Tango is not only a fascinating dance but also a fascinating philosophy, culture and lifestyle. The search of tango is the search of connection, love, fellowship, unity, harmony and beauty, i.e., an idealism that is not consistent with the dehumanizing reality of the modern world. The world divides us into individuals, but tango unites us into a team. In tango we are not individualists, feminists, nationalists, Democrats, Republicans, etc., but interconnected and interdependent members of the human family. Tango calls us to tear down the walls, to build bridges, and to regain humanity through altruism, connection, cooperation, accommodation, and compromise. It is a dance that teaches the world to love.



May 25, 2014

The Functions of Various Body Parts in Tango


Various body parts, including the head, arms, hands, torso, hips, and legs, play distinct roles in tango. Tango dancers must understand the specific functions of these body parts and assign appropriate attention to use them in a controlled and coordinated manner. Incorrect use of body parts is a common issue in tango.

In close embrace, the woman may rest her head on the man's temple, cheek, or chin, depending on her height. She may also choose not to touch the man's head; however, if she does, the touch must be comfortable. Some women position their heads against the man's to prevent their breasts from touching his chest. Beginners often rely on the head for support when executing steps. Such practices indicate a misunderstanding of the head's function. The touch of the head signifies intimacy and must remain gentle. Dancers should dissociate the head from the body, ensuring it is neither used to avoid chest contact nor to assist body movements, as both actions create discomfort.

The functions of the arms and hands are more complex. They can be used to hold the partner, forming an intimate embrace or dance frame, as well as to support, protect, and comfort the partner. These are the proper uses of the arms and hands. However, arms and hands can also be misused. For instance, some dancers use them to coerce or resist the partner, push the partner away to avoid intimacy, hold onto the partner for balance and stability, grab the partner to assist body movement, or wrestle with the partner. Such actions represent a misunderstanding of their function. Beginners must overcome the habit of relying on their arms and hands in these ways. Tango is led and followed through the torso. Arms and hands should be used solely to create a comfortable embrace, not as tools for leading or following, maintaining balance, distancing oneself from the partner, or assisting body movement, let alone resisting or fighting with the partner. The touch of the arms and hands should be gentle and weightless. Dancers must dissociate their arms and hands from their body, ensuring they are not used as weapons or movement aids.

The torso serves as the command center in tango dancing. Tango partners use their torsos to communicate intentions, emotions, and feelings, as well as to bring out the movements of their lower bodies. The intimate and feeling-oriented nature of tango stems primarily from the central role of the torso. Unfortunately, this role is often overlooked by action-oriented dancers who replace the embrace with an open dance hold, relegating the torso to a subordinate role under the control of the arms and hands. As a result, they transform tango from a feeling-driven dance into a movement-focused one.

In a previous post, I quoted a young woman's insightful observation on tango (see The Fourteenth Pitffall of a Tangura). What she referred to as the first-layer technique—maintaining a comfortable embrace—and the second-layer technique—pursuing visual beauty—essentially correspond to the functions of the torso and the legs, respectively. In tango, the torso remains relatively still within the embrace, while the movements of the legs are brisk and expressive. If the torso is associated with feelings, the legs symbolize beauty. A good tango strikes the perfect balance between the two.

Formalist dancers focus solely on appearance and neglect feelings. They treat the torso as merely another limb used to create elaborate movements, dictated by the arms and hands. However, prioritizing visual impression at the expense of intimacy and the comfort of the embrace is not worthwhile. Throughout its evolution—from tango milonguero to tango Villa Urquiza, to tango fantasia, and finally to tango Nuevo—the alienation of tango has clearly followed an aesthetic trajectory, moving further and further away from the embrace and its associated feelings (see The Styles of Tango). I do not believe this direction is worth advocating. I hold that achieving both the comfort of the embrace and the beauty of the footwork is entirely possible. One does not need to sacrifice the embrace in pursuit of beauty. Many beautiful tangos danced by outstanding tango dancers, such as the Poema danced by Javier Rodrigues and Geraldine Rojas, and many danced by Carlotos Espinoza and Noelia Hurtado and Agustina Piggio, exemplify this harmony.








These dancers achieve such a high level of excellence because they are skilled in using their hips, which act as the swivel connecting the upper and lower body. Since their torsos remain connected in the embrace, they must rotate their hips to move their legs around each other. In tango terms, this technique is called dissociation. Skilled tango dancers can rotate their hips to a greater degree, enabling them to step freely around each other without breaking the embrace. Dissociation is not only a physical separation but also an artistic division of labor, allowing the upper body to maintain the comfort of the embrace while the lower body expresses maximum creativity.

In contrast, the novice’s body is often not flexible enough to dissociate freely. As a result, instead of using their torsos to lead and follow, an inexperienced man tends to lead with his arms and hands, while an inexperienced woman often turns her whole body instead of swiveling her hips. They grip each other with their arms and hands to help themselves with the movements, which disrupts the embrace and creates incoherence in the dance. You may call it by its polished label "open embrace," but the underlying reason is an inability to dance in close embrace, leading to reliance on an artificial substitute. However, this form of "cheating" comes at a price—it may deceive others, but not the dancers themselves. Professional dancers use open embrace on stage to perform for an audience, not for personal enjoyment. They accept this trade-off as part of their work. Yet, when they attend a milonga, they return to dancing in close embrace (see Social Tango and Performance Tango). Novices who envy the glamour of stage performances often imitate them blindly in milongas without even can embrace well. Such crude imitation only serves to make them appear foolish.

