultural heritage in early 2009, downtown Taipei celebrated with an impromptu milonga (tango party) that drew thousands of Taiwan’s tango-dancing couples onto the dance-floor to the arresting, haunting strains of the bandoneón (Argentine concertina). Since 1999, Taipei’s vibrant urban heart has beat with a Latino dance passion — in particular salsa and tango. Today dozens of basement bars, piano lounges and dance halls evoke the earthy, cultural traditions of the backstreets of Central and South America. Authentic Latin dance nights are touted by numerous nightspots and discos with gyms offering “Latin dance classes” and a well-subscribed tango association (TTA) and salsa association (TSA) that organize a world-famous Tango Festival and Salsa Congress each year.
“Taipei may be thousands of miles from Latin America but Taiwan’s capital is quickly gaining recognition as one of the best places in the world in which to enjoy the tango and other dances of the region,” says Josephine Huang at the Taiwan Tourism Bureau.
Taipei’s dance-lovers come in all shapes and sizes but share one thing as they glide and shimmy across the dance-floor — they are smiling at each other and having fun. Each is responding to their partner’s subtle cues, moving together and shifting their own weight in a demonstration of teamwork. Together they learn to support, hold, guide, prompt and mentor each other as well as to forgive mishaps, such as missed beats, forgotten steps and toe-treading incidents. Dancing couples grow closer as they spend more time in each other’s arms while enjoying music and laughter and working together towards the common goal of perfection.
“Every relationship is a dance,” explains marriage counselor Pat LaDouceur, “A dance teacher told me once that she could see a couple’s entire relationship on the dance-floor. When someone’s toes got stepped on she could see how some people blamed their partner, while others apologized and let it go. Some stopped the lessons before they got to be good at it, while others had fun learning and adjusting to how their partners moved.”
Thousands of snake-hipped sassy, salsa movers head to Taipei’s hottest clubs and wild, sweaty salsa parties: with Brown Sugar a gathering point for salseros and mambo queens from all over Taiwan. DJs do their best to outshine each other at events that attract world-class movers from Colombia, Panama, the Dominican Republic, Brazil, Argentina, Europe and the US. Couples engage in the art of sensual dance-floor seduction: combining simmering physical chemistry with overtly sexual rhythms in a full-on sensory assault. Meaning “sauce” in Spanish, the salsa is anything but sweet in style. Yet a fiery-hot chill has soft, tender flesh and, despite the rawness of this sassy dance, the salsa is no stranger to heartfelt sentiment. With bodies pressed tightly together in rhythmic unison, Taipei’s spellbinding musical love potion of the moment adds extra frisson to the dance-floor. “I’m drowning and I can’t live without you… without your body next to me…” resonates as the ultimate salsa love cry of Mi Todo (My All) plays an intimate cocktail of intoxicating lyrics and irrepressible sweat-drenched beats.
In wooden-floored Fortress Café, under the teardrop crystal chandeliers of the historical Chung Shan Tan Theatre, the Argentine tango evokes the ambience of portside bordellos of old Buenos Aires. Desire, passion and nostalgia are laced with a trace of loss and madness. With nuanced and seductive tones, the rhythms mirror the spirited interchange between the paramours, as couples act out the scene under dim lights. In response to their own private drama, couples circle round each other lost in pulses and waves of the melody: walking in slow and slithery movements punctuated with sharp and staccato jerks, foot flicks and head snaps in a hypnotic counter clockwise flow. Demanding close embraces, petulant dismisses and flirtatious standoffs: this very sultry and expressive dance combines cat-like postures with spellbinding toe-taps, high kicks and leg-to-leg caresses. Music derived from a fusion of African, Indian, French, Spanish and Latin America beats boasts melodrama and rhythmical theater to steady, consistent downbeat. In Taipei, the Taiwanese have forgone the arched back, straight-line style of ballroom tango in favor of the up-close, cheek to cheek, intimate, fiery encounter. The sight is captivating as couples hand-in-hand circumnavigate the dance floor slowly but surely, pausing before fleeing to a respectable distance with a jut of the chin, a flick of the hair and a lowering of the lashes.
“The Taiwanese have a long tradition with dance and music, so it’s no surprise that Latin Dance is so popular here,”
Josephine Huang adds. “What’s more Taipei and our other cities are so vibrant, that visitors can delight in learning about the dance in a totally new environment and culture.”
Since it formed in 2000, the Taipei Tango Association has led the way as one of Asia’s most proactive and best-subscribed tango membership organizations and remains the only club of its kind in Taiwan. In contrast to the dwindling tango communities in Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Shanghai, Beijing, Osaka and Hong Kong, tango in Taiwan has thrived year-on-year. Today it is hailed as Asia’s tango epicenter — with the 2009 Taipei Tango Festival the biggest yet ensuring many workshops were booked out months in advance. In “Asia’s Tango Capital” dancers from all over the continent converge on the city each September with the festival attracting many of the world’s most prominent tango masters together with Taipei’s hottest homespun tango talent such as Gustavo Lin and Weining Chen, Susan Su, Derrick Lee and Agnes Tang. Visiting tangueros and tangueras from Japan, Korea,
China and Singapore make Taipei their home for the sixday extravaganza with occasional guest acts from Europe and the USA. “When Daniel (Liu) and I founded the Tango Taipei Association in 2000 there were only a handful of tango lovers in the city,” Stacy Jou admits. “Now our workshops and training sessions are often over-subscribed with our milongas attracting hundreds of tango fans.”
Lavish, bloom-festooned milongas are held in some of Taipei’s grandest ballrooms, such as the Lai Lai Sheraton Hotel. Festival-goers provide a spectacular showcase of gorgeous figure-hugging dresses, dagger-like stilettos and slick Capone-style suits. On the final beat of the modern tango classic Mi Confession
that marks the end of the final dance, the dance-hall is silent — bar the sound of heartfelt, breathless embrace.
Keen to perfect your dancing prowess? Check out the latest salsa news in Taipei online at www.taipeisalsa.com. Lessons are free at the Tanguisimo, one of Taipei’s tango temples. Bi-monthly cultural exchanges are a must for lovers of tango, salsa and ballroom with Riverside Live House, New York New York Jazz, Red House Theater, Domal House and Esencia Flamenca hosting regular candlelit dance soirées (www.tangotaiwan.com). Friday night’s tango parties at Chung Shan Hall (7–11pm) remain a weekly highlight — with free hour-long tango workshops on the first Friday of each month at six in the evening.
“Seduction has always been the most exciting thing in a relationship — and dance keeps this alive,” explains relationship expert Kim Yin. “By dancing with our partner we can chase as well as conquest, to combine the excitement of wanting, pursuing and wooing someone with every step.”
CUPID ON THE DANCE-FLOOR
Let the sparks fly between you and your partner when you tango and salsa with these tips.
Try to master a few moves to set the dance-floor on fire.
Laugh at mistakes, never criticize or lay blame.
Choose a venue wher e the lighting and ambience is comfortable.
Compliment your partner.
Make e ye contact — a valuable dance communication tool.
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