In Search of Tango

Social Tango and Performance Tango

2011-12-25T16:50:00.057-06:00

The more I think about the challenges that tango is facing, the more I feel the need to draw a distinction between social tango and performance tango. People who promote performance tango often say, “Why draw a line? They are all tango. The tango is one.” But that is not true. Social tango and performance tango are different dances serving different purposes and for different occasions. They are different in almost every aspects, including appearances, embraces, connections, steps, techniques, lead/follow methods, feelings, and philosophies. Any definition describing one dance automatically rejects the other. In fact, people who only learn one dance are not able to dance the other dance. Instead of palming performance tango off onto beginners, it would be better to tell the truth, so students know what they actually get into.

Social tango is a popular dance. It is designed for dancing in a crowd milonga for pleasure and not for show. It is a simple and user-friendly dance, suited to the tastes, needs and abilities of the general public. It is an intimate and sensual dance typically danced in a close embrace with considerable body contact between the partners to serve the need for intimacy between the opposite sexes. It is an improvised and feeling-oriented dance, danced in simple and compact steps, so the dancers may concentrate on the feelings stirred by the music, the comfort and sensation of the embrace, the communication through torso contact between them, and the harmony of movements in unison with music. Dancing social tango is an intimate, soulful and personal experience. What matters is how it feels and not how it looks.

Performance tango, on the other hand, is a highbrow dance. It is designed for performing on the stage. It is a fancy and showy version of tango involving difficult steps and techniques not suited to ordinary people, but professionals with expert skills. It is a choreographed and movement-oriented dance, typically danced in an open embrace absent of chest-to-chest contact for broader movement possibilities. Its steps are wide, gaudy, dazzling, often dangerous and requiring a lot of space to do. Safety, comfort and user-friendliness are not its concerns. It is not intended to be an intimate, soulful and personal experience, but an exhibition of fancy steps and showy movements to impress the audience. What matters is how it looks and not how it feels.

I believe it is not for the best interest of most people to learn performance tango, especially before they have mastered social tango. Not only because it’s a waste of their time and money, as very few of them will ever be performers on the stage, but also because without the foundation of social tango, it is impossible for them to be good performers anyway. Worse still, the bad habits acquired from learning performance tango, such as using arms and hands to lead and follow, the inability to use the torso to communicate, the focus on appearances rather than feelings, the disregard of the safety and comfort of others, and the showy and dangerous footwork, will not only hinder their own enjoyment of social tango, but also cause disturbances to others in the milongas.

For most people, social tango is what they should focus their attentions to in their study of tango. Because they want to dance in the milongas for personal enjoyment and not on the stage to entertain others. Because they want a simple and user-friendly dance suited to their abilities, not a complicated and difficult dance beyond their reach. Because they want an intimate, soulful and comfortable dance that serves their need for contact with another soul, not a gaudy and uncomfortable dance to show their egos. And because they want to be a good social dancer and lay a solid foundation before, if ever, they decide to learn performance tango.

In the U.S., social tango and performance tango are mixed, which is the cause of many problems in our milongas. In Buenos Aires, the two dances are separated. Social tango (Tango de Salon) is danced in the milongas. Performance tango (Tango Fantasia) is danced on the stage. Professionals, who dance show tango on the stage, will only dance social tango when they go to a milonga. Those who teach social tango will say they teach social tango, and those who teach performance tango will say they teach performance tango. They don’t hang up a sheep’s head and sell dog meat. Separate competitions are organized for each dance. I believe this is how it should be elsewhere in the world as well.

Highbrowism and Populism in Tango

2011-12-18T15:57:00.026-06:00

Popular arts are arts suited to the tastes, needs, educational level, etc., of most people. Highbrow arts are arts considered or pretending to be of highly cultivated tastes/skills superior to those of ordinary people. A highbrow song finds few singers because its technique and range are beyond the reach of most people. A popular song, on the other hand, is less in range and technique; therefore, everyone can sing it.

However, the notion that complicated/difficult arts are superior to simple/easy arts is an erroneous one. A simple line can be more graceful than an intricate figure. A simple photograph can be more tasteful than a complicated painting. A pop song can be more beautiful than an opera song, although it is easier to sing. Very often, things are beautiful because they are simple. Margin brings comfort. Pause creates mood. Simplicity reflexes elegance. Silence often expresses more. Too much is as bad as not enough. Simple does not mean artistically inferior. Easy does not mean less skillful. On the contrary, it takes much sophistication to achieve simplicity and easiness. Those who make arts simple and easy, in my opinion, are better artists than those who make arts complicated and difficult.

This is so also because arts, especially popular arts, are for people. Highbrowism and art-for-art’s-sake are obsolete ideas. What’s the value of a pop song if it is beyond the reach of most people? What’s the value of a social dance if only few can dance it? Argentine tango is a social dance. It was a lowbrow dance created by gouchos, immigrant workers, taxi drivers and prostitutes. It is still a grass roots dance in Argentina today. Most people who dance tango are ordinary people. They love tango because it is an intimate, simple and elegant dance suited to the tastes and abilities of common people. What is annoying to them is the chauvinist attitude of those who consider themselves above the crowd and want to make tango a highbrow dance only elite can enjoy. I don’t think people will want that. Tango’s charm and tomorrow, I believe, will remain in its dancer-friendliness. In the end, populism overcomes highbrowism.

Tango and Romanticism

2011-12-14T11:00:00.022-06:00

When people comment on someone’s tango dancing as doing gymnastics or acrobatics, they are referring to a lack of romanticism in the dance. Gymnastics is an athletic exercise involving skilled physical movements to develop muscles and bodily strength. Acrobatics is a circus show of physical feats, such as flipping in the air, balancing on one hand while doing the splits, and bending the body 180 degrees backwards. These exercises are designed to show what human bodies are capable of for sportive and entertaining purposes. They are physically challenging and difficult to do, and are not intended to be romantic and comfortable.

