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 enjoy tango music, yet they could simply listen to it at home. Others say they appreciate the movements, but those 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. Successful, affluent, arrogant, and superficial individuals, for instance, may appreciate 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 have 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 is much more to it. One crucial element is cadencia—the swing of the body. In other words, dancing to music involves not only timing steps but also timing the swings of the body in rhythm with the music. Cadencia is a fundamental technique essential to the dance's fluidity but frequently overlooked.

To learn cadencia, you must first learn to swing your leg. Begin by lifting the hip on the free-leg side until that leg hangs loosely and can dangle freely like a pendulum. Keep the knee and ankle straight so the leg looks long and can swing gracefully. Now, envision that your leg does not start from the hip but from the chest. That is, imagine everything below your chest is 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. That way, not only your leg appears longer, but your entire body also looks tall and elegant.

Swinging the body can be compared to swinging a cudgel with three linked sections: the torso as the first section, the hip as the second, and the leg as the third. Movement begins with the torso, which propels the hip, which in turn drives the leg. In other words, the body’s swing is a chain reaction. Novice dancers often rely on their thighs to move their legs, because their focus is on stepping rather than swinging. Consequently, there is no cadencia. To generate cadencia, you need to use your torso to initiate the swing of your hip and leg. Keep your body tall and resilient to achieve a controlled, pendulum-like swing, avoiding the fluttering motion akin to a soft ribbon.

The swing occurs laterally. Many students overlook this side-to-side motion and instead focus on the vertical action of stepping. To create cadencia, emphasize the body's lateral motion with each step, producing a pulsating rhythm akin to surging waves. Each surge propels the body into a swing, then reverse the process, sending the body into an opposite swing. This rhythmic, wave-like motion—akin to riding a swing—is what cadencia embodies in Spanish.

Cadencia is a collaborative effort that relies on the man’s initiative. Leaders must be aware that whether the follower’s body swings to the music depending, in part, on the lead. Often, the woman fails to step on the beat because her body is led to swing either too little or too much, too slowly or too fast, disrupting 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. Similarly, 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 have matching musicality and balance control to swing together—a skill that does not come naturally and requires adequate training. However, once mastered, the sensation of two connected bodies swinging in sync with the music makes the dance infinitely more enjoyable. (See Cadencia and the Flow of Tango.)

The following video illustrates this technique:

Related videos:

Cadencia - the pendulum effect

Tango close embrace, connection, cadencia