(Nancy speaking)I bring a classical dance orientation to tango. And I love tango because it gives me a way of expressing myself through dance now that I am older and don't have the conditioning for classical dance. Because of this "tango as art" orientation, I very much didn't appreciate dancing tango in close embrace. I felt that it gets in the way of bringing all that I know about movement to tango. In some ways, that's true.

Close embrace tango really is about something different. And, of course, many people have many different answers to the question: what is tango? or what is tango in close embrace (which some would say is the only way to really do tango)? But, for me, it's about a more internal dialogue between two people. It's very about being physically close to someone as well as about sharing a potentially very emotional moment with them. When I dance close embrace with David, I love the sharingness of it. I love how it accentuates the perfect music sync and perfect movement sync we sometimes achieve.

When I dance in close embrace with students, and they can move with their whole body, especially walking with me, I love how easy the walk can feel (ok, it's very hard but eventually it can also be very easy). I love how proud I feel at their achievement that they have learned enough to make something wonderful out of something which is intrinsically so difficult.