Tango is addictive. Not at first try, but reliably. You will need more hugs, deeper emotions from music, more warmth and intimacy to maintain dopamine and oxytocin levels. Tango withdrawal is not a joke.

Tango is a challenge and a frustration. Your inability to perform simple steps and turns will amaze you. You will spend lots of time and money to learn how to perform them more or less satisfactorily. This will not help.

Tango is a trauma. You will need the courage to present and open yourself and face rejection. No one must dance with you, and no matter how young and beautiful you are, few will invite you, since you still do not know how to dance. And if you are not young and not beautiful … Better to find yourself a good therapist in advance.

Tango will take all your time. You will start with a “try”, with lessons. But over time, you will need techniques, practices, individual lessons, workshops by the maestro, milongas, festivals, marathons. And you’ll still feel that you are missing a lot.

Tango will take all your money. In addition to expensive festivals and seminars, you will need countless shoes (your future fetish), dresses, new travel bags, tickets to Buenos Aires and much more.

Tango is a dissatisfaction. Your ability to feel music will develop faster than your body’s ability to dance it. As a result, you’ll feel that you dance worse and worse.

Tango is a fraud. Someday you will confuse your popularity at milongas with the relations in real life. Someday you will confuse a feeling of contact, unity with a partner, tango-emotions shared with him, with true intimacy. And this warning will not help. And you will do it more than once.

Tango is a loss. You will lose most of your today’s friends, acquaintances and partners, there will be no time for them and there will be less and less in common between you. New ones are not granted. Your lifestyle will change (mainly to nightlife). You yourself will change: you will surely lose the ability to live the life you don’t want and do things you don’t want.

Tango is a regret. No matter how early you start, you will regret not starting earlier. And it will not pass.

Entering tango-world will destroy the beautiful dream of learning to dance tango someday. A dream will come true, and it will not be like what you imagined.

c)
Igor Zabuta, izabuta.com; 
Emma Kologrivova, kologrivova.com;
dancing psychotherapists

P.S. The original text is in Russian. Please contact us if you can improve this translation.

More texts in Russian: tango-therapy.com.ua/wp/