Creative writing

Creative Writing Tackling The Tango Eileen Casey discovers ‘a must for poetry lovers and lovers of tango’

...‘and out they went, cheek to cheek as though swept along by the swirling tide of the tango, as though they’d got lost in the tango’ Jorge Luis Borges (The Man on the Pink Corner)

When poet and writer Liz McSkeane relocated from Scotland to Ireland in 1981, it wasn’t long before she found her way into Dublin’s literary circles. Born of mixed heritage (Glasgow father, Dublin mother), she didn’t begin to write poetry until she came to Ireland, working initially as a teacher of languages before moving into curriculum development and freelancing. ‘Writing was – and is – a very normal thing to do in her adopted city. Much less so in Scotland at that time,’ though she thinks it might have changed now.

How might she define a good poem? The question brings a smile, ‘I wouldn’t even try! But I think I know it when I see it’. Her poem ‘Sculpture, Botanic Gardens’ which features in her second collection Snow at the Opera House (New Island, 2001) expresses something of her thoughts about what poetry and art, is. ‘I wrote it after seeing one of the first sculptures they started to put up in the Botanic Gardens in Dublin. It was a kind of a tripod, tepee-like construction.’ After reading the poem, her explanation makes perfect sense; ...‘I love the skewedness/of it/and the slap-dash harmony/that mixes permissiveness and care/in just the right amounts; enough attention/to give it shape and make it hold its centre/but not too much, no search for perfection/or even symmetry in it, but freedom/to grow to itself, from its own wisdom.’

‘Sculpture, Botanic Gardens’ and a second poem ‘Water Lilies, Botanic Gardens,’ won McSkeane a Hennessy/Sunday Tribune New Writer Award in 1999. No mean feat for a writer whose biggest obstacle, by her own admission, is getting started. ‘Someone once suggested telling myself that I was going to do just 15 minutes’ work, then I could go back to whatever I really wanted to do. I almost always find that when I am actually sitting down and writing, it just goes on and the morning has gone’. Her first novel Canticle was one of the 2016 winners of the Irish Writers’ Centre/Greenbean Novel Fair Competition. Based on the life of the Spanish mystic and poet, St John of the Cross, it was published in 2018. Readers of that very intriguing work will be glad to know that a second historical novel, now in its final stages of completion, will be published early in 2022. A big fan of detective fiction and spy novels, one of her favourite writers is John Le Carré. She’s currently reading Music for the Dead and Resurrected by Valzhayna Mort, a poet from Belarus. ‘It’s

a searing indictment of life under an authoritarian regime and beautiful crafted, engaged poetry.’

Which brings me to McSkeane’s recently published Learning to Tango, also beautifully crafted, using the tango dance as a foundation for poetic form. ‘Tango is magical. I find the music very moving, it makes me want to get up and dance! The dance itself is very technical, quite difficult, for me at least, and so a big challenge.’ We are all familiar with Strictly Come Dancing. Tango is consistently one of its most popular forms. Who could ever forget Debbie McGee’s tango action? Indeed, tango discipline is a blueprint for enlightened mind, body, spirit. However, I’m soon to learn that the real tango - Argentine tango – ‘isn’t really like the dance you see in Strictly, although there are common elements. That is ballroom tango, which is quite different and of course, when you see Debbie and the rest tripping the light fantango, those dances are choreographed with care and are flamboyant. Real life tango is improvised – as are salsa and swing, i.e. the leader determines the moves and the follower – well – follows.’ There’s no doubting the philosophical aspect, surely? ‘I can step or turn/on one foot but please, not both/at the same time. Choose’ (‘Tango Plea’, Learning to Tango). McSkeane describes ‘Tango Plea’ as a ‘tongue-in-cheek plea from a follower, begging the leader not to ask for the impossible;(you can’t take a step and turn at the same time, but sometimes inexperienced leaders try to lead that, which can make you fall over!).’ Is there a lesson for life in there? Yes. ‘Something about keeping expectations reasonable and realistic, if you want results’.

So where did it all begin and how did such a vivid collection emerge as a result? She tells me that she ‘stumbled into tango by accident. About 12 years ago, a friend asked me to accompany her to a class. She dropped out and I stayed, which is really surprising, as I was never any good at dancing, or sport, or anything like that.’ So how then did she fall in love with tango?

‘Interestingly, some of the flashy things you see dancers doing are less difficult than the simple things – like walking. The walk is a very important basis of tango, requiring balance, correct posture, timing, smooth change of weight from one foot to the other – and more! In a poem titled ‘the walk’ the lines ‘in tango the walk is simple/and therefore, takes a lifetime to learn’; is one which continues to resonate. Another poem describes, almost in slow motion, the movement of the dance; ‘draws strength from the earth/to power the standing leg/which propels the free/foot forward back to the side/in the beginning, the end’ (‘The Tango Step’). I can’t help wondering if this vibrant woman’s ability to explore dance in writing, must surely mean that music is a constant in her soul? That she must feel most alive when dancing?

