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.