Dancing with Hips

Dancing tango requires skillful rotation of the hips. This is true especially for women, because in tango men typically dance around the dance floor and women dance around men. Since the partners' torsos are connected in the embrace, the woman needs to rotate her hips to step beside the man or dance around him. This technique, known as dissociation, works best on a woman because the suppleness of her body makes her well-suited to dance around the man, rather than the other way around. The flexibility of a woman also enhances the aesthetic appeal of her dance, hence the gender roles where men leading women and women beautifying dance.

In practice, the hips don’t need to be turned much. A 45° rotation of the hips is sufficient for her to place her right leg on his right or her left leg on his left, although some movements, such as molinete and back sacada, require greater rotation of the hips. From an aesthetic standpoint, however, exaggerated hip rotation can accentuate feminine characteristics. As a result, in certain styles women deliberately turn their hips wider for enhanced expression.

Swiveling the hips expands the range and possibility of women's movements. By skillfully rotating her hips, a woman can navigate agilely around the man, fine-tune her position in relation to him in complex movements while maintain good connection. A well-trained woman can turn her hips beyond 90°, enabling her to step anywhere around the man, even move backwards with the front ocho, or advance forward with the back ocho. Proficiency in hip rotation also allows her to exhibit grace and fluidity, making her dance captivating. Women who excel in tango often stand out because of their remarkable ability to maneuver their hips with finesse.

Dissociation at the hips—pivoting the lower body while keeping the upper body parallel to the partner—takes some practice to master, but it is a fundamental skill that a tango woman must develop. A woman's tango can be truly stunning only if she can execute hip rotation flawlessly. This is also true for a man, as the competence to swivel his hips helps him maintain good physical connection with the woman and enhances his ability to use his torso to lead her. The rule of tango is that your torso must always face your partner's torso, no matter on which side of you she or he is or moving to. Therefore all tango dancers must be proficient in this technique (see Dissociation and Gear Effect).