Tango, on the other hand, is an art form that displays the gracefulness and beauty of the body as it moves in rhythm to music. It emphasizes the artistic aspects of the movement such as sentiment, musicality and aesthetics, rather than the physical aspects of the movement such as strength, speed and tricks. What matters in tango is how soulful, musical, graceful, elegant, beautiful and not how physically challenging, difficult and thrilling the movement is. Tango is created to be romantic and comfortable. It involves feelings, emotions, longings, tenderness, sensuality and romanticism. It serves the need for intimacy between the opposite sexes, and is suggestive of a passionate, exciting, fulfilling, and idealized romance. In the soul of tango is romanticism, which distinguishes tango from gymnastics and acrobatics.

If we take romanticism away from tango, what's left is a sport or show. Unfortunately, in a culture where games instead of classics, sports instead of arts, and technologies instead of humanity are the main influence, that is what tango increasingly becomes. People, especially young people brought up in this culture exhibit a lack of depth and lasting quality. They focus too much on flashy forms rather than substances, and constantly seek changes and novelty. To retain tango’s classic, simple, romantic and elegant style, we have work to do. One of which is to reflect more romanticism in our dancing and teaching, for example, slowing down, being simpler, going deeper, showing more feelings, and focusing on gracefulness and elegance. Technologies and fashions may be out-of-date, but never will romanticism. It resides in the humanity. We only need to awake it.

Tango Is a Language

2011-11-28T14:19:00.056-06:00

Most laymen don’t think tango as a language. But in fact tango is a language, which can be taught, leaned, understood and used to convey manners, personalities, feelings, emotions, musicality, intentions and movement traits such as type and size of the step, direction, speed, rhythm, timing, cadence, suspension, pause, etc. Those who know the language can communicate with each other and move their bodies harmoniously and beautifully as one unit. Those who don’t know it are not able to express and respond to each other, and they feel awkward and frustrated in their dance.

Like any language, tango has its own alphabet, vocabulary, grammar and composition. Body, arms, hands, legs, feet, embrace, posture, connection, balance and weight change can be seen as the alphabet of tango. We use these elements to make steps, which are the vocabulary of tango. Musicality and communication are like the grammar, according to which steps are improvised to form a dance. Choreography is the composition of the dance.

Just as studying a language, learning tango should start from the alphabet and grammar. If we don’t know the alphabet, we can’t spell words correctly. If we don’t know the grammar, we can’t put words into proper use. One problem in our tango learning is that we focus only on studying the vocabulary but pay little attention to the alphabet and grammar. We don't know how to use our body. We don’t know how to properly embrace and walk. Our posture is bad. Our connection is broken. Our body is too stiff and heavy. There is no balance and stability in our movement. We don’t listen to the music. We don't step on the beat. We don’t follow the sentiment and the mood of the music. We don’t communicate well with each other. Our lead is unclear and follow is clumsy. As a result, although we know a lot of steps, we can’t put them together in a meaningful, coherent, harmonious and beautiful way.

Like all languages, tango has a large vocabulary. No one is able to do all the steps in tango, just as no one knows all the words in a language. In fact, we don’t need to memorize the entire dictionary to speak a language. For example, the Chinese language has more than 60000 characters. The Kangxi Dictionary includes 47000 characters. The official Xinhua Dictionary includes 8550 characters, of them only 950 characters are most frequently used, which cover 90% of total characters used in popular literature. Additional 2800 characters of the second highest use frequency increase the coverage to 99.9%. Most characters are rarely used.

Tango is the same. There are only limited steps that are essential in tango, such as walk, cross, pivot, disassociation, cadencia, front ocho, back ocho, molinete, turn, etc. These basic steps form 90% of all the steps used in social tango dancing. More complicated steps, such as ocho cortado, boleo, traspie, sacada, sandwich, block, drag, wrap, castigada, media vuelta, media luna, calesita, enrosque, lapiz, carpa, etc., form the other 10% less commonly used steps in social tango. In addition to the above are steps used mainly in performance tango, such as high boleo, gancho, back sacada, colgada, volcada, whip, kick, jump, lift, body flipping and waving, etc. These steps are used by professional performers for their dazzling visual effects. They lack the comfort and friendliness of the social tango steps, and are either dangerous to do, or requiring a lot of space to do, therefore are not suitable for social dancing.

It is unwise and unnecessary to learn stuffs that are of little use, while neglect the essentials that can benefit us most. It is affected to use professional jargons to carry out a daily conversation. Unfortunately, that is what many are doing. A much better approach to tango is to do just the opposite, concentrating on the alphabet, basic vocabulary, and the grammar of tango, instead of jumping into big fancy words without laying a solid foundation first. Frankly, for most people, the basics are all what they need to enjoy social tango. Those who are truly talented and want to become professionals can go further to learn performance, but that should be pursued after they have mastered the fundamentals, not before, and not in the milongas where even true professionals dance social-friendly.

Driving and Synchronization

2011-11-11T01:43:00.046-06:00

Raul Cabral is a tango master, a brilliant thinker and teacher of the milonguero style of tango. He published a series of essays on http://www.raultangocabral.com.ar. The following is a brief summary of his key message on achieving synchronization through proper embrace.

The most important qualities of a dancer have nothing to do with steps. What are essential for the leader are his musicality and his ability to drive the follower. What are essential for the follower are her abilities to be weightless and to synchronize the movement.

The leader is the driver in tango, who uses his body to effect the movement of the body of his partner. Every step of the leader should be expressed through his partner. Driving does not mean that he moves and waits for his partner to follow. Tango is synchronization, or moving exactly at the same time. This suggests that the word “follow” is an incorrect notion, because “follow” implies a moment later. Even if the moment is minimal, there is no synchronization. What is correct for the follower is to enter the moving car of the leader and allow herself to be transported by him on their musical journey.

