Neither Virgins nor Whores: Tango Lyrics and Gender Representations in the Tango World ANAHI ́ VILADRICH

https://www.anahi-viladrich.com/uploads/9/0/4/4/9044372/neither_virgins_nor_whores.pdf

Survey -- Gender biases and effect of gender roles in the social scene of Argentine tango

Posting for Marcello, please take the time to complete his survey...

Dear tango dancers,

My name is Marcello Pignataro. I am a post-doc at Colorado State University and a tango dancer myself. As a final project for a class that I am taking (Psychology of Women, Men and Gender) I have developed a survey (link below) to study gender biases in tango communities.

There are no rewards, but I would be grateful if you would spend some of your precious time to take it and answer as thoroughly as you can. Unfortunately the survey is available only in English, but it would still be great if you would share with other fellow tango dancers the link to the survey or to this page.

The survey is anonymous and it will be available till the end of February, after which I will analyze the results (hopefully someone will have answered) to be able to write a document that will summarize the findings. This document will be made available as soon as it is ready (which will probably still means around May/June) on Facebook and to any participant that will ask for it while taking the survey.

Thanks for your attention and your time,

Marcello

LINK TO THE SURVEY: https://s.surveyplanet.com/W2It3TOR

This is your brain on tango music

http://syncproject.co/blog/2015/8/17/brain-on-tango

This is Your Brain on Tango Music


Marko Ahtisaari Research


Some scientists have compared studying the brain non-invasively to having the world’s most exquisite computer and trying to figure out how it works by knocking on its cover. fMRI is an important and admittedly exciting tool for just this reason - we can take a look inside...
What happens in the brain when we listen to music? What happens in the brain when we play an instrument? These have been a couple of the fundamental questions in the neuroscience of music. By making use of a method called functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), scientists have been able to take a peek into the brain and examine the activation patterns related to music listening and more recently, also playing.

fMRI, functional magnetic resonance imaging, is a method frequently used in neuroscientific investigations. It detects changes in cerebral blood flow while subjects are performing tasks within the scanner. The measurement will reveal which parts of the brain are important for the task at hand, since active areas in the brain require more fuel, and oxygen-rich blood will flow to these areas. The method is exciting, because it lets researchers “look” at the brain without the need to open the skull. Plus, the results can be shown in the form of beautiful colorful pictures.

Investigations of music listening have revealed that activation in the brain is very broad - there is no single area responsible for music processing. For example, take a look at a video created by Professor Petri Toiviainen on what listening to tango looks like in your brain.

“
...[fMRI] reveals which parts of the brain are important for the task at hand, since active areas in the brain require more fuel, and oxygen-rich blood will flow to these areas...
Recently, there has been critique over use of the popular method, since it seems that even trained scientists can mistake an article including colorful fMRI images to contain better scientific reasoning than one without the images, but exactly the same data. Also, there are inherent caveats that need to be taken into consideration in using the method, such as the risk for false positives, such as in the case of imaging brain activity in this one, dead salmon.

That said, fMRI continues to be one of the most important methods for investigating brain processes. With carefully designed experiments, it continues to broaden understanding of brain processes and provides an unparalleled method for investigation. Recently, in addition to music listening, imaging what happens in the brain while the subject is playing a musical instrument has become possible. The restrictions related to movement are a concern, but another relates to the technique of the fMRI: it generates a very powerful magnetic field.

Therefore, any instrument used in the scanner must not contain any metal and must be something that can be used while lying in the confines of the MRI tube. This has required that neuroscientists and engineers get creative and build completely new, MRI-compatible instruments. Take a look at what an MRI-compatible cello looks like, and how it can be played during measurement. In the video, Neurologist Robert Zatorre and his PhD student (and cellist) Melanie Segado, and Prof. Marcelo Wanderley,and his student Avrum Hollinger present the fMRI-cello and discuss its use in research.


The brain is a tricky thing to investigate. It resides within living organisms and without invasive methods, our possibilities for looking at what happens during different activities are very limited. Some scientists have compared studying the brain non-invasively to having the world’s most exquisite computer and trying to figure out how it works by knocking on its cover. fMRI is an important and admittedly exciting tool for just this reason - we can take a look inside this exquisite organ. In the realm of the neuroscience of music, the fMRI as a method of investigation is vital for understanding the mechanisms that underlie music perception and production. With the help of creative thinking and engineering, the possibilities for exploring mechanisms related to more real life like music-making are expanding.

BY MARKO AHTISAARI AND KETKI KARANAM


REFERENCES:
McCabe, D. P., & Castel, A. D. (2008). Seeing is believing: The effect of brain images on judgments of scientific reasoning. Cognition, 107(1), 343–352. doi:10.1016/j.cognition.2007.07.017

Dancing on the Brain

Keep dancing… it turns out it is good for the brain

Picking up choreography can seem like a brain teaser. Interpreting which arm, which leg, which direction even, can lead to legs and arms everywhere except for the very position they should be in. This can be frustrating, but keep dancing, as research suggests that learning new steps could prevent dementia.

By Alanna Orpen 4 Apr 2016
Dancing is good for the brain
In the studio by Alanna Orpen

I am frequently in a dance studio, where routines and exercises are thrown at me (and my fellow dancers). You’re expected to pick up the steps in a matter of minutes, are set improvisation challenges, and the choreography changes from week to week.

It is as much a mental workout as it is physical, digesting the constant new material, but this turns out to be a good thing. At the start of a contemporary class, the teacher announced, “Good news for us dancers, I read today that dancing can prevent dementia.” So I thought I’d investigate.

Dementia risk
Dementia describes a set of symptoms that may include memory loss and difficulties with thinking, problem-solving or language, that are caused when the brain is damaged by diseases, such as Alzheimer’s.

According to the World Health Organization, the number of people who will be affected by neurological disorders is expected to increase in the upcoming decades. There are issues with current surgical and pharmacological treatments, as well as conventional rehabilitative therapies, so new therapies are needed.

dancing can reduce the onset of dementia

Dance is seen as viable therapy because it simultaneously combines physical and cognitive stimulation, which could maximize its impact on neuroplasticity and cognition. So far, studies have examined the effects of dance in elderly individuals with dementia, including subjects with Alzheimer’s disease and those with confusion, disorientation, and memory loss.

