Soft eye gaze
A practice partner sent me a couple of videos of us dancing together. What follows is the discussion we had after watching them.
¡Gracias! Esos son útiles. What do you think? For me, you look nice and feel nice.
May we share a simple, odd little piece of advice (from Luciano y Alejandra) that helped me in the early days? I invite you to watch the videos again, this time looking only at the dancers’ eyes. What do you notice?
We animals are designed such that our attention, our head, and then our body tends to go where we are looking. Of course, your head and body aren’t moving out of the embrace. But to an onlooker observing, it looks like you are thinking hard about what is happening and all the teachers’ advice you just received — and you probably were!
The thing is, we can center and calm ourselves, and give our full awareness, by allowing our eyes to go calm and quiet.
The next time you are at a milonga, secretly observe the dancers’ eyes. Feel the impression it makes on you as you observe eyes darting about the room versus those that look almost closed, as if they are about to go to sleep. Whether or not we are consciously aware of it as an important factor, tangueros and tangueras use that as part of their assessment of whether a dancer looks connected with their partner, and whether they might enjoy dancing with that person.
The embrace you demonstrated at the end of last night was luscious. What might it feel like, what might happen if you allowed your eyes to have that same feeling?
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I’ve noticed the same in other videos and was wondering what to do with it. Maybe that’s why some dancers close their eyes? I’ve tried that but lost my balance. I can try it again or do what you suggest, a “closer” look?
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Some do, but we prefer to not close the eyes fully. (Especially in a crowded milonga, my partner can help my awareness of what is happening around us.) Allow the eyes to soften and relax, the eyelids feeling heavy. Then direct the gaze toward where the floor meets the wall. That is, not looking directly down at the floor and not with eyes at or above the horizon. When we are apart, we look “through” our partner’s sternum—center of the chest. Not looking *at* our partner’s chest (even though my eyes are looking in that direction).
As a point of reference and maybe to help understand it, here is what ChatGPT has to say about the importance of the soft eye gaze in martial arts.
The soft eye gaze, also known as “zanshin” in Japanese martial arts, is an important concept that involves maintaining a relaxed and open focus while being aware of one’s surroundings. This gaze is not fixed on any particular point or object, but rather takes in the whole visual field without focusing on any one thing in particular.
In martial arts, the soft eye gaze is important for several reasons:
Awareness: By maintaining a soft eye gaze, a martial artist is able to take in their surroundings and be aware of potential threats or opportunities for attack or defense.
Relaxation: The soft eye gaze helps to relax the body and mind, reducing tension and allowing the martial artist to move and react more quickly and fluidly.
Intuition: The soft eye gaze allows the martial artist to tap into their intuition and react instinctively to changing situations.
Focus: While the soft eye gaze is not focused on any one thing in particular, it still requires concentration and focus. By maintaining a relaxed but alert focus, a martial artist is able to stay present and responsive to their opponent’s movements.Overall, the soft eye gaze is an important aspect of martial arts training as it helps to develop situational awareness, relaxation, intuition, and focus, all of which are essential for effective martial arts practice and application.
[and tango!]
Does this feel like a useable and useful way to enrich the experience of the dance?