It Takes Two to Tango?
In her TEDx Talk, Chen Lizra talks about the power of seduction in everyday life. To illustrate her point she uses a traditional Cuban dance, the Tango. Tango is more than just a dance. It is a show of power. It is an aggressive parade of dominance, submission, passion, and sexuality. Men and women take turns showing off their best qualities, feigning once coquettishness and then fiercely expressing desire.
The tango is a dance of seduction but also a game. Dancers react to their partner’s moves in such a way that they can extend the dance. This is so they can seduce their partner but also so they will not appear to have been swooned too easily. The dancer’s dilemma then becomes what moves to fire at the partner to maximize dance time and to succeed in seduction.
Traditionally, it is the man who does the “chasing” and the woman the “resisting” but both try and seduce the other by emphasizing certain parts of their bodies or emulating certain actions. I can’t help but think of a scenario of this dance that is improvised and the thoughts that must go through their heads. As a belly dancer myself, a dance that heavily depends on improvisation, I have to make quick decisions in response to a drummer’s thumps. Left hip drop, shimmy shimmy shimmy, drop drop drop. An improvised Tango session takes it a step further because the dancers will have to react to both their partner and the music.
I would imagine there would be many Nash-Equilibria in this game including ones where one partner “loses” and have their feelings spurn. After all, the end game depends on the individuals. The set up of the game is complicated because each player might have a completely different outcome that he/she is aiming for.
This idea could be expanded to any type of dance, with or without partners. The push and pull between music played live and an improvising dancer can be mesmerizing, as both player and dancer respond to each other’s cues. As I think about this, I thank the good drum gods for making belly dance music very easily predictable.
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