The Functions of Various Body Parts in Tango

Various body parts, including the head, arms, hands, torso, hips and legs, play different roles in tango. Tango dancers must understand the different functions of the body parts and properly assign attention in order to use them in a controlled and coordinate fashion. Incorrect use of the body parts is a common problem in tango.

In close embrace, the woman may rest her head on the man's temple, cheek or chin according to her height. She may choose not to do so, but if she does, then the touch of the head must be comfortable. Some women prop their head against the man's head in order to prevent their breasts from touching his chest. Beginners often draw support from the head when doing steps. Such practices reflect a misunderstanding of the function of the head. The touch of the head is a sign of intimacy and must be gentle. Dancers need to dissociate the head from the body and not use it against the partner to avoid chest contact or to assist the movement of the body, as both are uncomfortable.

The functions of the arms and hands are more complex. Arms and hands can be used to hold the partner to form an intimate and comforting embrace. They can also be used to support, protect and sooth the partner. These are the correct uses of the arms and hands. Arms and hands can also be used to convey intentions and to fight. Some people hence use them to coerce or resist the partner, wrestle with the partner, spread the partner away to avoid intimacy, hold on to the partner for balance and stability, or grab the partner to assist the movement of the body. These are misuses of the arms and hands. Beginners need to rid the habit of using arms and hands. Tango is led and followed with the torsos. Arms and hands should only be used to form a snug embrace, not as the tool to lead and follow, to keep balance and stability, to distance oneself from the partner, or to assist the movement of the body, let alone to resist or fight 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 and not use them as weapons or movement aids.

The torso is the command center in tango dancing. Tango dancers use their torsos to communicate intentions and feelings, and to bring out the movements of the hips and legs. Tango is an intimate and feeling-oriented dance mainly because of the role the torso plays in the dance. Unfortunately, this role of the torso is often overlooked by action-oriented dancers who use an open dance hold to replace the embrace, putting the torso to petty use under the command of the arms and hands. As a result, they changed tango from a feeling-oriented dance to a movement-oriented dance.

In a previous post I quoted a young woman's insightful observation on tango (see The Fourteenth Pitffall of a Tangura). What she called the first layer technique, namely, to maintain a comfortable embrace, and the second layer technique, namely, to pursue visual beauty, in essence refer to the function of the torso and the function of the legs respectively. In tango, the torso is in relative rest in the embrace, but the movements of the legs are brisk and colorful. If the torso is associated with feelings, then the legs represent beauty. A good tango is a perfect combination of the two. Formalist dancers concern only about the look and ignore the feelings, and they use the torso as but another limb to create fancy movements under the command of the arms and hands. However, pursuing visual impression at the expense of the intimacy and comfort of the embrace is not worth the candle. Throughout its history from tango milonguero to tango Villa Urquiza to tango fantasia to tango Nuevo, the alienation of tango clearly follows an aesthetic path farther and farther away from the embrace and feelings (see The Styles of Tango). I do not think that direction is worth advocating. I believe the juxtaposition of the comfort of the embrace and the beauty of the footwork is totally possible. It does not have to sacrifice the embrace in order to pursue beauty. Many beautiful tangos danced by outstanding tango dancers, such as the Poema danced by Geraldine Rojas and Javier Rodrigues, and many tangos danced by Agustina Piggio and Carlotos Espinoza, are good examples.

These dancers can achieve such level of excellence because they are versed in using their hips, which are like the swivel that joins the upper body and the lower body. Because their torsos are connected in the embrace, they need to swivel their hips in order to move their legs around each other. In tango terms this is called dissociation. Educated tango dancers are able to dissociate their upper body and lower body to a greater degree, so they can step freely around each other without breaking the embrace. Dissociation is not only a physical detachment but also an artistic division of labor, enabling the upper body to remain in the comfort of the embrace while allowing the lower body to maximize its creativity.

In contrast, the body of the novice is not flexible enough to be dissociated freely, so, instead of using their torsos to lead and follow, an inexperienced man often leads with his arms and hands, and an inexperienced woman tends to turn her whole body instead of swiveling her hips, and they grip hold of each other with their hands to help themselves with the movements, causing the rupture of the embrace and incoherence of the dance. You may call it by its fine-sounding name "open embrace," but its real cause is the inability to dance in close embrace, thus resort to a fake substitute instead. But, cheating has a price, as it can only fool others, not the dancers themselves. Professional dancers use open embrace on stage to perform for the audience, not for their own pleasure. They pay that price for their job. As soon as they go to a milonga, they switch to dance in close embrace (see Social Tango and Performance Tango). Novices who envy their glamour on stage, blindly imitate them in the milongas without even can embrace well. Such crude imitation only makes them look foolish.