Dance to prevent onset of dementia
Dance is mentally stimulating
Dancing is mainly associated with physical health benefits, but scientists have recently discovered its neurological benefits. The complex mental coordination that dance requires activates several brain regions: the cerebellum, the somatosensory cortex and the basal ganglia, triggering kinaesthetic, rational, musical, and emotional responses. This strengthens neural connections and can improve our memory.

Benefits of dance movement therapy in dementia treatment
In 2003, research published in the New England Journal of Medicine found that dancing can reduce the onset of dementia. The 21-year study of senior citizens, aged 75 and older, was led by the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York City, funded by the National Institute on Aging. They measured each participant’s mental alertness as a means of monitoring the rates of dementia, including Alzheimer’s disease.

The researchers studied a range of cognitive and physical activities, such as reading; writing; doing crossword puzzles; playing cards; playing musical instruments; dancing; walking; tennis; swimming and golf. Surprisingly, dance was the one activity that was good for the mind, significantly reducing dementia risk. Regular dancing reduced the risk of dementia by 76%, twice as much as reading. Doing crossword puzzles at least four days a week reduced the risk by 47%, while cycling and swimming offered no benefit at all.

dance may still be seen as recreational while its clinical value is overlooked

But, not all forms of dancing offer the same cognitive benefits. Working on memorized sequences, might improve your performance, however it doesn’t create new neural pathways. The theory goes that the more pathways your brain has the easier it can access stored information and the better your memory.

Neurologist Dr. Robert Katzman said, “Freestyle social dancing, such as foxtrot, waltz and swing, requires constant split-second, rapid-fire decision making, which is the key to maintaining intelligence because it forces your brain to regularly rewire its neural pathways, giving you greater cognitive reserve and increased complexity of neuronal synapses.”

Building your brain’s neural complex works in much the same way as exercise, to get fitter you have to train regularly. So, the more dancing you do, the greater your cognitive reserve. And don’t worry about having to attend dance classes. It’s said that you’ll benefit from just going out dancing. Your improvisational skills on the dance floor should fire up the rapid decision-making that’s needed to forge new neural pathways.

Another study in 2012 showed that a 10 week dance intervention helped dementia patients over 70. It was a small pilot study of 18 subjects, where ten of the dance participants showed an improvement in cognitive function and mood compared to the eight who did not dance.

neurological benefits of dancing
Argentine tango, Parkinson’s Disease and future trials
Dance has also been found to alleviate symptoms of Parkinson’s disease. Similarly to dementia, it is another disease where individuals can suffer impaired mental function due to damaged neurons in the brain. A review, published in BMC Neurology, discusses how the Argentine Tango can improve an individual’s spatial awareness and memory because of the postures and simple paths learnt during the dance classes. These are then stored, remembered and used again, but it is also important for individuals to improvise and respond spontaneously to the music.

The field of dance research in the elderly is relatively young and continues to evolve. A study published in BMC Geriatrics, found that a dance video game, which combined physical and cognitive training, was more beneficial in improving walking accuracy and pace in older adults than muscle strengthening exercises alone.

Research hoping to bolster the use of dance therapy include a trial in BMC Geriatrics. The authors will examine whether two hours of moderate dance sessions a week will be sufficient to increase brain growth factors supporting brain plasticity and slow down dementia progression.

Dance and ageing research has shown its positive impact on the neurology in healthy and dementia groups. Dance therapy could be prescribed by physicians to improve visual perception and spatial memory, an area commonly affected by dementia. Even so, would traditionalists be willing to accept dance as something more than just a hobby and trust in its clinical value? At least there’s little worry about negative side effects.

If dancing can keep my mind healthy, as well as my body, then bring on the fast intricate footwork along with a port de bras (carriage of the arms) to match. I’ll see you in the studio.

This Is Your Brain On Tango - Study from 2005

Doing the tango keeps the brain in step, too

By Kathleen Fackelmann, USA TODAY



WASHINGTON — The hot moves of the Argentine Tango not only keep the aging body in shape, they also may help sharpen the aging brain, according to a study out Tuesday.

That study, presented here at the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience, adds to a growing body of evidence indicating that such challenging leisure activities as dancing, chess or even gardening may offer a boost in brainpower that could offset the declines that can come with old age.

Previous studies in animals and in humans had suggested that a sweat-breaking workout may help keep brain cells in top form. But Patricia McKinley of McGill University in Montreal also knew that the activity had to be something that seniors would enjoy.

McKinley picked the tango, a dance that's both fun to do and involves a series of complex moves that can improve balance. Her team recruited 30 seniors ages 68 to 91. Half the group got tango lessons, and the other half were assigned to a walking group.

The dancers got a boost in self-esteem almost right away.

"They would come in with sweatpants and sneakers, but after the third or fourth class, they had on makeup and jewelry," McKinley says. The class was mostly older women, but older men came, too.

After 10 weeks, the team looked for improvements in brainpower. Both walkers and tango dancers had better scores on memory tests, but only the tango dancers improved on a multitasking test. Such a boost may translate to better abilities off the dance floor, such as the ability to talk on the phone while responding to an e-mail.

Tango dancers also gained improvements in balance and motor coordination. That finding suggests they'd be at less risk of falling, a significant gain for older, frail people who can break a hip and never fully recover, McKinley says.

Tango dancing isn't the only way to power up the brain.

A second study, also presented at the Society for Neuroscience meeting, suggests that a specialized computer game might do the same.

Michael Merzenich at the University of California-San Francisco and his colleagues designed a gamelike computer program that might improve the ability to retain information.

The game also trains older people to listen carefully to words, strings of words or sentences and then answer questions about what they've learned. Older people often have trouble with their hearing, and that can slow down or impair their ability to learn a new task, Merzenich says.

The group trained 42 seniors to use the computer program. They found the seniors did better on standard tests of memory and attention compared with 33 control-group seniors, some of whom used a computer during the eight weeks but not the specialized game.

Both studies underscore the importance of a good mental workout. "The brain is like a muscle," says Paul Coleman at the University of Rochester Medical Center. Seniors should pick an activity they enjoy, such as tennis or bridge, and then "just do it," Coleman says.




Press Release

STUDIES WITH DANCING, COMPUTER TRAINING, SHOW WAYS TO MAINTAIN A HEALTHY BRAIN IN OLD AGE

For immediate release.

