In the above, does the word "feeling" relate to emotion? Or to impulses conveyed through physical connection? One hopes all partner dancers value the latter. Otherwise the two partners aren't dancing together.
The problem is “feeling” is a very amorphous label when used by the dancers. That’s not only in restricted tango. In anll kinds of social dances it also gets weaponised to either critic dancers who dance with good technique or to defend dancers who have been dancing for 40 years, with limited vocabulary and poor technique.
“Feeling” can mean (between two partners in in social dancing context):
a. Connection between the couple - sense of connection, either physical or felt otherwise. possibly including emotional (by one or both of the two partners). In AT context this is perhaps what people mostly mean by “feeling”
b. Chemistry, again either physical or otherwise. Physical because both have sufficient skills that align when dancing. Otherwise when the music, the quality of the partner’s skills, or their way of interpretation gives rise to emotional or mental connection for the duration of that one dance.
c. Compatibility of movements: can be physical compatibility that translates to purely mental or intellectual compatibility of how both partners are approaching the dance. Example is listening to the music in the same way.
d. Share philosophy. Can include elements of previous four. It is more about sharing mutual preference for type of dance that both partners want to create. Not only is one of the two not dancing in opposition to other, but they share a preference for dancing in a certain way. Or can adapt themselves to dance in a certain way.
e. Emotional. This will vary across the spectrum which is not surprising. Some people have strong emotional reaction internally, for example to say to the music. Some will be more stoic. Some will only react strongly to certain music only. Other ways that can get emotional response if how the partner feels when in an embrace. You could dance with two different partners, identical in physical attitudes, similar style of embrace (physically), and yet you might feel more emotional reaction to one than the other. Another reason for emotional response or reaction is level of physical attraction. Physical attraction can make the dance or embrace feel better than it really is. Call it an attraction bias.
I don’t think any of above is foreign to any one in partner dancing. Most of this is common to most partner dances. I am excluding the “feelings that get evoked in an outside observer. Another thing in common across partner dancers is that “feelings” can differ between the two partners. For example a beginner dancing with better experienced dancer might have “wonderful” feeling during the dance and in an extreme case the experienced partner might be eagerly waiting for the dance to end.
AT dancers “think” they put more premium on “connection” than rest of the social dancing types. The slow tempo of the music and close embrace amplifies this “feeling” of “connection” (perhaps the physical nature of close embrace and slow tempo music makes hormones fly more easily).
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On the other hand, since most of us are not striving for more than social dancing, comments on choreographed pro dancing with the entire floor for themselves might not be the best way to get something useful out of for our own growth. How about videos of pros dancing socially?
