Last night at my virtual writers’ group meeting, one of the prompts was, “What is the thing I missed most during the pandemia, and what will it be like when I get it back?”

I thought you might enjoy reading what I wrote, so here it is.

This is a no brainer—it’s tango! And not just the dance, but everything that goes with it: weekly lessons with my lovely teacher, the constant quest for new shoes and clothes, and finally —the milonga! Sitting on the bus on the way there, feeling as nervous and excited as a teenager on a first date. Will I get dances, or will I be sitting with a fixed smile on my face waiting for the cabeceo, that invitation with the eyes from across a crowded floor?

In the early days I used to get so worked up about all this that I would almost get off the bus and go home. But now I understand the game and how it works, which means I do get more dances and, I think even more importantly, I know I can still enjoy the evening even when I don’t.

So I can’t wait till tango is back in my life.

But I’ve spoken to two people recently who were worried they might have lost it. Maybe they’ve lost the tango rhythm and might keep missing the beat—a cardinal sin in the world of the milonga.

The way I see it is that everybody has been away for the same length of time, and I’m sure there will be a certain amount of stumbling around. But my teacher once told me that when I stopped thinking and started feeling, that’s when I became a tanguera. So that’s going to be my strategy for returning to tango: don’t think, just feel.

Be still my heart!