NR-11-05 (11/15/05). For more information, please contact Sara Harris at (202) 462-6688 or sharris@sfn.org.

STUDIES WITH DANCING, COMPUTER TRAINING, SHOW WAYS TO MAINTAIN A HEALTHY BRAIN IN OLD AGE

WASHINGTON, DC, November 15, 2005 — Scientists are unraveling the mysteries of how the brain ages—and none too soon. The number of people living past age 65 has increased dramatically during the last century, from slightly over 4 percent in 1900 to 13 percent in 2000. It’s estimated that by 2050, when the baby boomer generation is fully ensconced in its elderly years, 20 percent of Americans will be 65 or older. Indeed, the fastest-growing segment is people over age 85.

As the population ages, the incidence of neurodegenerative disorders associated with old age, such as Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease, and other forms of dementia, will rise significantly, placing an emotional and economic burden on an increasing number of individuals and families as well as on the public health system. Fortunately, most people do not develop such diseases as they age, but they do experience age-related memory and other cognitive declines. By better understanding how and why those declines occur, scientists hope to find preventive and therapeutic treatments that will help the growing population of the elderly retain active, productive lives throughout their lives.

According to new research, two effective treatments for maintaining a healthy brain include tango dancing and a specialized computer training program.

“Just as the aging of a bottle of wine is a function of the grape and vineyard that the wine came from and how it’s treated during its life, so is the aging of the human body and brain,” says Paul Coleman, PhD, professor of neurobiology and anatomy at the University of Rochester Medical Center. “So people need to treat the brain properly and take care of it and do things to it that will increase its longevity.”

There’s plenty of good news about the aging brain. Recent neurobiological studies have found that healthy individuals lose far fewer nerve cells (neurons) in the brain as they age than previously thought, says Marilyn Albert, PhD, a neuroscientist at Johns Hopkins University.

And there’s more: Scientists have also found that not everybody experiences age-related changes in cognition. “Some older adults perform much more poorly on tests of mental ability than younger individuals, which tends to make the average for the group decline,” notes Albert. “But other older individuals perform in the same range as people many decades younger than themselves. This variability suggests that there must be factors that influence brain aging, even among healthy individuals.”

Genetics certainly plays a role, but so does, according to growing evidence, environmental and lifestyle factors. Epidemiological studies conducted in many countries and across many cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds have found that three important factors help predict how well healthy adults maintain cognitive function as they age: mental activity, physical activity, and social engagement.

“Much work remains to be done to understand the mechanisms by which lifestyle factors affect brain aging and thereby permit specific recommendations for individuals,” says Albert. “The findings to date, however, suggest that as the 21st century unfolds, we will learn much more about ways in which we can maintain brain function at an optimal level into old age.”

Some scientists are examining the nature of age-related changes in the brain. Using a new statistical technique to analyze the results of structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the brain, researchers at Columbia University were recently able to identify, for the first time, brain “patterns” or “networks” implicated in the normal aging process and to assess the impact of these interrelated patterns on changes in cognition. Previous MRI studies of the aging brain tended to use analytic techniques that considered each region of the brain independently.

For the study, researchers recruited 113 subjects who tested negative for medical, neurological, psychiatric or cognitive impairment. The subjects were divided into a younger group (average age =24) and an older group (average age = 73). The brains of all the subjects were scanned with high-resolution MRI and evaluated with a brief series of neuropsychological tests. The MR images were segmented so that grey and white matter of the brain could be examined separately. A multivariate technique based on a subprofile scaling model was then used to identify age-associated patterns of grey and white matter. The degree to which individuals expressed this pattern was compared to their performance on the neuropsychological tests.

“Our results suggest that there are identifiable networks of grey and white matter regions that systematically decline with age,” says Adam M. Brickman, PhD. Many areas of the brain appear to be involved in these networks. For grey matter, the network includes areas along the surface of the brain (cortical) and deep within the brain (subcortical). For white matter, the network includes deep frontal regions, areas surrounding the ventricles (cavities within the brain that that contain cerebrospinal fluid), and the large fiber tracts that connect the various parts of the brain.

“We also found that the expression of both grey and white patterns is associated with performance on cognitive tests, particularly tests that measure memory, attention, and executive function,” adds Brickman. “That is, the more each individual’s images resembled older brains, the poorer the performance on the tests of cognition.”

Brickman and his colleagues will next attempt to determine what factors might mediate the relationship between age and these structural and functional changes in the brain—studies that may help scientists develop treatments to halt or perhaps even reverse the effects of age on the brain.

Most research into the aging brain has focused on gray matter, the darker-colored tissue of the brain composed mainly of the bodies of nerve cells (neurons). Gray matter includes such structures as the cerebral cortex, the thalamus, and the basal ganglia, and is believed to be the “thinking” center of the brain where memory, among other cognitive functions, is processed. As we age, some neurons shrink and others die, resulting in a loss of gray matter.

Although less studied, white matter—the fibers (axons) that connect neurons within and between brain regions—also shrinks with age. Axons transmit messages among neurons, and are encased in a sheath of fat called myelin. With aging, the thickness of the myelin decreases, resulting in reduced white matter density—a change that can be seen under a microscope, particularly around the brain’s ventricles (cavities containing cerebrospinal fluid) and in deep white matter. If this shrinkage or deterioration in the brain’s “telephone wires” is significant, it may cause interference in communication between areas of gray matter. In turn, this disrupted communication could impact a person’s ability to perform complex, coordinated daily tasks, such as remembering to pay the bills on time or doing complicated mathematical calculations in one’s head.

At the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, David A. Ziegler and his colleagues used a fairly new MRI-based brain imaging technique, diffusion tensor imaging (DTI), to study white matter changes in healthy aging brains and how these changes are linked to cognitive performance. DTI measures the ease with which water molecules move in a particular direction through different types of tissue. Because bundles of myelinated axons create barriers that restrict the movement of water non-randomly, DTI can be used as an indirect measure of the integrity of white matter—and, thus, of whether regions of white matter are particularly susceptible to the adverse effects of aging.