The unique and magical essence of tango, two bodies moving as one, is achieved solely by the ability of the body to communicate the message of its movement through the embrace. Many people, through tango, are beginning to discover the importance of the embrace. Which takes us back to the first years of our lives, to the protection of the chest of women. It is the need of that connection that brings people into tango. The embrace is the reason that tango has triumphed in the multitude of societies in the world.

Driving and synchronization are achieved through proper embrace. Since the beginning of tango, there is only one communication in tango and it is corporal, from body to body, not arms to arms. The two partners make contact through their bodies, which are weighted slightly forward on the balls, but supported by the entire feet on the floor, including heels. Each partner is responsible for his/her own balance. The man spreads his chest, offers it to his partner, and welcomes her into his body. He embraces her firmly, but puts no pressure on her. There is nothing tense or hard in his body. He leads her with his whole body but his main message comes from his chest, from which he communicates the feeling, the direction, the size of step, the timing, the cadence, the pause, etc. He never loses his contact to her, not even an instant, and he never cuts the flow of communication.

The woman settles into the man’s embrace, molding herself on him until it feels as if he were wearing her. She leans her body slightly forward against his, and properly positions her chest so that she can receive every minute message from his torso. She stretches her body from the waist on upwards, as if she were the string of a violin vibrating at his slightest touch. Her body is soft and relaxed. It is upon relaxation that her extremities, legs, arms and head, become void of matter, and her torso, especially her chest, becomes the main focus. This allows her to feel the messages from the body of the leader and move in unison with him. Her weight is on the inside of the ball of her foot, but her whole foot, including the heel, is in contact with the floor. Her arm lands gently and weightlessly on his shoulders. She doesn‘t hang on him, or use the embrace to stabilize herself, but keeps her own balance, thus she is light. She is supple, but toned, soft, but with nothing loose (hips, for instance). Her presence is notable with subtle but assured pressure of her chest against his. She does not efface herself or break the connection, knowing if she separates herself from him, she won‘t get the information from his body. She is continuously tuned to the messages he emits from his chest. Until the tango is over, her chest is permanently in contact with his. This is the most exact way to achieve synchronization.

You can watch Raul Cabral's dance at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kpA6gnsozl0&feature=related

Tango Embrace

2011-11-02T00:43:00.061-05:00

Tango can be danced in many different ways. For example, it can be danced in a virtual embrace where the two partners dance around each other without any physical contact. The man leads the woman by sending a visual signal from his torso, showing her how he wants her to move, and the woman follows the visual lead to make the movement. A visual lead is difficult to perceive because it cannot be felt and must be seen. The difference between different signals often is so subtle that it is hard to discern. It is quite challenging for the leader to send a clear visual signal and for the follower to apprehend it. Also, a virtual embrace lacks the physicality, comfort and sensation of a physical embrace. It disables movements that require physical support. Despite these limits, virtual embrace reveals the fact that lead/follow is not just a physical process but also a psychological one, which requires mental concentration and perception. The awareness of this fact is important because one cannot dance well with feet unless one can dance with heart.

Tango can also be danced in an open embrace where the two partners are connected only by arms and hands without any body contact. Arms and hands are extensions of the body. Even in the absence of direct body contact the dancers can still sense each other’s intentions and body movements through arm and hand contact. The open embrace provides a frame of support while leaving room for body maneuvering, and therefore is favored by movement-oriented dancers who like fancy steps and dramatic acts. It is arguable, however, that open-embrace dancers still use the torso to lead and follow, as they theoretically should. In reality, due to the lack of body contact, they tend to rely on arms and hands, which is less comfortable in comparison to the torso-to-torso connection of the close embrace. Also, the open embrace lacks the intimacy, sensuality and soulfulness of the close embrace.

Tango can also be danced only with the connection of the torsos, free from arm and hand contact. Dancing this way can sharpen the dancer’s ability of using the torso to communicate without the help of arms and hands. Using the torso to lead and follow is essential in tango, which is a unique feature of Argentine tango. Ballroom dancers and open-embrace dancers who are not used to torso communication particularly need this exercise. They will quickly discover how their habitual using of arms and hands impedes their dance. They will also discover the importance of the arm and hand contact, without which, just as without the torso contact, it is difficult to dance as one seamless body. People do not actually dance tango only using the torso connection without the support of arms and hands, but the experience gained from this exercise will lay a solid foundation for their tango dancing, regardless of the embrace they choose.

The most communicative and comfortable embrace is the close embrace, where the two partners are connected not only by arms and hands but also by the direct contact of the torsos. The body is a very expressive and receptive organ. It is also a very sensual and comfortable object to be held in the arms. In a close embrace, the two partners lean on each other chest against chest. Her head rests on his shoulder. His arm holds her back, and hers around his neck. The two partners feel each other’s soft, springy, sensitive, flexible and responsive body, communicating through it the feelings stirred by the music while dancing, in the support of their arms around each other. The intimacy, soulfulness, physicality and comfort of the embrace make it the favorite style for feeling-oriented dancers who incline to the romanticism, sentiment and sensuality of the dance more than the gymnastic acts.

Beginners may find that close embrace hinders the movement due to the lack of space between the partners. But that is only because they are beginners. Dancing in a compact fashion requires experience. More skilled dancers also use some variations of the embrace to increase movement possibilities. One variation is the V-shape embrace where the two partners are connected by one side of their torsos and leave the other side open. Another is to increase the gradient of their bodies to allow more space between the legs. The combination of the two is a third choice. These variations require flexibility and stamina. In reality, dancers often switch from one variation to another in their dancing. For example, in the process of a front ocho, the woman may change from one side V-shape contact to a chest-to-chest contact to another side V-shape contact, unless her body is so flexible that her torso can remain square while her lower body is turning from one side to the other.

