Dissociation and Gear Effect

The woman must put her weight on the ball of her foot in order to pivot as if on a fixed pin. But she does not pivot her whole body, she only pivots her lower body from the waist down. The waist is like the swivel that joins the upper body and the lower body. Since her torso is attached to his torso in the embrace, she needs to swivel her lower body sideways in order to dance around him. This technique is known as dissociation.

An experienced woman knows that a subtle twist of her torso by the man indicates and must result in a big rotation of her lower body. The man leads her by turning her torso slightly in the direction he wants her to move. On receiving the signal, she needs to swivel her hips and pivot her lower body in that direction. In this twisted posture she can place her right leg on his right, or her left leg on his left, while her torso remain attached to his torso in close embrace. The rotation of her hips needs not to be huge. In most cases a 45° rotation of the hips will enable her to step to his side. In some cases, such as in molinete, gancho and back sacada, a greater rotation of the hips is required.

It is worth noting that dissociation is different from contra-body movement or CBM. CBM is turning the right side of the body towards a left moving leg or turning the left side of the body towards a right moving leg. But dissociation is turning the upper body without turning the lower body, or turning the lower body without turning the upper body. Both are forms of dissociation. The former is not difficult to do, but the latter is hard and needs a lot of practice to master. When you practice disociation in front of a mirror, you should keep your torso facing the mirror still and swivel only your hips. You should not cheat by turning the torso instead of swiveling the hips.

A typical figure using dissociation is the front ocho, in which the woman draws an S on the floor with one leg, then draws another S on the floor with the other leg. The two S's are overlapped in the opposite directions, so they look like the figure 8. To dance the 8, she first swivels her hips and make a forward step to one side of the man. While her weight is shifted to the acting leg, she swivels her hips again and makes another forward step in the opposite direction. She then swivels her hips back to face him. Another similar figure using this technique is the back ocho, wherein she dances the 8 backward. She first swivels her hips and make a backward step to one side of him, then swivels her hips and make another backward step to the other side of him. If she is able to over rotate her hips, she can move forward by doing the back ocho and move backward by doing the front ocho. A third example using dissociation is the molinete, a figure in which the woman revolves around the man who serves as the anchor for her rotation. In all these examples the woman keeps her torso attached to the man's torso and rotates only her hips side to side. The technique suits the flexible body of the woman and highlights her feminine beauty, as she continuously turns her hips while her torso remains parallel to his torso.

The rotation of her hips will cause her chest to roll side to side on his chest, generating a pleasant sensation know as the gear effect. The chest is the center of her attention through which everything, including intention, music interpretation, feeling and flirtation, is expressed and exchanged. The woman should not glue her torso to the man's torso but should let it roll while her hips are swiveling. With each swivel of the hips her chest rolls to one side on his torso. As she swivels her hips in the opposite drection, her chest rolls to the other side on his torso.

The rolling of the chest must not be so conspicuous and abrupt as to cause discomfort. In most cases it is just a smooth transfer of weight from one breast to the other breast. She needs to make the transfer gentle, musical and comfortable. A novice woman who can't do dissociation either turns her whole body, causing the rupture of the embrace, or just crosses her legs without swiveling her hips, so her chest sticks to his torso and does not trundle. Tango is a dance in which the dancers interact and please each other with their bodies. An experienced woman knows how to use her body to comfort her partner, just like an experienced man knows how to display her feminine beauty (see Revealing her Beauty in Tango). Gear effect increases the sensual pleasure of the dance - a feature of the close-embrace tango that is missing in the open-embrace style. It is one of the things that make the two styles fundamentally different.