The cognitive tasks chosen for the study were designed to assess episodic memory (the ability to remember specific events and their contexts), semantic memory (the ability to remember facts), and frontal lobe cognitive control processes (the ability to coordinate one’s thoughts and actions). “We found that white matter integrity was particularly reduced in the frontal-most parts of the brain—areas such as the prefrontal cortex and the anterior portion of the corpus callosum,” says Ziegler. “We were also able to demonstrate that this decline in integrity is associated with a decreased ability to perform tasks that require cognitive control—precisely those functions traditionally assigned to the frontal lobes.” In contrast, performance on semantic and episodic memory tasks appears to relate more to integrity of white matter in other parts of the brain, such as regions underlying the parietal and temporal lobes.

Next, Ziegler and his colleagues intend to determine the extent to which age-related functional declines are dependent upon white matter versus gray matter and when in the course of aging these patterns first emerge. In other words, is it the neurons themselves or the connections between them that are the critical factor in age-related function decline? Or do gray matter and white matter each play a distinct role? One way to address this issue would be to see whether increasing white matter integrity would improve cognition and in what way. Until now, therapeutic attempts have focused largely on specific neurotransmitter systems (such as the cholinergic system) or on pathological entities in the brain (such as neuritic plaques).

“An unexplored target for drug development is the brain’s white matter,” says Ziegler. “Because the cellular components of white matter show a remarkable capacity for plasticity through the lifespan, it may be possible to enhance white matter integrity in older individuals pharmacologically or even through changes in diet or cardiovascular fitness. If it is possible to harness white matter plasticity, this approach might prove a very effective means of countering some of the cognitive declines that are typical of advanced age.”

While some scientists examine how the brain ages, others are exploring what can be done to prevent or possibly even reverse age-related cognitive decline. At McGill University in Montreal, Canada, researchers have found that the sultry moves of Argentine tango dancing can help the aging brain. “Our findings suggest that tango may be better than walking for improving the execution of complex tasks and the ability to move within a restricted area without losing one’s footing,” says Patricia McKinley, PhD.

More than one-third of the elderly population in the United States experiences a fall each year, and, for older adults, falls are a leading cause of death. In addition, 71 percent of seniors over the age of 65 live alone, and many spend more than seven hours a day without any social contact. This isolation, coupled with the normal aging process, can lead to cognitive decline.

Tango dancing is beneficial to the elderly, says McKinley, because it incorporates elements found in standard neurological rehabilitation programs: forward, backward and side-to-side weight shift; one-legged stance; walking on a straight line both backwards and forwards; increasing step length in all directions; and turning within a narrow space.

“An added benefit of tango is that its movements are performed to music, which is known to facilitate performance of ambulatory activities,” says McKinley.

For the study, which was funded by the Drummond Foundation, the researchers recruited 30 seniors, aged 62 to 90. All were healthy individuals who had experienced a fall within the last year and had developed a fear of falling. They were randomly assigned to either a walking group or a tango dancing group. Both groups met for two hours twice a week for ten weeks.

Both the dancers and the walkers had their motor and cognitive skills evaluated before and after the program. The evaluations included spatial and numerical memory tests, complex and simple walking tasks, clinical measurements of balance, and self-efficacy for balance.

The tango group showed improvement in balance, posture and motor coordination, as well as cognitive gains. Specifically, the tango group performed significantly better than the walking group at performing a complex cognitive task while walking, at standing on one foot, and at turning in confined spaces. Memory testing, however, was inconclusive, perhaps because the sample size was not large enough, says McKinley.

The drop-out rate for the tango group was smaller than that for the walking group (one versus four), and 66 percent of the tango group continued to participate in the activity a year later.

“Tango dancing is an ideal leisure activity for this population,” says McKinley, “because it satisfies three basic requirements for exercise adherence: it’s fun, it’s a group activity, and it has a tangible goal that can be perceived not only by the dancer, but by his or her family and friends.”

Another new study has demonstrated that an eight-week computer-based training program that exercises the brain’s auditory and language systems can significantly improve neuropsychological measures of memory in older adults. These findings open up new therapeutic possibilities for enhancing memory and reversing the cognitive function decline associated with the aging brain. Perhaps more importantly, they underscore the premise that the brain is capable of adapting and improving at any age. While the “use it or lose it” slogan has recently become closely associated with mental fitness, this study is one of the first to demonstrate how to “use it” to achieve measurable results.

The training program used in the study was designed based on extensive research into the brain’s inherent plasticity, or ability to adapt at any age, and represents a departure from conventional approaches by treating underlying causes of cognitive decline rather than just the symptoms.

The study involved 95 participants (ages 63 to 94) who were randomly assigned to one of three groups: a brain plasticity-based training program group, a control group using a computer, and a no-contact control group. The training group completed an hour of computer exercises daily. The program included six exercises that rotated on a daily basis with each participant performing four of the six exercises on a given day. A trainer was present if any participants had difficulty with the program. Using a computer-based program permitted the researchers to deliver stimuli accurately and consistently, to change the difficulty of the tasks as people improved, and to track performance gains.

Before and after the training period, all participants were administered standardized assessments of memory and cognition, including the Repeatable Battery for Assessment of Neuropsychological Status (RBANS), which evaluates five cognitive areas: immediate memory, delayed memory, attention, spoken language, and visuospatial perception. In addition, participants received a standardized assessment of working memory. Those participants who completed more difficult levels of exercises showed the greatest improvements.

“We found that the group who completed the training program experienced significant improvement in measurable memory scores,” says Michael Merzenich, PhD, chief scientific officer at Posit Science and the Francis A. Sooy Professor at the Keck Center for Integrative Neurosciences at the University of California-San Francisco. “In fact, by using RBANS age norming data, we concluded that the majority of the participants in the training program group improved 10 or more years in neurocognitive status. Beyond measurable results, participants in the study reported a range of benefits from feeling more engaged in conversation to having more control over their lives.”

The next step in this research, Merzenich says, is to evaluate the effects of computer training on people’s ability to process and understand speech. The researchers also intend to use brain imaging techniques to map how the training program changes brain function.

“While it seems each year brings new scientific advances that increase the physical lifespan in humans, our program shows that brain plasticity-based applications can positively affect cognitive performance,” says Merzenich. “In doing so, we hope to improve overall quality of life as we age, helping our ‘brainspan’ match our ever-growing lifespan.”

The authors of this study are employed by Posit Science Corporation, which is developing brain plasticity-based training programs for commercial release.