The choice of embrace may be affected by many factors, such as the physical condition (flexibility and stamina), personal style (movement inclination or feeling inclination), purpose (social dancing or performance), environment (population density on the floor and milonga codes), music (fast or slow tempo), movement (fancy or simple, large or small steps) and maturity (age and experience), etc. Every embrace has its merits and limits. Many dancers alternate from one embrace to another back and forth in their performance. Mixing different embraces can bring the dancer’s skills into full play, thus increase the expressiveness of the dance.

Close embrace gained tango a reputation of “the dance of the brothel” and caused its ban by the polite society. The emergence of the open embrace style contributed to the acceptance and spread of tango. Some dancers of the younger generation saw a new vein for fancy footwork in the new style and launched the Nuevo movement, which gained momentums especially outside of Argentina. As tango moved into this direction, it lost its original flavor. Gymnastic tendency, antisocial behavior, alternative music, the break of embrace, the adoption of non-tango steps, the swap of gender roles, and other attempts to reform the dance came in succession, changing tango to a hybrid dance. The old guards in the home country of tango, the Argentine milongueros, strongly defend its root. Their way of dancing tango, known as the milonguero style, is still the dominant style in the milongas of Buenos Aires today. But the battle between the traditionalists and the reformers continues.

Masculinity & Feminity in Tango and Other Music, By Prebenantonsen

2011-10-13T10:21:00.002-05:00

Recently my love for Tango music was rekindled when I played piano in a band for an informal dance during intermission at a San Francisco Symphony concert. Here are some gorgeous songs to give an example:

Bahia Blanca
Malena
A la Gran Muneca

Part of what makes Tango magical for me is the juxtaposition of opposite moods. The music must be easy to dance to, so the rhythm is brutally crisp, forceful and rigid — but the melodies are fluid, rich and impetuously unrestrained. Sometimes these moods alternate, but usually they’re simultaneous. These opposite forces keep each other in check: whenever the melody tumbles into wailing passion, the rhythm seems to say “Stop feeling sorry for yourself, everyone has problems,” and when the rhythm gets locked into a pounding rut, the melody says “Hey, cheer up, look at that pretty lady over there.”

Given that Tango is a sexual dance between a man and a woman (traditionally), I realized that these two moods might represent masculinity and femininity. Viewed this way, the music mirrors the dance quite literally. Every note or phrase is played with a “masculine” affect — short and steady — or a “feminine” affect — improvisatory and emotional.

On the way to one of these Tango rehearsals, I listened to Save the Last Trance for Me by Paul Oakenfold. Trance may not be so fashionable anymore, but this is a serious fucking anthem. Anyway, I was reminded of Tango, because the beat is incredibly strong and raw — almost industrial, if you listen to only the first few bars. Every drum has unflinching impact. It sounds definitively masculine. But once you get to the meat of the song — the melody, the strings, the pastoral flute floating above — it’s just the opposite — supple, fluid, expressing blissful submission. Feminine, if you will. The two forces coexisting throughout give it an incredible feeling. If the drums were weaker, it would sound like sentimental mush; if the strings and melody were gone, there would be no warmth or feeling.

I started to feel kind of sexist using 1950s gender roles to describe music. I thought of that awkwardly antiquated view of Sonata-Allegro form, where the first theme is dominant and masculine, and the second theme is gentle and feminine. Obviously there are plenty of people and sonatas that invert the stereotypes, making that analysis offensive and stupid.

But I realized it illuminates a deeper truth: effective music often works to unite opposing emotions or states. You don’t need the gender descriptions. Sonata form dominated Western music for a long time — it must have been doing something right. I think the secret might be the pair of emotionally opposite themes, forced to intertwine and respond to each other. One of music’s strengths is its ability to evoke multiple emotions at once. I’m willing to bet that if right now, you tried to describe your favorite music ever — the stuff that puts you over the edge every time — you’d be contradicting yourself a lot. Majestic yet intimate, tragic yet uplifting, sweet but threatening, discomforting yet satisfying.

It’s a challenge to create music that evokes multiple emotions at once, because you can’t indulge your passionate impulses too much. You have to maintain a distant perspective on how the parts of the music interact, and restrain and balance everything appropriately. It’s counterintuitive that the most passionate, moving music is often created with a certain amount of detachment.

http://prebenantonsen.com/2011/08/13/masculinity-feminity-in-tango-and-other-music/

The Signature of Tango

2011-10-09T13:08:00.022-05:00

The quality of tango dance has something to do with the music. I never saw a lousy, unfamiliar, outlandish and non-tango song producing a beautiful tango. Well-performed tangos are all danced to excellent classical tango music, which is an inspiration and stimulant indispensable for bringing the dancers’ skills into full play. Good classical tango music motivates the dancers, lifts their spirit, stirs up their emotions, kindles their creativities, generates synergism, and leads to what the Argentines call duende, an elated state in which the dancers perform exceptionally well. Without good music, there is little scope for even a master’s abilities.

There are thousands of tango songs available on the market. Only a small portion is excellent danceable music. The majorities are mediocrities or junks unsuitable for tango dancing. The CD makers know how to make money. If they put all good songs in one place, nobody will buy junks. So they mix the good and the junk together. In a CD of twenty songs, perhaps only one or two are good songs and the rest are junks. The Argentines know their music. They buy a CD for one or two good songs and discard the rest. Ignorant American tango tourists, on the other hand, buy a CD and play them all. Here, our garbage collecting habit and bizarre taste haunt us again. We collect junk music like we collect junk steps. Worse still, we show favoritism to eccentric and rare junks, such as exotic, non-tango and alternative music.

