Maintaining Shoulder Parallelism

Milonguero-style tango, known for its close embrace, emphasizes an intimate inner experience and embodies a beauty of cohesion, compactness, elegance, and harmony. This dance style requires partners to maintain chest-to-chest contact and keep their shoulders parallel to achieve maximum connection and effective communication.

Many dancers underestimate the importance of shoulder parallelism. Some women place their bodies on the right side of the man's body, with their left arm hugging his right side, instead of being chest to chest in front of him with their left arm hooking over his shoulder, causing a misalignment of the bodies. Others make contact with only one side of the torso while keeping the other side open, forming a V-shape with their partner. Some compromise shoulder parallelism to execute movements, even positioning their shoulders at a vertical angle to their partner’s. Many women rotate their entire bodies instead of dissociating at the hips, disrupting shoulder alignment. Additionally, men often lead complex movements that force women to sacrifice connection and shoulder parallelism. These habits contradict tango’s intimate, feeling-oriented nature and diminish the artistic quality and harmony of the dance.

Beginners must understand that tango is not about executing steps but about expressing music, emotions, and feelings through an intimate close embrace and physical interaction. Maintaining chest contact and shoulder parallelism is essential for preserving the connection, intimacy, comfort, and emotional depth that define the dance.

Dancers must overcome the mental barriers that prevent them from learning and dancing tango properly. Many beginners feel shy about physical closeness, causing them to instinctively create distance from their partner. To fully embrace and enjoy the intimacy, comfort, and sentimentality that tango offers, they must let go of cultural preconceptions.

From a technical perspective, the close embrace necessitates mastering dissociation—a technique in which the upper body remains stable while the lower body rotates. This skill is key to maintaining shoulder parallelism and ensuring a seamless connection throughout the dance (see Dissociation and Gear Effect).

Men should avoid leading women into overly challenging movements and instead use natural, simple steps. The range of dissociation at the hips is limited—exceeding this limit disrupts shoulder parallelism. Therefore, men should refrain from leading steps that require excessive hip rotation, and women should strive to maintain shoulder alignment while executing movements.

In conclusion, maintaining chest contact and shoulder parallelism in close-embrace tango ensures maximum body connection, which is crucial for fully experiencing the intimacy, sensuality, and emotional depth that make this style a soulful and comforting dance. It also enhances the dance’s aesthetic appeal, reinforcing its cohesive, compact, elegant, and harmonious visual beauty. Tango students should strive to overcome habits that contradict the essence of tango and develop skills that align with its purpose (see Contra Body Movement in Dance).