Tango Embrace

Tango can be danced in a variety of ways. For example, it can be danced in a "virtual embrace," in which two partners dance around each other at a distance, without physical contact. The man leads with visual signals from his torso to indicate movements, while the women interprets these cues to execute each step. A visual lead is difficult to perceive because it cannot be felt and must be seen. The differences between different signals often are so subtle that they are difficult to discern with the eye. It's quite a challenge for the man to send a clear visual signal and for the woman to apprehend it. Also, a virtual embrace lacks the physicality, sensation and comfort of a physical embrace and limits movements that require physical support. Despite these, the virtual embrace highlights an essential distinction between leading and following: one is ploting the dance, and the other is beautifying the dance. It also underscores that leading and following are not only physical processes but also psychological, requiring mental focus and understanding. This awareness is crucial, as we cannot dance well with our feet unless we also dance with our hearts.

Tango can also be danced in an open hold, similar to that in ballroom dancing, where the dancers connect only through their arms and hands, without torso contact. Arms and hands are extensions of the body, so even without direct bodily contact, dancers can still sense each other’s intentions through these points of connection. The open hold, also known by its fine-sounding name “open embrace,” provides more space for dancers to maneuver, making it popular among movement-oriented dancers who enjoy performing elaborate figures. It is arguable, however, that in open embrace dancers still lead and follow with their torsos as they theoretically should. In reality, the absence of direct torso contact often leads dancers to rely on their arms and hands for signaling, which is not as seamless as leading and following with torsos. Also, the open embrace lacks the intimacy, comfort, and soulful quality of the close embrace.

Tango can also be danced using only torso communication, without the use of arms and hands. This torso communication is unique to Argentine tango, making it an intimate, feeling-oriented dance distinct from other dance forms. However, beginners who lack training and feel shy about intimacy often adhere to the habit of relying on their limbs. To help them overcome this habit, tango teachers may ask students to dance completely without using their arms and hands, relying solely on their torsos to send and receive signals. Some teachers even place a piece of paper between the students' chests, instructing them not to let it fall as they dance. While people don’t actually dance tango this way, the skills developed through this training provide students with a solid foundation for the dance.

The most comfortable and communicative embrace is the close embrace, in which partners lean into each other, chest to chest, with their faces touching. His left hand and her right hand hold at shoulder height, his right arm wraps around her body, and her left arm hooks over his right shoulder. The close embrace provides the most intimate connection and effective communication, making it favored by feeling-oriented dancers who enjoy the intimate, cozy, and soulful interactions between partners more than gymnastic movements.

Beginners may find close embrace hinders their movements, but that is only because they are novices. Dancing in close embrace requires techniques different from those used in open embrace tango, such as dancing in a compact way, using small, simple, rhythmic and synchronized steps, the command on dissociation, the mastery of cadencia, the ability to do spot dancing, the knack in floorcraft on a crowded dance floor, the focus on feelings rather than steps, and the emphasis on the elegance rather than flaunt of the movements, ect.

Experienced dancers may also use some variations of close embrace to increase movement possibilities. One variation is the V-shaped embrace in which the two partners are connected with one side of their torsos and leave the other side open. Another is increasing the lean of the body to allow more space between their legs. The combination of the two is yet another option. These variations require more flexibility and stamina of the body, and are less comfortable than the standard close embrace. In actual dancing the embrace often varies. For example, when dancing ocho the woman may alternate from one side V-shaped connection to a chest-to-chest connection to another side V-shaped connection.

The choice of embrace dependends on many factors, including physical conditions (flexibility and stamina of the body), dance styles (movement-oriented or feeling-oriented), purposes (social dancing or performance), environment (floor density and milonga codes), music (fast or slow tempo), movements (fancy or simple, large or small steps), maturity (age and experience), and genres (tango, vals or milonga). Every embrace has its merits and limits. In the milonguero style of tango, close embrace is used to facilitate the communication of feelings. In the Villa Urquiza style of tango, a loose embrace is used to ease fancy footwork. In stage tango, open embrace is used to deliver intricate performance (see Three Theories on Leading).

The close embrace earned tango a reputation as the "dance of the brothel" and led to its rejection by "polite society." The emergence of the open-embrace style contributed to the spread of tango. Some young generation dancers saw an opportunity for more elaborate performance in the open-embrace style and launched the tango Nuevo movement, which gained particular momentum outside Argentina, where intimacy between the sexes is often culturally discouraged. As tango moved in this direction, it began to lose its original feel. Gymnastic tendencies, antisocial behavior, breaking of the embrace, adoption of non-tango elements, shifts in gender roles, alternative music, same-sex partnerships, and other efforts to reform the dance emerged in succession, transforming tango into a hybrid form. The old guard in tango's homeland, the Argentine milongueros, strongly defend its roots. Their style of tango, known as the milonguero style, danced in close embrace, remains the dominant style in Buenos Aires today. Still, the battle between traditionalists and reformers continues. (See The Fourteenth Pitfall of a Tanguera.)