Experts all agree that familiarity with the music is essential to an exuberant tango experience. The Argentines only play the best, well-known classical tango music in their milongas. They don’t even play rare and unfamiliar tango songs, still less outlandish and alternative music. Playing such music is a disservice to tango. It is weird. It lacks the richness and depth of the classical tango music. It cannot bring the dancers’ skills into play. It changes tango to a hybrid dance and repels the seasoned dancers who in Argentina are treated with respect, free or discount admission, best seats, and their favorite classical tango music, because they are the mainstay of the milonga.

Classical tango music is the signature of tango. It is created and developed with tango and for tango. People recognize it and associate it with the dance when they hear it. There is a sentimental attachment between the two. In reality tango dance and classical tango music are two aspects of one thing called Argentine tango, inseparable as body and soul. The fact that tango can be danced to other musics doesn’t mean it can remain intact when so danced. One may dance tango to the music of Beijing opera, but that will not be tango. Alternative music from different cultural background does not have the same rhythmic structure and sentimental richness of the classical tango music, which is passionate, multi-layered, manifold, changeful, deep and moody, allowing the freedom to interpret and improvise. Any music sharing the same rhythmic structure and sentimental richness will be recognized as tango and not alternative music. By definition, alternative music is the music that lacks the structural and sentimental depth of tango, and therefore is not the best music for tango dancing. It only appeals to beginners deficient in good taste and musicality or weird dudes seeking novelty, and those who choose to pander to their taste in order to make money.

Those who love tango more than money, on the other hand, can do one thing for tango. If we meticulously select 300-400 best classical tango songs and play only them repeatedly in our milongas like the Argentines do in the milongas of Buenos Aires, we will change our tango culture and raise the level of our dance in more ways than we can imagine. After all, tango is intimately related to its music. The better the music, the better the dance, the better the milonga, the better the community, and the better we will be.

Simple Is Beautiful

2011-09-17T03:48:00.024-05:00

In a scarce society people are used to frugality and simplicity, while in an affluent society such as ours, lavishness and extravagantness are the norm. For tasks that other people do with a simple kitchen knife, we created one equipment to chop eggs, another to cut meats, another to slice tomatoes, another to peel apples, another to shred cucumbers, etc. Our kitchens are crammed with junks. Our houses are more and more cluttered, and so are our massive shopping malls, huge governments, and gigantic tax codes. Our national debt has reached $14 trillion (an annual interest at 1% of which is $14 thousand million!), and we still spend like there is no tomorrow. Our commercial culture is all about catching and impressing. That’s why TV ads are made increasingly weird. I don’t think it is coincident that some of us confuse weirdness with beauty. Just look at the punk hairdos, tattoos, rings on noses, lips and eyelids, and pants that are about to fall down… Everything is about catching eyes rather than genuine beauty.

The way we dance tango reflects this culture. Like life, tango is really simple, but we insist on making it fancy and complicated. While in Argentina tango is danced in normal, natural, comfortable and simple steps, our tango is cluttered with showy, gaudy, farfetched, overdone and awkward movements. Simplicity and naturalness are acquired taste that we don’t have. We regard complexity and bizarreness as beautiful. While in Argentina tango is all about music, feeling, relationship and physical pleasure, our tango is all about pretty dresses, expensive shoes, fancy footwork, thrilling acts, luxurious hotels and pricey festivals. We are too focused on the superficial things.

Let me proclaim a different aesthetics that values simplicity and naturalness. Nature is simple and it is beautiful. Light makeup looks better than heavy and queer one. A house simply decorated is more pleasant than that cluttered with ostentatious ornaments. Concise writing is superior to redundant expression. A kung fu master performs his skill with great ease and simplicity. It is same in tango. Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication. It is an inner quality that those who focus only on superficial things do not have. Tango is not a luxury. It is a simple pleasure that should not cost an absurd amount of money to enjoy. People who love tango should keep it original and free from contaminations of the commercial world and the frivolous custom of the time. There is no need to spend on fancy steps and flashy dresses to enjoy tango. Tango can be danced in a simple, moderate and natural way, like the Argentines dance it. We need to change focuse from what is without to what is within. An ordinary-looking woman with refined inner quality is much more attractive than a pretty woman without it. Tango is the same. It is for feeling and not for looking. When tango stops to be a show, it will be simpler, deeper, better, and more enjoyable.

True Beauty Comes from Within

2011-09-04T01:01:00.027-05:00

We dance tango in part because tango is beautiful. There is nothing wrong with that. People pursue beauty for the same reason that plants bloom and birds sing. It is natural. It pleases eyes and attracts mates. It provides a better chance for living things to reproduce. Beauty is a valuable resource to those who own it. As a result, beauty is admired, pursued, worshiped, idolized and imitated in our culture. Fashion, cosmetics, silicon implant, face-lift surgery and many other methods are developed to make people look beautiful. Billions are spent each year for it. Beauty now is no longer natural, genetic and real. It becomes artificial, perverted and illusory.

When people are obsessed on superficial things, substances are ignored and problems occur. A beautiful woman may have advantages. But at the same time she may also have drawbacks. She is likely spoiled, self-centered and arrogant. She is less prepared for the tough realities in real life. She demands more and is hard to please. She is a prey of men, an object of envy and jealousy of women, and a heart breaker to many. She has many enemies. Consequently, she is more suspicious, cold, unfriendly and self-protective. Her relationships with others are more problematic. She lives a less tranquil life. One has to bear in mind its cost while pursuing beauty. Beauty is only a skin deep. It is neither the only thing nor the most important thing in life as well as in tango.

Those who dance tango for impression need to realize that form without content is but an empty shell. True beauty comes from within. You can imitate other’s steps, but you can’t imitate beauty until you quit to impress people and focus on the music, embrace, connection, feeling and your partner, and then real beauty from within comes naturally. Tango is not a show. It is a relationship. The beauty of tango lies in the shared intimacy, the comfort of the embrace, the oneness of the two, the communication between them, the mutual understanding, the dreaming feeling stirred by the music that they share, and the harmony of movement in unison with the music. If you go to the milongas in Buenos Aires, you will see this is how tango is danced by the Argentines. They don’t care much about how they look. They don't do fancy steps. They concentrate on the relationship. And their dance is so beautiful that it is imitated everywhere by shallow minded foreigners without understanding its essence.

