Asian Performer

 I love oxymorons.


Like cold sweat. Or friendly fire. Or upside down watermelon. Or decaf. Black light. A true falsehood. Deeply superficial. Highly inclined. Clearly confused. Old news. Fake news. Organized chaos. Withheld catharsis. Beautiful disaster. Asian performer.

There's something to be said about how most asians fear persecution and judgement. How centuries of persecution has led the asian mentality to be afraid of showing oneself. Herd mentality is huge, because you survive long enough if you stay in packs. And in herds, everyone takes on a role - the navigator, the logger, the nerd, the clown, the skinny guy, the lame guy, the punny one, the dreamer, the leader. Sure, the role was us, in part, but boxing ourselves into a role and recreating it every time in a social context gets t-i-r-i-n-g.

Tango in Seoul is an amazing cathedral. Everyone works hard on similar salon style techniques. When I dance with a stranger, there is enough of a baseline understanding on technique to get straight to the deliciousness of the dance. It's like exchanging stories and we can do it easily because we all agree on the same movement language, similar sentence structures. There is an agreed beauty that we are all working towards, and our routes are the stories.

Tango in NYC is an incredible piazza. Everyone works hard on different styles. When I dance with a stranger, there is no telling of what embrace she wants. The distance between the bodies differ from the distance between the feet, the lightness of touch can be defied by an immense presence. A heavy head can lead into an ethereal dance. It's like picking up a book from a different library in a different language, and figuring out the lexicon within 12 minutes of a tanda.

How are westerners so good at independence? What is it in western education that leads people to lean into themselves? Why is co-dependence so important for asians? What are the merits of independence and co-dependence that I should separately keep for myself?

Published on
2/6/19 3:58 PM

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