The Elegance of the Milonguero Style

In contrast to some tango styles that remind me of a bustling casino, the milonguero style of tango reminds me of a Zen garden - an oasis of austerity, serenity, peace and natural beauty for quiet contemplation. The style prioritizes inward experiences, so the look becomes less important. In fact, it is danced in simple and natural steps, very little adornments are used in order to avoid complication and distraction, enabling the dancers to focus inwardly on feelings.

That, however, does not reduce its aesthetic value. On the contrary, the style possesses a natural, simple and elegant beauty second to none. The following is an example.

Dancing with cadencia
The key element responsible for the elegance of the style is cadencia. The woman leans on the man with her chest pressing against his chest, enabling him to use the connection to swing her torso, causing her hip and leg to dangle in a chain reaction. Notice that the woman does not use her thigh to move her leg, but lets her leg follow the torso and hip to sway. Her attention is on the lateral motion rather than the vertical action of stepping down, so that her body can sway gracefully with every step.

Dancing with hips
In doing so she needs to swivel her hips to allow her free leg to take advantage of the inertia to either swing in roughly the same direction, or reversely in the opposite direction. She needs to swivel her hips in order to dance around him while her torso is attached to his torso. She needs to swivel her hips when she does front ocho, back ocho, molinete, planeo, boleo, etc. In short, hip rotation is used all the time in her dance, highlighting the flexibility and beauty of her feminine body. The milonguero style does not emphasize footwork, so she can focus on making the rotation of her hips graceful, refined and noticeable, adding elegance to her dance (see Dancing with Hips).

Dancing slower
In order to infuse elegance into the dance, it's essential to moderate the dance tempo. Racing to keep up with the beat can result in the loss of grace in dancing, a prevalent issue often encountered in our tango. Instead of chasing the beat, the man should provide the woman with ample time to execute each step, while the woman should focus on crafting her movement with poise and sophistication to heighten its elegance, as demonstrated by the couple above. The following is another example.

Dancing with simple and natural steps
Another element pertinent to the elegance of the style is using simple and natural steps. Some tango styles are known for their fancy footwork and showy figures, which, although may be beautiful in some way, lack naturalness and elegance. The following is an example.

As you can see, impressive may be by some standard, a display like this relies on intricate figures, exaggerated movements, excessive embellishments, and elaborate choreography. It looks busy, garish, farfetched and beat-chasing, but lacks the confidence, serenity, ease, simplicity, naturalness and elegance of the milonguero style, and it does not match the melancholy mood of the music (see Dancing to Melody - Poema).

In contrast, the first two couples use austere steps to allow themselves focus inwardly on quiet contemplation. The man leads by swinging the woman's body. The woman keeps her body tall and straight while swinging it gracefully, letting its intrinsic, natural beauty manifest itself.

Audrey Hepburn Said, "Elegance is the only beauty that never fades." I am convinced of that (see Embracing Elegance).