Tango is still too young in this country. It takes maturity to overcome shallowness and to understand true beauty. The more I dance with women of all ages, the more I appreciate mature women. Even in Argentina, I find that mature women are better dancers in general. Their youthful freshness starts to fade away, and they start to focus more on the substance rather than the surface of beauty. It is my hope that tango in this country, too, will overcome its shallowness and focus more on the substance, as our tango community becomes maturer.

Women’s Role in Cabeceo

2011-08-14T07:36:00.033-05:00

When a man is attracted by a woman, the first thing he does is looking at her intensely. His eyes are captured by her and he cannot take them away from her. The woman may respond either by ignoring the man, if she doesn’t want to encourage him, or looking directly into his eyes, if she too is interested. The encouraged man then may wink or nod at her with intent to approach her, or he may move his eyes away from her if he decides not to pursue. This game between men and women happens everyday, everywhere.

In the milongas of Buenos Aires, this is also the game men and women play. A man looks around the dance hall to search for a partner. If he finds a woman he likes to dance with, he stares at her. The woman, who is also looking for a partner, will soon notice him. If she doesn’t want to dance with him, she simply turns her eyes away. If she wants to dance with him, she fixes her eyes at him and waits for him to invite her. He does so by nodding his head at her, and she responds with a nod of her head to accept his invitation. All these are done remotely without any verbal exchange.

This way of inviting a woman to dance is called cabeceo. Cabeceo becomes a part of Argentine tango culture mainly because tango is a sensual and intimate experience. Argentine tango is danced in a close embrace with considerable body contact between a man and a woman. For a woman to involve in such an intimate activity with a man, she must first have a desire and agree to do so. Otherwise, even if she reluctantly accepts the dance, she will be reserved, cold, and dry. She will not completely surrender herself to him and dance with passion and feelings. That is why cabeceo is regarded as a necessary part of tango in Argentina. A milonguero will not dance with a woman unless she shows a clear desire to dance with him—by looking into his eyes and responding to his cabeceo with a nod and smile.

The advantage of cabeceo over a verbal invitation is that it puts women in an advantageous position and allows them to participate in the partner selection process. For tango to be a satisfying experience for a woman, she needs a partner matching her in skills and musicality. To find such a man, she cannot sit there waiting. She has to actively search for him, and she has to search among all men, not just a few that come to her table. An Argentine woman does not sit there waiting for a man to come. She takes initiative in the process by willingly showing her desire to dance with the man of her choice. In that way she invites him to cabeceo her, and prevents herself from being bothered by those who she doesn’t want to dance with.

For men, cabeceo is also a convenient way to invite a woman. To ask a woman verbally, a man needs to walk across the room to where she is. If the woman rejects him, he not only has to swallow the embarrassment, but also has to walk all the way back to his seat. By then other potential partners may all be taken, and he has to wait till the end of the tanda for the next opportunity. Whereas using cabeceo he can quickly and remotely find the woman willing to dance with him without risking being publicly rejected by someone in front of her friends.

For cabeceo to work, women must participate in the process. If women do not actively search for men, men cannot cabeceo them even if they want to. But for women to be active, tango must be an intimate experience so personal to them that they don’t want to do it with anyone other than the men of their choice, just like they don’t want to sleep with anyone other than those they love. The reason cabeceo doesn’t work in America is that our tango hasn’t yet reached that level. Most women here are new to tango and they are not able to dance tango in a deeply personal way. They dance tango in an open embrace with little or no body contact with men. They do not surrender themselves and intimately engage themselves with men in the dance. They sit there chatting and pay no attention to men who want to dance with them. They are too afraid of staring at men, and they do not know how to respond to a cabeceo. As a result, they can only wait passively for men to come, and accept any verbal invitation.

It is ironic that in macho Argentina women get to decide with whom they want to be intimate by using cabeceo, while in feminist America women have so little control on a matter so personal to them. Cabeceo is a product of a mature tango community. It results in women’s active participation in the partner selection process. It is a measurement of their maturity in tango. That is another reason why a milonguero only use cabeceo to invite a woman.

The Gender Roles in Tango (II)

2011-07-29T07:33:00.036-05:00

The man is physically bigger, heavier, stronger, firmer, and more reliable. He plays the masculine role in tango. The following are the functions of his role:

1. Leading the woman. For the couple to dance in unison, the movement of the two must agree. For this to happen, only one person must lead, and the other must follow. In tango, the man leads the woman. He does this not by force, but by showing an intention of how he wants her to move, with a signal from his torso that she in his embrace can feel. He then follows her reaction and matches her step to complete the lead.

2. Supporting the woman. The man must be supportive to the woman. Although the woman is responsible for keeping her own balance, in reality she often needs his help, especially if she is a less experienced dancer. The man must be a pillar for her and as stable as a refrigerator. Any unsteadiness and unbalance on his part will shake her trust and confidence.

3. Timing her steps to the music. The man must lead the woman dance to the music. His musicality is the most important element of good leading. He must not stick in the steps he wants to lead and forget about the music. He must not just pay attention to his own timing and forget about hers. Instead, he must focus on timing her steps to the music. Because he dances for her.

4. Shining her. A true gentleman lets the woman shine. He leads her dance in such a way that displays her beauty and gives full play to her femininity. He makes her, rather than himself, the center of attention. He does not show off over her for self glorification.

5. Protecting her. The man must be very protective to the woman. He must prevent her from being bumped, stepped or kicked by others. He must obey the traffic law, respect the line of dance, keep a distance from others, stop if necessary, and not run into people. And he must not lead steps that may hurt her or others.