Gender Studies in Milongas of Buenos Aires by Adriana Pegorer

According to scientists, Argentine Tango is literally addictive. - Seriously, Science?

As usual, they use a photo for the non-addictive variety of tango...

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/seriouslyscience/2014/11/12/scientists-identified-new-addiction-argentine-tango/#.VLD720ZOKnN

Sent from my iPhone

Proprioception and Aliaception in Tango

For some reason, I was thinking of these words today, racking my brain trying to remember them, and their meaning.

Proprioception (pronounced /ˌproʊpri.ɵˈsɛpʃən/ PRO-pree-o-SEP-shən), from Latin proprius, meaning "one's own" and perception) is the sense of the relative position of neighbouring parts of the body. Unlike the six exteroceptive senses (sight, taste, smell, touch, hearing, and balance) by which we perceive the outside world, and interoceptive senses, by which we perceive the pain and movement of internal organs, proprioception is a third distinct sensory modality that provides feedback solely on the status of the body internally. It is the sense that indicates whether the body is moving with required effort, as well as where the various parts of the body are located in relation to each other.

The word proprioception can apparently be used interchangeably with kinesthesia.

Aliaception is a recently born protologism, thanks to Bryan de Valdivia over the pond in Bonn, Germany. He defines it as "The [sense or perception or] knowledge of another person's body (tension, [relaxation], positioning, and quality [and character] of movement [through time and space]) via one's sense of touch [or extremely close proximity]."

[the wording in brackets are my additions]

Anyway, I was able to remember them eventually, which is a good sign, especially after finishing the final coat on the deck and inhaling VOC's for eight hours. No tellin' how many brain cells I killed with that swift move. These are big and important words in tango. We should all know them and use them and bandy them about and try to make our bodies and brains actually do the shit that these big important tango words mean. Scientific shit that goes on when we are dancing tango and we don't even know it - we aren't even aware of it - a "rock of eye" or "Blink (the book)" sorta thing. Kindasorta. Same thing only different. Whatever.

Basically I just wanted to stick these words in the blog so I don't forget again and have to search around for them in the future.

My apologies if I got you all fluffed up over something profound, and then it turned out to be something to file under "stupid stuff".

And the surveys says!

There is a new tango survey using word association...100 words...it takes 5 or 10 minutes to complete...I found it interesting to see my own reaction/answer to each word...

Here is the link: http://home.exetel.com.au/bodypaint/research.php

Thoughts/comments?

The Dancing Brain

More good stuff from Joe Grohen's "The Topic is Tango". He ran across it thanks to Mash on Tango-L.

Here's the synopis of the article "The Dancing Brain" on The Dana Foundation's website:

How can watching one dance performance, whether classical ballet or the newest modern choreography, be so engaging—even thrilling— and watching another leave us indifferent? Dutch choreographer and researcher Ivar Hagendoorn argues that contemporary neuroscience points at the answer. The limbs move, but it is the brain that dances.

Here's the link.

Psychoanalysis by Day, Argentine Tango by Night

Here is something I ran across on www.exploredance.com...

PSYCHOANALYSIS BY DAY, ARGENTINE TANGO BY NIGHT
By DR. SUSAN KAVALER-ADLER
February 2, 2003

Also see www.kavaleradler.com.

REFLECTIONS ON INTERSUBJECTIVITY OR "It takes Two to Tango": March 15 2002, conducted by DR. SUSAN KAVALER-ADLER AND ELLEN SOWCHEK

They came from Canada, Israel, Massachusetts, Chicago, Pennsylvania, Oregon, California and New York City. They were psychoanalysts, psychoanalytic patients, psychotherapists, dancers, and Argentine tango dancers. They all gathered in the Pierre Dulaine dance studio (35 participants) to hear about the overlaps between "being in the moment" in psychoanalysis and Argentine tango. They heard Dr. Susan Kavaler-Adler (psychologist-psychoanalyst-28 years of practice--and Argentine tango dancer) extemporaneously speak about the lack of anticipation for the follower in Argentine Tango being like the "lack of memory or desire" in the psychoanalyst, which is accompanied by "free floating attention", corresponding to the "free association" of the psychoanalytic patient (analysand: the "leader"). A multitude of analogies followed concerning the partnership in analysis and in tango.

Then they heard and saw Ellen Sowchek's (Argentine tango teacher, ballroom and Argentine tango dancer, hostess of Pierre Dulaine's Tuesday evening milonga TangoElegante) narrative on Argentine tango history with video taped clips of famous and infamous tango couples, with distinctions between Rudolph Valentino movie stereotypes and Argentine tango couples performing today. Ms. Sowchek challenged the workshop participants to tune into the degree of connection in videotaped tango couples, and to see whether they held up as authentic or bit the dust of contrived stereotypes contaminating the couples connection. All this interacted with what Dr. Kavaler-Adler described as "potential space," "play space," "inter-penetration," "psychic dialectic," "love-creativity dialectic," "dialogues of holding and receptivity," "true versus false self," and "disruptions through the contrived agenda." What is the spontaneous emergence of self in the moment, through the authentic self core, through the partnership, and through the music? How does spontaneity differ from impulsivity, from compulsivity, from breakdowns in dialectic due to the sealing off, dissociation, or repression of self parts?

How do disruptions in a tango coupling kill off or facilitate a potential partnership? How can self awareness within disruption allow for interpersonal dialogue that brings the psychophysical experience in dance to the verbal level so that communication can repair the coupling and possibly facilitate the partnership? This was the focus of Dr. Kavaler-Adler's "psychic visualization" experience in the workshop, which she led as the participants closed their eyes and focused on their breathing, their bodies and the thoughts tripping or plodding through their minds and on the people appearing within their internal worlds that they wished to communicate with. Does the person respond or not when they speak to them? Can they share their internal visions with the group? Thus, another dialogue in the group began.