To sum up, when dancing tango, the head, arms, and hands should remain completely relaxed and not interfere with the body's movements. The function of the torso is to communicate intentions and feelings through direct physical contact while guiding the movements of the lower body. The legs are responsible for creating tango's beautiful footwork. The key to maximizing the beauty of the footwork while preserving the comfort of the embrace lies in the swivel of the hips. Learning tango is not primarily about memorizing steps but about mastering the control, coordination, and proper use of various parts of the body. Overemphasizing movements while neglecting feelings leads to the misuse of body parts in tango.





May 17, 2014

The Fourteenth Pitfall of a Tanguera


Fish is the primary ingredient of a fish dish. Other ingredients, such as garlic and onion, are dispensable. Short of the latter, fish is still fish, but without the former, the dish would be unworthy of the title.

The same applies to tango. Among the many elements that make up tango, some define the basic characteristics of the dance, without which tango cannot make itself. Others are less essential, causing no harm whether they are a bit more or a bit less. We often see tangueras turn their tango into something neither fish nor fowl, because in it the subsidiaries superseded the primary.

So, what is the primary ingredient of tango? Beginners often think it’s the steps. They are mistaken. Like garlic and onion, steps are subsidiary. The key ingredient of tango is the embrace, which defines the basic characteristics of the dance. You are dancing tango if, and only if, you dance in a tango embrace, whether you use five steps or fifty.

By "embrace," I do not mean the open dance hold. Tango, often referred to as the dance of love, evolved from the real embrace, where the couple intimately leans into each other—chest against chest, cheek touching cheek, and arms firmly encircling one another. Lovers do not mimic a hug without truly touching each other's bodies. A feigned embrace may resemble the real thing, but the dancers themselves feel the difference. Professional performers use an open dance hold on stage to facilitate their movements and entertain the audience. However, social dancers do not tango for that purpose. They tango to savor the connection and intimacy for their own pleasure, which is why they use the real embrace. This is the fundamental distinction between tango and all show dances, including stage tango. (See Social Tango and Performance Tango.)

Other dissimilarities all stem from this fundamental difference. For instance, unlike other dances, where the dancers rely on their arms and hands to exchange information, tango communication occurs through the direct connection of the torso. The torso, being a highly sensitive organ, is more receptive to subtle cues and emotions than the arms and hands. By using their torsos to lead and follow, tango dancers can achieve a deeper understanding and greater synchronization.

Tango's distinct movements are closely tied to the embrace. Since the torsos of the partners remain connected in the embrace, tango dancers must swivel their hips to move around each other. This technique, known as dissociation, forms the foundation of most tango steps, making tango particularly effective at showcasing the feminine beauty of a woman's pliable body (see Dancing with Hips).

The intimate embrace places significant emphasis on feelings, making tango a feeling-oriented dance. Although formalist dancers have made persistent efforts to emphasize the visual appeal of tango, the style they created fails to satisfy the deeply rooted human needs for connection, intimacy, love, and emotional communication. These needs can only be fulfilled through a genuine embrace.

A young woman described the importance of the embrace in this way: "From the perspective of a girl, I think tango has two layers. The first layer, which is also the core layer, is to maintain a comfortable embrace with your partner and allow him to feel your absolute obedience and your sufficient control over yourself. If you can do that, you will be able to survive the milonga even if you can only dance ballroom styles. The second layer is external; it involves pursuing visual beauty, like in other dances such as ballet, with similar artistic requirements. Neglecting the first layer and focusing solely on the second layer is not tango. In most cases, if you can integrate some second-layer techniques into a solid first-layer foundation, your tango will already be quite stunning."

I appreciate this young woman's insight. Consequently, tango becomes a simple and easy dance for her. Although we cannot dance tango without steps, the essence of tango lies in the embrace. Dancers should not compromise the embrace for the sake of steps. Instead, they should keep the embrace intimate and comfortable at all times throughout the dance and use the steps to support the embrace, thereby placing the embrace and steps in the correct order.

Unfortunately, in the US, societal taboos surrounding intimacy and radical ideologies emphasizing women's independence have influenced the way tango is danced. To avoid touching their partner's body, many women adopt an open dance hold instead of the traditional close embrace. They lean back, extend their arms to create distance, press their shoulder against their partner's shoulder, or use their head against their partner's head to avoid chest-to-chest contact, resulting in an embrace that feels awkward and unnatural. This incorrect embrace impacts their dancing. Instead of swiveling their hips as they must when dancing in a close embrace, women using an open dance hold often turn their entire body instead, breaking the connection and disrupting the flow of the dance. Unlike professional dancers, who can maintain proper technique in an open dance hold during performances, beginners using an open dance hold tend to develop poor habits, such as using arms and hands to help themselves with the movements, dancing without emotional involvement, unable to communicate feelings through direct torso contact, focusing on personal performance and neglecting their partner, and accustoming themselves to many other wrong ways of dancing tango.

For these reasons, I believe that learning tango should start with the close embrace style. Beginners should avoid adopting the open dance hold typically associated with performances until they have built a strong foundation. Otherwise, the bad habits developed early on may become difficult to unlearn. I know women who have danced tango for many years, yet their embrace remains uncomfortable. Such women are like a flower vase—appealing from a distance but impossible to hold in one's arms.

In another post, Women's Common Mistakes in Tango, I listed thirteen common shortcomings of tango women that are closely related to the subject of this discussion. The embrace, however, is an even more significant issue, warranting a dedicated chapter—hence the title.

Here is an example of good embrace in tango dancing.