6. Being gentle to her. It is not manly to be rude and pushy to the woman. A gentleman treats the woman with respect, appreciation, and gentleness. He leads her carefully, patiently, tenderly and protectively. He makes her feel pampered in his embrace, and let her fully enjoy dancing with him.

The woman is physically smaller, lighter, softer, more flexible and beautiful. She plays the feminine role in tango. The following are the functions of her role:

1. Complete surrender. The woman must surrender herself to the man. She must let go her ego, melt in his embrace, be obedient, and move in unison with him. By her surrender she dispels his misgivings and gives him permission to be her leader. Just like when a baby is born the parents become grownups, she makes him a man by being a woman.

2. Following the lead. She must be calm and unhurried, wait for his signal to tell her how to move, and follow the lead one step at a time. She must not act on her own, interfere with the lead, or initiate the step. However, while being obedient, she must also remain an active part of the dance. Following is not passively responding. It is a dynamic action that takes wits, ingenuity and creativeness.

3. Being light. She must make herself light and easy for him to lead. She must not put too much weight on the man and cause heaviness to him. She must keep her own balance and not grab or hang on him for support. She must be sensitive to the lead and ready to respond at all time. And, she must move dexterously.

4. Keeping her beat. A good follower follows by intuition so she can concentrate on the music rather than the lead. The man does his part to lead her dance to the music, but he can only do so by estimating the beat. The problem with estimating is that he can't be one hundred percent accurate at all time. The woman must listen to the music and be responsible for micro-adjusting her steps to the beat.

5. Complementing the man. As his partner, she must help him, bring out his strengths, and make up his weaknesses. She excites him with her passion and femininity, and dances in such a way that is light and inspiring. She supports him when he loses balance, keeps the beat when he is off time, slows him down if he rushes, and warns him when he is to bump into others.

6. Beautifying the dance. A woman is a natural beautician and decorator. Beauty is her specialty. The man leads the dance, but it is the woman who shines the dance with her beautiful footwork and adornments. A good follower, however, embellishes her footwork in such a way that does not interfere with the lead. Rather, she remains in complete unison with the leader while doing the embellishments.

7. Being feminine. The woman must not dance as a mechanical follower, but as a woman. She must willfully display her female softness, flexibility, grace and seductiveness. She must make the man feel comfortable. She understands that her womanhood, femininity and gentle softness are the reason why he enjoys dancing with her rather than with a man. By being a woman, she can bring out the best in him and be rewarded fully in return.

The Gender Roles in Tango

2011-07-28T02:14:00.040-05:00

In tango, each partner plays a distinctive role in correspondence to his/her gender. Gender roles are violated, for example, when the woman refuses to surrender, when she irritates the man with her disobedience, when she neglects her duty to make him comfortable, when the man fails to protect the woman, when he shines himself instead of her, and when he is not gentle. Unfortunately, such happens all the time in our milongas.

One reason our tango doesn’t go very far is that we don’t teach gender roles. We don’t even use the words “man” and “woman”. Instead, we use the neutral terms “leader” and “follower”. And we allow either gender to play either role with absolutely no knowledge of what this role is about and how to play it. In our politically corrected mindset, everyone is a gender-neutral person. We do not train students to function as a man or woman, to be masculine or feminine, and to be seductive. We only teach mechanical movements. There is no role play, no passion, no emotional involvement, no masculinity and femininity, no seduction, and even no body contact. Consequently, our tango lacks what tango actually is. It becomes a gender-neutral dance.

In Argentina, however, tango is exactly the opposite of a gender-neutral dance. Argentine tango is a passionate and elaborate display of masculinity and femininity. It underscores rather than hides the attractions and functions of the opposite sexes. It fulfills the need for intimacy between men and women through embrace and intimate body contact. It is a sensual and seductive dance.

As fashionable as it is to switch roles in this country, one fact remains: nobody can be at his/her best against nature. A woman is too feminine to be a leader. She simply cannot be as masculine as the leader must be, and function as a man must function to a woman, regardless of how technically adequate she can lead. And a man is too masculine to be a follower. He simply cannot be as feminine as the follower must be, and function as a women must function to a man, regardless of how technically adequate he can follow. Tango is not just about lead and follow. It is a display of masculine and feminine beauty and a function of one gender to the other. Without masculinity and femininity, tango loses its splendor.

Tango Is a Relationship

2011-07-14T14:23:00.012-05:00

Tango is an intimate experience. It allows your partner to touch you, enjoy your body, your comfortable embrace, complete surrender, tender leading, obedient following, loving protection, sensitive accommodation, and supportive complements. It also allows your partner to access, listen and feel the inner voice, feelings, emotions, expressions and personality of you. In fact, your partner can learn a lot about you in the dance. How you connect, move, communicate, respond and adapt tells a lot about the somatic, psychological, ethical, artistic and aesthetic qualities in you. The way you behave unreservedly reveals who you are: refined or crude, musical or dull, passionate or indifferent, calm or irascible, graceful or clumsy, adaptive or inflexible, yielding or controlling, cooperative or egocentric, respectful or arrogant… all are exposed in the dance.

Tango is a relationship. Just like in any relationship where the well-being of the two are mutually related and dependent on each other, you have to be and do your best in order to bring out the best of your partner. In tango, as in any relationship, your ego is your worst enemy. It’s the ego that makes you self-centered, arrogant, controlling, inflexible, irascible, rude, and counteractive. Tango is fully enjoyed only when the two partners act as one in complete unison and harmony. You need to let go your ego, submit yourself to your partner, listen to his/her inner voice, follow his/her intention, accommodate yourself to him/her, tacitly complement him/her to make up his/her weaknesses and bring out his/her strengths, and let him/her feel totally comfortable and enjoyable dancing with you. If you only concentrate on yourself and neglect your partner, you will fail the dance even if you can do all the fancy steps and embellishments in the world. After all, tango is a social activity that requires good manner. Learning tango is much more than learning steps. It is learning how to cope and be one with another person. Unfortunately, this very important perspective is often neglected.

