Tango - At the feet of a master
By DelMio Editor
March 18th, 2008 | Leave a comment
Potts the author is very approachable. Potts the doctor is less so. I don’t mean that she’s cold or hard to know or anything like that. She’s very good at what she does, and as such is in high demand. She travels internationally for various professional and dance-related functions, and can be hard to pin down for an interview and dance demonstration.
But, thanks to her connections with a private club (http://www.clubhillbrook.com/) near Cleveland, we were finally able to record a demonstration of her dancing with her friend David Palmer. (I keep calling it a demonstration because Potts is quick to point out that she doesn’t teach tango or give lessons.)
In the low-ceilinged room the day after Christmas, Potts and Palmer danced up a storm while Dave Wilson, DelMio.com’s editorial director, and I watched. Dave and I were rapt as the couple spun across the floor, sweeping their legs out and up and over each other. Potts completely left the ground several times, and Palmer was no slouch himself.
But what was so amazing about the dance is that the two were so focused on each other and the music. Dave and I and the club and everything else seemed to drop away
Before I drove the club to meet with everyone, I e-mailed Potts some questions. I got an out-of-office reply that said, effective 2008, she wouldn’t respond to e-mails after office hours and she was canceling her BlackBerry service. I asked her about it after the dance demonstration, and she said it was because she wanted to be less connected.
Having it didn’t make me a better doctor, she said. It just made me good at checking my e-mail.
Much of Tango (and tango) is about focusing on the present and appreciating it for what it is, even if it isn’t perfect. It likely won’t ever be. But that doesn’t mean you can have a great dance just the same.
