Steps, Musicality and Choreography

Novice dancers often focus their attention on steps, neglecting the importance of musicality and choreography. However, the quality of a dance hinges more on these two elements than on steps alone. To illustrate this, let’s first examine how the milongueros dance tango.

What stands out most about the dance of the milongueros is not their steps but their musicality and choreography, which possess the following characteristics:

(1) They dance at a slower pace, allowing the woman to follow in a restful and elegant manner. (2) Each step is thoughtfully conceived and clearly led, focusing on expressing the music and feelings, not on impression. (3) They pause after each phrase or sequence, much like punctuation marks divide sentences. (4) The pause is not completely still but involves subtle motion, offering the woman an opportunity to add embellishments. (5) Their steps are pulsating—resembling surging waves rather than a continuous flow of water—facilitating cadencia in the dance. (6) Transitions between steps are soft, often involving slight turns to prepare for the next surge in a different direction. (7) Surging step, pause, soft transition, and another surging step constitute the basic rhythm of their dance. This arrangement can better reflect the music, sentiment and feelings that feature social tango.

The milongueros' dance is a stark contrast to our tango, which tends to be hasty, busy and beat-chasing, prioritizing movements rather than musicality and choreography. If their tango is art, then ours is more like gymnastics. We tend to step on every beat and dance at a hurried, monotonic speed, leaving little room for the woman to express herself. There is a lack of pause, slow motion, subtlety, depth and emotional expression in our tango. The following is an example.

These are not novices but fairly experienced dancers. In fact, their dancing skills surpass the average found online. I selected this example to highlight that dance techniques, musicality, and choreography are distinct skills. What most dancers lack is not technique but rather musicality and choreography.

Of course, as with any skill, mastering tango requires time and effort. The dancers in the next clip have made noticeable progress.

Many of them are adopting the style of the milongueros. A standout example is the man in the hat who appears between 3:10 and 3:50. By incorporating more pauses and slow motions into his dance, he has achieved a style that feels deeper, more flavorful, and less gymnastic. Pauses and slow motion in tango are like punctuation in writing—they make the dance more musical, meaningful, expressive, and captivating (see Floorcraft, Choreography and Hastiness). The following is another such example.