The dialogues in the workshop evolved as Dr. Kavaler-Adler referred back to her own personal experience with "free association in movement" in her early 1970s dance therapy training with Blanche Evan, one of the pioneers in the beginning field of dance therapy. Following earlier experience in modern dance, and simultaneous with getting a Ph.D. in clinical psychology (prior to her training as a psychoanalyst and her founding of a psychoanalytic training institute: The Object Relations Institute for Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis) Dr. Kavaler-Adler had experienced what it was like to dance from one's own unique, in the moment, self expression. She conveyed to the audience that it followed naturally to later fall in love with the Argentine Tango, and it also followed naturally to later fall in love with psychoanalysis, where she "listened with a third ear," (Theodore Reik) and turned her unconscious like a "receptive organ" to the unconscious of the patient (Sigmund Freud), as she as a follower in tango turned her intuitive body receptors to the body gestures of the leader. But coming out of her office, where she sat still listening to those who sat up or lay on the couch to convey the often dark terrors and struggles of a rich internal life, to the excitement and thrill of body concentration and release in Argentine Tango, did not totally shield her from the pain that could haunt those living deeply in the tango world. She felt the hurt too, when a connection didn't happen, and she was dropped by a potential partner. She also struggled with the ups and downs of an ongoing tango partnership with her husband. Sharing some of this allowed others in the workshop to begin to talk about their frustrations and longings within the tango world, and to share their own insights and philosophies of this unique culture. One participant from Canada spoke of how important the "pauses" were both within the dance, and within the intervals before and after, and claimed that New Yorkers were more in a rush to actually dance than those in Canada, which she felt could forestall the sustained intensities of the tango, disrupting the pauses and foreclosing that which Dr. Kavaler-Adler was referring to as "potential space."

Ellen Sowchek shared fabulous pictorial images in drawings, sheet music, photographs and videos, of Argentine tango back to its inception among immigrants in the Buenos Aires' brothels. She showed the accompanying fashion of the dance as it emerged from 1913 into the post-Victorian world and eventually burst forth into modern life. Then, after a dinner break, from which all returned, Ellen taught a lesson in Argentine Tango for all participants.

The final part of the day came in the early evening, when both Susan and Ellen performed some Argentine Tango for the workshop group. Susan danced with both Helmut Salas and her husband, Saul Adler. Ellen performed two numbers with Helmut Salas. Both Susan (and her husband) and Ellen have studied with Helmut Salas at DanceSport. Susan also studies intensively with Ronan Khayat at DanceSport.

For those interested in related reading, Dr. Susan Kavaler-Adler is also the author of several books on the creative process, including The Compulsion to Create: Women Writers and Their Demon Lovers (Routledge, 1993, OtherPress, 2000), The Creative Mystique: From Red Shoes Frenzy to Love and Creativity (Routledge, 1996) and Mourning, Spirituality, and Psychic Change (Routledge, in press).

BEING IN THE MOMENT: IN PSYCHOANALYSIS AND ARGENTINE TANGO,

October 19, 2002: "It Takes Two..."

The second Psychoanalysis and Argentine Tango workshop was very actively involved with the dance of Argentine Tango itself and with the etiquette of tango dancers in the Argentine Tango atmosphere, touching on important gender issues and gender feelings. As in the first workshop, the psychological seminar, conducted by Dr. Susan Kavaler-Adler, preceded the historical and videotape seminar conducted by Ellen Sowcheck. The participants in this workshop played a very active role in creating dialogues and discussion. Consequently, a group interaction blossomed. The latter part of the day included an Argentine Tango lesson conducted by Ellen and dance demonstrations by Susan (Dr. Kavaler-Adler) and Helmet Salas, Susan and her husband Saul, and by Ellen and Helmet (two dances). The lesson focused on each participant exchanging roles of leader and follower to appreciate the subjective experience of each partner in the dance. The intersubjective experience of the dance created a third subject (or character), the dance itself, within the "potential space" and "play space" existing between the leader and follower.

Susan's lecture/discussion focused extensively on the concept of surrender and on how a mutual surrender was required by both partners in Argentine Tango just as it is required (in different ways) for both partners in the psychoanalytic couple (Analyst and Analysand or patient). Susan spoke about the confusion that people often have between the idea of surrender and the idea of submission. She articulated critical differences between surrender and submission, particularly in terms of the retaining and owning of one's power in surrender (being the agent and having one's own axis) in contrast to giving up one's power to the other in submission. The term surrender was explained in its psychological sense which is distinctly different than how it's used in the military field. Susan explained how yielding and letting go of control in surrender is a high level capacity in psychological development. She spoke of cases of well known women artists and writers who she has written about in The Compulsion to Create and The Creative Mystique to illustrate two different levels of development in relation to the ability to surrender. Trauma within the first three years of life can disrupt self development and create profound forms of defensive controls. The repetition of such trauma is compulsively enacted in the life of women artists as a "demon lover complex." This is a syndrome characterized by an attempt to transcend the self in a state of surrender, which dramatically fails. This results in submission by women to male possession as the woman is forced to give up her power rather than yield to it. In the literature and artistic work of women with the "demon lover complex," sadomasochism results, instead of surrender and sensual and erotic modes of merger. Possession is followed by abuse and abandonment by the male "other" onto whom the woman has projected all her own power. The repetition of early trauma as repeated symbolically in literature creates incessant themes of possession and death. When the desired surrender to an all powerful muse results in submission to a demon lover the alter ego characters of the women artists and writers all die both psychically and physically (the voice of the woman poet being extinguished, as in the work of Emily Bronte). Emily Bronte speaks of the hoped for moment of creative ecstacy, imagined by the woman poet as she cried "My outer sense is gone, My inner essence feels." Then her fantasy masculine god muse turns into the negative side of the father image. This negative father image is pyschically imposed on the inner child self. It is imposed onto the internal helpless two year old psyche with primal mother loss, evocatively creating the psychic projection of a demon lover figure. Possessed by the projected demon lover, the female poet's voice is extinguished and her poetic character meets her death in the image of a tombstone (see The Compulsion to Create, 1993, 2000). Her inner being is annihilated. In her novel, Wuthering Heights (see Kavaler-Adler, 1993, 2000, The Compulsion to Create) Emily Bronte has her male character, Healthcliff, extinguish the life of his female "love" (Catherine), when he is compelled to possess her. The sheer force of his controlling manic erotic intensity knocks her out of consciousness and then out of her body, and further, out of life.

