Cadencia

Beginners often think that dancing to music is just about stepping on the beat, but tango demands much more. Cadencia—the rhythmic sway of the body in harmony with the music—is equally essential. As a foundational skill to tango, cadencia shapes the dancer’s expression and fluidity, yet it is frequently overlooked.

To develop cadencia, you must first master the art of swinging your leg. Begin by lifting your hip on the free-leg side until the leg hangs loose, able to move like a pendulum. Keep both the knee and ankle straight so the leg maintains a long, graceful line as it swings. Now, rather than thinking of your leg starting at the hip, visualize it extending from your chest—everything below the chest becomes part of the movement. Since the chest is your connection point with your partner, he can use it as a fixed point to swing your body. This approach not only makes your leg appear longer but also enhances your overall posture, creating a taller, more elegant presence.

Swinging the body is akin to swinging a three-section cudgel, where motion flows seamlessly through linked segments. The movement starts with the torso, which propels the hip and ultimately drives the leg. In essence, cadencia is a chain reaction. Novices often engage their thigh to move the leg, prioritizing the step over the swing—an approach that eliminates true cadencia. To generate cadencia, initiate the movement with your torso, allowing it to naturally propel the hip and leg. Maintain an upright and resilient posture to achieve a controlled, pendulum-like motion, avoiding the flutter of a loose ribbon.

The swing moves laterally, yet many students focus solely on the vertical action of stepping, overlooking the side-to-side motion. To cultivate cadencia, you must direct your attention to the body's lateral movement, generating a pulsating rhythm with each step—akin to the surging of ocean swells. Each surge propels the body into a swing, and as momentum shifts, it reverses into the opposite swing. This continuous, wave-like motion—like gliding back and forth on a playground 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