Why People Dance Tango

The reason we dance tango is deeply tied to the somber side of life. Some people claim they dance tango because they like tango music—yet music can be enjoyed at home. Others say they appreciate the elegance of the movements—but that can be found in other dance forms as well. Some argue they are drawn to the unrestrained nature of tango—but martial arts could provide similar satisfaction. Others highlight the artistic challenges of tango—though ballet arguably sets an even higher standard. If these were the only reasons people danced tango, then tango itself might not exist—because there are countless alternatives.

Tango triumphs for a unique reason. While most dances are created to celebrate life, tango serves a different purpose. It was born from the sorrows of the less fortunate, offering them a refuge. They do not come to the milonga to show off, but to expose their vulnerability and seek solace. Tango allows them to dance through their loneliness, homesickness, nostalgia, and grief. It offers a shoulder to lean on, a sanctuary for their wounds, a way to quench their thirst for love, and a chance to touch and be touched by another human being.

These are ordinary people—poor individuals, immigrants, construction workers, waiters, waitresses, shop assistants, maids, and taxi drivers. They may lack splendor in appearance, but you feel their authenticity when you dance with them. Their embrace is warm and consoling, their feelings sincere and profound, their hearts sensitive and compassionate, their movements raw and infectious, and their dance sentimental and affectionate. Tango is their catharsis of suffering, agony, yearning, and hope. Its intimate, soulful, sensual, and comforting nature reflects and fulfills their deep, innate human needs. This is the tango still danced in less affluent societies like Argentina and Uruguay.

Not everyone shares these needs, of course. The successful, the affluent, the arrogant, the superficial—they may admire the beauty of tango but fail to embrace its deeper purpose. Instead, they use tango to celebrate their lives, glorify their successes, flaunt their style, display their egos, and boast of their superiority. The traditional tango is too modest for them, so they make changes—opening up the embrace, inventing fancy steps, incorporating ostentatious tricks, and using exotic music. As a result, they created a showy version of tango that looks flashy but feels hollow. This kind of tango has now become the trend in opulent societies like ours.

Tango has weathered many challenges in the past, and it will survive this one as well, I believe. Needs, desires, yearnings, loneliness, love, interdependence, tenderness, sentimentality, and romanticism are intrinsic to human nature, even among the toughest individuals. The less fortunate people are particularly vulnerable, which is why they created tango. This may also explain why milongas are more crowded during difficult times than in prosperous ones, why more women dance tango than men, and why the revival of tango happens now when there are more travelers, immigrants and refugees in the world than ever before.

Tango will always be the dance of the lonely, homesick, nostalgic, needy, vulnerable, sentimental, and romantic. Fortunate people need tango too, provided they are not blinded by their success and arrogance. After all, we are human, and tango is for everyone who seeks to reconnect with their humanity.

Cadencia

Beginners often assume that dancing to music simply means stepping on the beat, but there’s much more to it. Cadencia—the swaying of the body to the music—is also an important part. Cadencia is one of the foundational skills essential to tango, yet it is frequently overlooked.

To learn to do cadencia, you must first learn to swing your leg. Begin by lifting the hip on the side of your free leg until the leg hangs loose, able to dangle like a pendulum. Keep both the knee and ankle straight so the leg appears long and can swing gracefully. Now, imagine that your leg does not start at the hip but at the chest, that is, visualize everything below your chest as part of your leg. Since the chest is the point of connection with your partner, it can serve as a fixed point to swing everything below as a whole. This not only makes your leg look longer but also gives your entire body a taller, more elegant appearance.

Swinging the body resembles swinging a three-sectioned cudgel. Movement begins with the torso, which propels the hip, and finally drives the leg. In other words, cadencia is a chain reaction. Novices often move their legs from the thigh alone, focusing narrowly on stepping. As a result, there is no cadencia. To produce cadencia, you must initiate the movement with your torso, which in turn swings the hip and leg. Keep your body upright and resilient to achieve a controlled, pendulum-like swing, rather than a fluttering motion like a loose ribbon.

Importantly, the swing is lateral. Many students mistakenly focus on vertical stepping and neglect the crucial side-to-side movement. To create cadencia, concentrate on the body's lateral motion, producing a pulsating rhythm with each step, much like the surging of ocean swells. Each surge propels the body into a swing, and the momentum then reverses, sending the body into the opposite swing. This rhythmic, wave-like motion—like riding a swing—is what cadencia feels like.

Cadencia is a collaborative effort, initiated by the man. Whether the follower’s body swings in time with the music depends partly on the lead. Often, the woman fails to step on the beat because her body is led into swinging too little or too much, too slowly or too quickly, preventing her foot from landing naturally on the beat. An experienced man generates just the right amount of swing to ensure the woman’s foot lands exactly on the beat. Likewise, a skilled woman times the swing of her body to the music as well. She does her part to complement the lead.

While cadencia is used in both social tango and performance tango, it is primarily a social tango technique, designed to enhance the sensual pleasure of the dance rather than creating a visual impression. Both partners must possess matching musicality and balance control to swing together—a skill that requires adequate training. Yet once mastered, the sensation of two connected bodies swinging in perfect harmony with the music transforms the dance into something infinitely more pleasurable. (See Cadencia and the Flow of Tango.)

The following video illustrates this technique:

Related videos:

Cadencia - the pendulum effect

Tango close embrace, connection, cadencia