How well we know that in Argentine Tango the woman can never surrender to the soul of the dance and its music unless she can surrender to herself. To allow this, the leader, usually male, must clearly direct her and support her in the frame of the embrace (similar to the analytic frame surrounding the analyst and patient). If instead, the leader controls the woman she can only submit or rebel, and can never surrender. One of the workshop participants spoke of how in the 1980s, when Argentine Tango was first taught in New York, the teachers were performers involved in "Tango Fantasia," rather than teachers and practitioners of social tango. The male workshop participant got up to demonstrate to the group how a teacher from that time had a woman in a class down on the floor, commanding, "You don't move! I will drive you!" He totally abrogated the woman's own sense of self agency, demeaning and defacing the visage of Argentine Tango as it is known to us today.

The topic of surrender versus submission opened up many other topics related to the Singles Scene in the Tango world and the partnerships within couples in the Tango world. Susan spoke of her experiences both in dance partnership with her husband and dancing on her own, with other partners. One ballroom couple in the workshop group spoke of a repeated dispute between each of them concerning where the husband should put his hand. When Susan initiated a psychic visualization in which everyone closed their eyes, breathed deeply, and imagined a dance in which they attempted to repair a disruption in the partnership as it occurred in the dance, often bringing the experience to the verbal level of communication, the husband in the ballroom couple spoke of having a conversation with his wife in his visualization that was better than any he had had in reality. In his visualization he spoke about how he felt when she corrected him during the dance, by moving his hand into the position she wanted him to have his hand in.

A woman in the group spoke of being in mourning during the visualization for her deceased husband. She cried during the visualization and was able to tell the group that she had imagined dancing with her husband again, with whom she had "done every dance except tango." This woman, a hypnotherapist, said that although her marriage with her husband had much friction in it, sometimes being volatile and leading to psychic separations, she and her husband seemed in perfect harmony when dancing. In her visualization, she imagined dancing with her husband again, and she wept for the lost mutual surrender into harmony, saying she couldn't imagine there being a disruption in the partnership while they were dancing.

Since this workshop member had spoken of her "in the moment" mourning experience within the workshop group, Susan spoke of how intimately connected the capacity to surrender was to the capacity to mourn. She spoke of her monthly therapeutic mourning group in which individuals can mourn with the support of the group and of how she has written books and articles on how the ability to mourn allows for love and creativity to unfold anew throughout a life time. She spoke of how Charlotte Bronte could mourn, in contrast to her sister Emily, since her critical losses took place after the age of five, rather than during the first three years of her life (her mother dying when she was five and her sister only two and a half). Charlotte Bronte had the psychic development to mourn within her creative work, as she demonstrated in her last novel, Villette, where her alter ego character, Lucy Snowe, grieves the losses related to unrequited love. Through the mourning process Lucy Snowe (Charlotte Bronte) is able to renew herself and proceed with her psychic development. Then she can surrender to a man's love and have him surrender to her, with the result that both characters transform and evolve. Charlotte Bronte's characters stand in sharp contrast to Emily Bronte's characters who are psychically arrested and who kill each other off. In real life, as well as in her fiction, Charlotte Bronte mourned and surrendered. It was only after she wrote her last novel, Villette, (after her more famous novel Jane Eyre) that Charlotte Bronte was able to yield to a man's marriage proposal and was able to enjoy the intimacy-in the moment surrender-of marriage.

And what about the biographical story of Suzanne Farrell and George Ballanchine as it stands in contrast to the story of the sculptress, Camille Claudel and the sculpture Rodin, written about by Susan in The Creative Mystique: From Red Shoes Frenzy to Love and Creativity? Suzanne Farrell never demonized Ballanchine despite his rather demonic behavior towards her. She was able to separate through a psychic mourning process, even when he demanded she marry him, even when he blacklisted her all over America when she married someone else, and even when she was forced by him to leave his New York City Ballet company. Suzanne Farrell separated, found a job as a prima ballerina in Europe and was later able to return to Ballanchine.. Farrell continually sustained a positive image of Ballanchine in her mind. She never submitted to his power, and she never projected an image of an early bad mother onto him. She kept him as a muse and never turned him into a demon lover.

By contrast, the female sculptress, Camille Claudel, projected all her rage onto Rodin when she and he broke up a long term affair. She never dealt with the cold and narcissistic mother who had emotionally abandoned her from her earliest years. Instead she projected the hate towards her mother onto Rodin, turning him into a demon lover in her mind, assigning blame for emotional abandonment onto him, and thus projecting the image of her mother. She, unlike Suzanne Farrell, could not mourn, because the loss of a mother had occurred so early. Consequently, she could not separate from Rodin, nor could she retain a positive image of him. In hating him rather than her mother who had rejected her from birth, she never let herself consciously know that it was her mother who was responsible for her being incarcerated in an insane asylum for the last thirty years of her life. Her mother had the power to release her and always refused. Camille blamed Auguste Rodin and ended her days in psychic as well as social isolation, the consequence of not being able to mourn her early mother loss, preventing her from transforming through the grieving process into someone who could create and sustain interpersonal connections, which involves the capacity to understand the separate perspective of another person. Suzanne surrendered and Camille submitted. Suzanne continued to dance psychically, even when retired from the stage due to a hip operation, as she taught students to dance and to dance Ballanchine ballets. Camille Claudel withdrew from sculpture as she withdrew from Rodin. She refused to continue her art, even when offered to do so in the Asylum. She submitted to an empty incarcerated life, and submitted to psychic denial, never wanting to know the truth about her mother. She submitted and opposed, but never surrendered to her art, to herself, or to a man again!

Another workshop participant's psychic visualization was about one sublime Argentine Tango with a mysterious partner in Argentina. She said that she has never experienced the sublime ecstasy of surrender that she experienced at that time since.

Yet, when this Argentine male partner asked to see her after the dance she could only think of getting enough sleep to attend her workshop the next day, and she further evaded him by failing to go where she had told him she would go the next day. The whole workshop group (21 people) sighed as this lady exposed her story, when she was prompted to return to her Argentinean experience within Susan's guided psychic visualization. The lady then wondered and pondered her own behavior. Why would she not go out of the bounds of the dance of tango when she was single and might have had a romantic experience with her male acquaintance? This report intermingled in the workshop dialogues with discussions of the Argentine Tango world allowing for intimacy without involvement, and the Singles Scene built around this ethic. The positive and negative sides of this equation were commented on by various workshop group members, mainly women.

