Tango Zen: Walking Dance Meditation (Paperback)

by Chan Park (Author) "Tango is a social dance originated from the streets and salons of Buenos Aires, Argentina..." (more)
Key Phrases: right posture, Tango Zen, Dan Tien

Product Details

• Paperback: 87 pages
• Publisher: Tango Zen House (January 30, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0975963007
• ISBN-13: 978-0975963005
• Product Dimensions: 5 x 4.9 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #510,566 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Wish It Had Been More, January 3, 2007

By	William E. Limbach (Pocatello, ID United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

"Tango Zen is an innovative yet natural way of meditating while dancing Tango..." Chan Park, p 9. I mistakenly thought the book was about Tango. - I had hoped it might give me some insight or means to finding that elusive communication between dancers. I should have read the fine print before buying: 87 pages, 5" X 5".

What you get is an attractive small book, very nicely laid out, with 17 B&W full page head-shots of couples with eyes closed in embrace and 24 pages of quotes on Zen, Dance and other topics (the kind of quotes that make nice signature tag-lines). Tango Zen Exercises begin on page 69. The exercise are comprised of instruction and photos: 1 paragraph on Warm Up, 2 pages on Individual Standing, 3 pages on Stretching, 3 pages on Individual Walking, 2 pages on Couple Standing and 2 pages on Couple Walking.

That's it.

My advice is to take one of Mr. Park's live workshops on Tango Zen - the book might have more value for you then, it has little value to me now. But then it was only $10.

4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A wonderful idea and a great little book!, December 10, 2004

By	Pyotr Rusakova "writer" (Washington, DC, USA) - See all my reviews

Tango is hot! If there aren't tango dances or classes taking place in your town now, get ready: they will be there soon! The tango is on MTV, in new movies, and young people worldwide are discovering that it is the best way to have fun, meet people, and be incredibly beautiful and sexy all at once!

So who knew that you could combine the tango with meditation? It seems that not only can you do so, but even Buddha himself practiced meditation while walking. Zen meditation can be practiced in more active ways than the sitting posture. Chan Park says "One can meditate while dancing Tango, experiencing deeper appreciation of physical, emotional, and even spiritual aspects of inner-self." You know those books that offer a new idea whose time has come? This may well be one of them. Tango zen is such a beautiful concept that it is bound to catch on.

This book includes a bit on Zen philosophy as well as well-illustrated exercises which should help any beginner to get started. It is a small book, but it contains all you need to learn this fascinating new meditation/dance technique - and the book can be easily held in the hand while learning to do the exercises. It does not attempt to give extensive instruction on all tango moves.

Anyone can benefit from this technique, and Chan Park's book is highly recommended. Personally, I would be very happy to see our parks full of people doing tango meditation together! What a civilized sight that would be!

2.0 out of 5 stars too much for so little, July 18, 2008

By	D. Robbins "Tango Diva" (North Coast of Calif.) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

For the cost of this book plus shipping, I didn't feel I got value. Also, some of his instruction for the particulars of tango is very different than instruction I've received from many teachers from Bueno Aires where Argentine Tango originated.