‘I wouldn’t say I am very musical in an active way but maybe I have a feel for it that tango brought out. I play the guitar a very little bit. I’d love to learn the piano and have started but I never learned as a child and I can’t read music. I’ve always loved to listen though, to classical music and opera. Tango music is a new discovery for me.’ Did she dance at home during lockdown? Or has writing the poems kept her attuned and connected? Could she continue to hear the music in her head? ‘Unfortunately, the lockdown put paid to tango. At milongas (tango dances) and in classes, people often switch partners which is obviously completely impossible in this era of the pandemic. I can’t see tango starting up again until this pandemic is completely under control.’ One thing for sure though is that a dance that began in 1880 in dance halls and perhaps brothels in the lower class districts of Buenos Aires is not going to disappear no matter what pandemic. Once passion for tango bites, it won’t let go, especially the Buenos Aires version, where the Spanish tango, a light spirited variety of flamenco, merges with the milonga, a fast sensual and disreputable Argentine dance.

Learning to Tango carries a lovely quote in McSkeane’s acknowledgements about tango being part of the ‘intangible cultural heritage’ of humanity’. ‘UNESCO have a designation that recognises a cultural heritage which isn’t tangible, in the way that painting or a building or a book is. There is a Dept. of Foreign Affairs document which explains this, and here is a quote from it “Intangible cultural heritage ‘refers to the practices, representations, expressions, knowledge, skills – as well as the instruments, objects, artefacts and cultural spaces associated therewith – that communities, groups and, in some cases, individuals recognize as part of their cultural heritage.’

Naturally, for a busy, working writer and publisher, McSkeane’s involvement with tango has not been continuous. ‘After an intense first two and a half years, when I went to classes and milongas several times a week (like sport or a musical instrument, you need to keep practising), I had to give it up for a while’. After all, she was completing Canticle and it’s not possible to write and dance at the same time. ‘It took up too much emotional energy. Since then, I’ve been dancing on and off and during COVID, not at all. Though I still listen to tango music and sometimes do a few exercises.’ Which brings us full circle to McSkeane’s writing, a constant in

her life. Learning to Tango is a must for poetry lovers and lovers of tango. It’s quite remarkable how McSkeane delivers a Master Class in both forms. Not only can readers engage with the dance but also, the poems are a visual pleasure, using shape in interesting and flamboyant ways. The symbiotic relationship between the two is clearly evident. Tango has been good to her, gifting her a sequence of poems that are a delight on many levels. I ask if there are any rituals around the act of writing, a particular process in terms of time and place? ‘No rituals though I do tend to write in the morning. I can write anywhere really. I have a designated work space – my study – but I often find myself writing in the kitchen”. I ask if she’s a splurge writer or an everyday writer. She’s a bit of both as it turns out.

‘I have long stretches of time when I write every day, especially when I’m immersed in a novel or pulling a collection of poetry together. Then I tend to have a break, to explore other ideas and let the well fill up again.” Where does she get her best ideas? “When I’m not looking!. Anywhere. From life, from things I hear or read in the paper, or things that happen to me or others’.

One of McSkeane’s favourite quotes about life is taken from a poem by ‘Traveller, there is no road. We make the road by walking. When asked about growing older, she quotes Michael Caine (what he’s supposed to have said!), ‘it’s better than the alternative.’ When she was young she lost a couple of close family members, one of them around her own age. At that time ‘I promised myself that if I lived to be middle aged, or even old, I would remind myself how little time they got and be grateful to be still here. And I always have.’ Her beloved mother passed away last year, aged 92 so there’s a longevity gene in her bloodline for sure. It’s unlikely McSkeane’s creative energy will run out of steam anytime soon. In 2017 she started Turas Press. So Long Calypso, her third collection of poetry (first collection, In Flight published by Lapwing) was scheduled for publication a few years before that by Seven Towers Press. Unfortunately, the publisher and a great supporter of poetry, Sarah Lundburg died tragically. ‘I put the book away and more or less abandoned it. After about two years I decided to honour the book and Sarah’s intention so I set up Turas Press, to publish by own work’. ‘Turas’ in both Scottish Gaelic and Irish, means ‘journey’. Today, the press is thriving. 14 books by 11 writers, two more scheduled for 2021. In The Dark, a Spanish Civil War novel by Dubliner Anamaria Crowe Serrano, is due out this summer and is a stunner.”

Learning to Tango, is a poetry collection that takes me out onto the dance floor and leaves me feeling exhilarated, thanks to its balance of passion and grace. Evidenced in gorgeous lines such as ‘And now, nothing left but to change your shoes,/a little sad that it ended so soon,/ not greedy, though, just thankful for the chance/of one perfect tanda, stumbling home on loose/cobblestones, under this tango moon.’ (from ‘The Perfect Tanda’, Learning to Tango, Turas Press).

Learning to Tango by Liz McSkeane is available directly from Turas, link below or from good bookshops.

turaspress.ie/portfolio/poets-and-novelists

Choreographed Argentine Tango listed below:Geraldine Rojas and Ezequial Paludi: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GhuRLqiNm-o&list=PLbEqLwPitL-Yx4OCacomhMc7LYHl-zC_8&index=3

Sebastian Arce and Mariana Montes https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKxq-w-Tgg4&list=PLbEqLwPitL-Yx4OCacomhMc7LYHl-zC_8&index=4

Chicho Frumboli and Juana Sepulveda; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Art0OVpLkXQ&list=PLbEqLwPitL-Yx4OCacomhMc7LYHl-zC_8&index=5

María Inés Bogado and Sebastián Jiménez: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HbOR3e389Yk

Ireland---UNESCO-Intangible-Cultural-Heritage.pdf” Ireland has currently three inscriptions on the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage List: Uilleann Piping, Hurling and Harping”. In 2009, UNESCO designated tango as part of the “Intangible cultural heritage of humanity” https://www.unesco.org/archives/multimedia/document-319