The whole topic of women asking men to dance Argentine Tango in America, as opposed to in Argentina, was also addressed. Participants commented on how it felt in terms of the woman being married or not. Susan spoke of being glad to be in America where she felt free to ask many men, some male friends, some strangers, to dance, as well as dancing with her husband. Ellen spoke of needing to be respectful when in Argentina of the Argentinean traditions, which differed from American traditions in relation to gender politics. She spoke of the "coda" that allowed a man to tell from a woman looking at him or not whether she would accept an invitation to dance. Ellen also spoke of how men "lost face" in Argentina and had to literally leave the milonga if they asked any woman to dance who refused the offer.

Ellen's views were enlarged in her part of the workshop, where she expounded on the origins and traditions of Argentine Tango, bringing us back to the poor male working immigrants who gathered in brothels to escape isolation and to seek female company, beyond the actual sexual format. As she spoke of the evolution of Argentine Tango in this environment the rituals of male and female stereotyped roles in Argentina today became more understandable. Ellen also showed how Tango was used to advertise clothing, and even hair pins, in 1913, the 1920s and 1930s. When she followed this with vivid video clips of modern day Argentine dance couples, the workshop group was able to take an active part in looking at what appeared to them as genuine connection within the actual dance between the male and female partners, (including sons and mothers, and fathers and daughters), as opposed to stereotyped or stylized interactions (as she showed in movie clips of Rudolf Valentino, despite the passion expressed). The workshop participants voted on the degrees of connection in each couple. Ellen was intrigued to find that the votes were on par with those of the last workshop, much agreement being seen in what was considered connection: sensual, playful, and or romantic.

So in a workshop that began with analogies between the "in the moment" experience of psychoanalysis and Argentine Tango we arrived at a place where one female workshop group member could say that "When men learned the steps of tango they often lost the ability to connect that they had in the beginning of doing tango." Learning steps that create an agenda in the man's mind can interfere with him surrendering to connection with himself, with the music, and with his partner in Argentine Tango. Similarly in Psychoanalysis, the analyst, like the female follower, needs to surrender all agendas, allowing free floating attention that opens the analyst's unconscious mind to being a receptive organ for the unconscious of the analysand (patient), as first spoken about by Sigmund Freud. The female follower in tango needs to relinquish anticipation of the leader's next moves, similar to the analyst surrendering "memory and desire" (British theorist, Winnifred Bion), when listening to and responding to the analysand (patient). The analyst allows all theory to be in the back of his/her mind as she surrenders to the moment and to tuning into where the patient is within that moment. The patient, like the male Argentine Tango leader, must be in the moment of the dance, allowing free associations to flow from the internal and unconscious life, not inhibiting himself with the defense of conscious controlled thinking through agendas. When this cannot happen resistances must become conscious and be addressed so as to open the avenues to true self spontaneity in the moment. The analyst, like the male tango leader listening to the music, listens to the music of the patient's internal life through associations, as well as through emotional and body feelings. As the male tango leader senses which foot his partner is on, the analyst senses which part of the person in her consulting room is speaking at any one moment, whether speaking on the symbolic level of words or on the protosymbolic level of body language and feeling state expression. Neither partner, leader nor follower in tango, nor analyst or patient in analysis or psychoanalytic psychotherapy, can allow the dance of the process or the process of the dance to proceed without relinquishing conscious control and surrendering to the inner life of the creative moment. To be too conscious of the steps or the technique is to impede the process. The analyst and the tango partners "listen with the third ear" (Theodore Reik) and have states of "reverie" (Bion and Thomas Ogden). The analytic patient listens with a third ear as well as he or she learns to go beyond awareness of his/her manifest communications to those of the latent unconscious and preconscious levels. This is how we can "be in the moment" as the workshop participants were in these two special and successful workshops on Psychoanalysis and Argentine Tango.

Vidoetapes of the workshop are available by calling Dr. Susan Kavaler-Adler at (212) 674-5425. Those who wish to purchase her books, or who want information on her mourning therapy group or her writing and creative process group, as well as those who want information on individual therapy, can also contact Susan Kavaler-Adler for information.

Dr. Kavaler-Adler is in private practice in New York City, and has both uptown and downtown offices. She is also the Executive Director of the Object Relations Institute for Psychotheapy and Psychoanalysis, which trains psychotherapists and psychoanalysts. She has a new book coming out this spring through Routledge, entitled: Mourning, Spirituality and Psychic Change.

Ellen Sowchek, M.S., M.A., is a University Archivist at Pace University in New York A long-term student of ballet and ballroom, she has been studying and dancing Argentine Tango for seven years, and frequently flies to Buenos Aires to study with the great masters. She teaches Argentine Tango at the Pierre Dulaine Dance Club, where she hosts both Tuesday night and Thursday night tango salons, and holds classes with prominent Argentine tango teachers

"Dancing through the Minefield" :: Tango in Academia

Fischer, Lucy.
"Dancing through the Minefield": Passion, Pedagogy, Politics, and Production in The Tango Lesson
Cinema Journal - 43, Number 3, Spring 2004, pp. 42-58

University of Texas Press

Lucy Fischer - "Dancing through the Minefield": Passion, Pedagogy, Politics, and Production in The Tango Lesson - Cinema Journal 43:3 Cinema Journal 43.3 (2004) 42-58 "Dancing through the Minefield": Passion, Pedagogy, Politics, and Production in The Tango Lesson Lucy Fischer Abstract This article provides an in-depth analysis of Sally Potter's The Tango Lesson (1997), viewing it as a highly theoretical and pedagogical work of feminist film theory. While creating a modernist narrative concerning her real-life adventures in learning the tango and falling in love with her dance instructor, Potter simultaneously touches on such complex issues as female authorship, sexual representation, the politics of romantic pleasure, the history of the film musical, and the cultural and gendered legacy of ballroom dancing. When Sally Potter came of age as a filmmaker in London in the 1970s, she did so within the force field of two powerful cultural movements: structural film and feminist theory. From the former, she inherited an appreciation for experimental cinema of a conceptual bent, and from the latter, she gained an understanding of the ways in which issues of gender might be integrated into works of art. Her first major film, Thriller (1979), was immediately hailed by E. Ann Kaplan as a groundbreaking "feminist theory film," a work "concerned with demystifying representation so as to make women aware that texts are producers of ideology." Such films were said to...