To sum up, when dancing tango, the head and the arms and hands should be completely relaxed and not interfere with the movement of the body. The function of the torso is to communicate intentions and feelings via direct torso contact and to bring out the movement of the lower body. Tango's beautiful footwork is the function of the legs. The key to maximize the beauty of the footwork while maintaining the comfort of the embrace lies in the swivel of the hips. Learning tango is not primarily learning steps, but learning to control, coordinate and properly use various parts of the body. Focusing on the steps and ignoring feelings is the leading course of misuse of the body parts in tango.

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.

It is same with tango. Among the many elements that made tango, some decides 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 made their tango neither fish nor fowl, because in it the subsidiaries superseded the primary.

So, what is the primary ingredient of tango? Beginners tend to think that's the steps. They are wrong. Like garlic and onion, steps are subsidiary. The key ingredient of tango is the embrace, which decides the basic characteristics of the dance. You dance tango if, and only if, you dance in tango embrace, whether with five or fifty steps.

By embrace I do not mean the open dance hold. Tango, known as the dance of love, is evolved from the real embrace, wherein the couple intimately lean into each other chest against chest, cheek touches cheek, and arms encircle and hold each other tightly. Lovers do not make a hugging gesture without actually touching each other's body. A feigned embrace may look like a real embrace, but the dancers themselves know the difference. Professional performers use open dance hold on stage to facilitate their performance in order to entertain the audience. But social dancers do not tango for that. They tango to enjoy the connection and intimacy for their own pleasure, which is why they use real embrace. This is the fundamental difference between tango and all show dances including stage tango. (See Social Tango and Performance Tango.)

Other dissimilarities all arise from this fundamental difference. For example, unlike other dances in which the dancers rely on their arms and hands to exchange information, in tango communication takes place through direct connection of the torso, which is itself a very sensitive organ, more susceptible to intimation and feeling than the arms and hands. Tango dancers can achieve deeper understanding and better synchronization by using their torsos to lead and follow.

Tango's distinct movements are also associated with the embrace. Because the torsos of the partners are attached in the embrace, tango dancers have to swivel their hips in order to dance around each other. This technique, known as dissociation, is the basis of most tango steps, making tango especially capable of displaying the feminine beauty of women's pliable body (see Dancing with Hips).

The intimate embrace also attaches importance to feelings, causing tango to be a feeling-oriented dance. Although formalist dancers have made unremitting efforts to exploit the visual impression of tango, the style that they created cannot satisfy the needs deeply rooted in human nature for connection, intimacy, love and communication of feelings. These needs can only be met through real embrace.

A young woman wrote about the importance of the embrace this way: "From the perspective of a girl, I think tango has two layers. The first layer is also the core layer, which is to keep a comfortable embrace with your partner and let him feel your absolute obedience and sufficient control of yourself. If you can do that, you will be able to survive the milonga even if you can only dance ballroom dances. The second layer is external, that is to pursue the visual beauty like other dances such as ballet, with similar artistic requirements. To put it in another way, ignoring the first layer and focusing only 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 be quite stunning already."

I appreciate this young woman's insight. Consequently tango becomes a simple and easy dance for her. Although we cannot dance tango without the steps, the essence of tango lies in the embrace. Dancers shouldn't compromise embrace for the sake of steps. Rather, they should keep the embrace intimate and comfortable at all time throughout the dance and use the steps to facilitate the embrace, thus put the embrace and steps in a correct order.

Unfortunately in the US, unlike in Argentina, taboos against intimacy between the sexes and liberal ideologies that advocate for women's independence lead to politically correct way of dancing tango. Many women use an open dance hold to replace the embrace. In order not to let their body touch men's body, they lean back, spread men with their arms and hands to keep a distance, or prop their shoulder against men' shoulder, or use their head against men's head to keep their breasts from touching men's chests, resulting in an embrace that is awkward and uncomfortable. Instead of swiveling their hips as they must in close embrace, women using open dance hold tend to turn their whole body, causing the rupture of the embrace and incoherence of the movements. Unlike professional dancers who know how to use right techniques when they perform in open dance hold, novices using open dance hold tend to develop bad habits, such as using arms and hands to help themselves with the movements, dancing without emotional involvement, focusing on personal performance and neglecting the partner, and accustoming themselves to the wrong way of dancing tango that avoids dissociation and intimate communication, etc. That's why I believe learning tango should start with the close embrace style. A beginner should not use the open dance hold associated with performance until she has laid the foundation. Otherwise the bad habits that are developed may not be easy to overcome. I know women who have tangoed for many years but their embrace is still uncomfortable. Such women are like a flower vase, looking good only from a distance but cannot be held in the arms. In another post, Women's Common Mistakes in Tango, I listed thirteen common shortfalls of tango women that are closely related to the subject of this post. The embrace, however, is an even bigger issue, deserving a separate chapter, hence the title.

Here is an example of good embrace in tango dancing.