Spreading the language of dance

• Source: Global Times
• [11:06 August 20 2010]
• Comments

With his life in two worlds, Isley developed a passion for tango's ability to connect. "You end up getting to know people much faster with this physical language than by having a conversation," he said.

Even at a young age, Isley saw that there were certain underlying principles in tango that could be expressed in as many ways as there are individual dancers.

Dancing without steps

Based on these early experiences, Isley was able to extract the essence of tango. By the act of watching, he came up with a profound yet simple idea. 

"Stripped to its basic essence, tango is simply walking to music in an embrace," he said. "My father taught me to be obsessively observant. By watching people dance, I pulled out the core truths of tango and condensed them into a philosophy and simple teaching method."

According to Isley, many people associate tango with flash because their knowledge of dance is based on a business model that emphasizes multi-level, step-by-step classes.

"The rote memorization of steps is essentially the tango business model that Argentina exported to the world," he said.

Isley believes that students are bound to get bored learning the tango this way because it doesn't leave room for creativity. "Tango is an improvised dance," he said.

Under the step system of learning, teachers keep students coming back by requiring them to master a consecutive series of steps. This was the trap that Jenny Diehl found herself in before she met Isley in Seattle. And through Diehl, Isley met Shanghai.