Tango as a Philosophy

2011-04-30T12:37:00.069-05:00

Tango is a complex and deep art form. It implies different things to different people. To a beginner, it’s steps. To a master, it’s feeling and interpretation of the music. To a man, it’s leading. To a woman, it’s following. To a milonguero, it’s a social activity for personal enjoyment. To a stage dancer, it’s a performance for entertaining an audience. To a musician, it’s a music genre. To a thinker, it’s a philosophy. To a foreigner, it’s a dance. To Argentines, it’s a culture and life style... We all dance differently for who we are and what philosophy we have.

Tango philosophy involves issues that make us defferent. The following is an incomplete list of such issues. Each may have many answers. Every dancer entitles his/her own opinions. Some may be more or less “correct” or “incorrect”. Others may just be personal preferences and neither right nor wrong. But collectively these opinions and preferences define the way each of us dances and behaves, and divide us into different groups. Studying and exchanging opinions on these issues may not only help us better our own dance and tango community, but also help us understand, tolerate, and learn from each other. It may also help to reduce the distinctions between different styles and achieve mastery through a comprehensive grasp of all aspects of tango.

1. What is tango?
2. Why do we dance tango?
3. What do men want from women in tango?
4. What do women want from men in tango?
5. The gender roles in tango
6. Masculinity vs. femininity
7. Sexual intimacy vs. non-sexual intimacy
8. Close embrace vs. open embrace
9. Movement orientation vs. music/feeling orientation
10. Social tango vs. performance tango
11. Personal enjoyment vs. showoff
12. Classic tango music vs. alternative music
13. Age and styles
14. Cultural bias and impacts
15. Lead vs. follow
16. Individuality vs. partnership
17. Dictation vs. conversation
18. Active follow vs. passive follow
19. Tango partnership vs. real-life partnership between opposite sexes
20. Simple movement vs. fancy movement
21. Compact movement vs. wide movement
22. Fast movement vs. slow movement
23. Monotony vs. variations
24. Rhythm vs. melody
25. Romanticism vs. gymnastics
26. Improvisation vs. choreography
27. Elegance vs. comfort
28. Inner beauty vs. outer beauty
29. Simplicity vs. complexity
30. Innovation vs. tradition
31. Free expression vs. milonga code
32. Tango as a dance vs. tango as a culture
33. Cabeseo vs. verbal invitation
34. Buenos Aires vs. international
35. Elitism vs. community
36. Highbrowism vs. populism

Walk

2011-01-27T19:15:00.028-06:00

The traditional tango pedagogy gives great emphasis on walk. In those days, tango masters spend a great length of time teaching walk before they start any figures. There are good reasons for that. First, tango is a walking dance. No other dance does so much walk as tango does in the dance. Second, there is a relationship between walk and dance. Those who can walk well usually dance well. Those who do not dance well, their walk usually sucks. Third, walk is the simplest step of all steps, yet it is the foundation upon which other more complicated steps evolve. If one cannot do the simplest step well, it is less likely that he can do complicated steps well, and his problem usually can be traced back to walk. Finally, because walk is the simplest step, it can be effectively used in training other basic skills, such as embrace, posture, connection and musicality. People new to tango cannot distribute their attention equally well to too many elements while learning complicated figures. They need to develop good embrace, posture, connection and musicality before learning complicated stuffs, not after or at the same time. In order to train basic skills, the exercise needs to be kept simple, and walk is a perfect way to achieve that.

The lack of basic trainings in the tango scene of North America is due in many ways to a lack of sufficient walk training. American culture holds that learning must be fun and painless. Our schools have the most entertaining environment and least homework. Our teachers do not want to bore students with dull drills, and our pupils want to get fancy before they can walk, which they think they can already.

Nothing is farther from the truth. You look normal till people see you trying to learn tango. In fact, everyone looks clumsy and funny in his or her first tango walk. That is because walking in a close embrace is not something you often do. You are uncomfortable to lean on somebody you don’t know. You feel awkward to walk backward. You do not step on the beat. Your leg does not reach back far enough. Your behind sticks up and knees bend too much. You bounce up and down like a grasshopper, or wobble side to side like a chimpanzee. Your body is not flexible enough for the twist needed when walking on the side of your partner. You break the connection with your partner, or drag your partner out of his/her balance… Until you regain your comfortable zoon in the embrace, you are not ready for the next step. That is why walk is so important. It is simple. It keeps you focused. In fact it is not just walk, it is about everything fundamental: embrace, posture, connection, musicality, balance, flexibility, communication, elegance, and harmony.

Lead and Follow

2010-08-23T14:09:00.123-05:00

When our emotion is stirred by a beautiful song, often our body reacts to the music with a rhythmic motion, whether it's nod, shrug, tap, or swing. A similar reaction occurs when a man dances tango. The rhythmic motion of his body contains a force with dynamics and direction perceptible by his partner, who is connected to him in the embrace, telling her how and where he is moving.

His partner, too, is listening to and stirred by the same music, although she does not initiate the movement. She now is not on her own but in unity with him in the embrace. As follower she restrains her own reaction to the music, surrenders herself to him and lets him lead her.

He leads her by sending her a signal with a little impulse through his torso against hers. The signal is quite subtle, almost unobservable by others, but she can feel it. Using torso to lead is a characteristic that distinguishes Argentine tango from other partner dances. It is a very intimate and comfortable way to lead.

A common mistake of a tall man is trying to use his chest to lead a short women. To do so he has to bend his knees and waist, resulting in a bad posture. Man who is much taller than his partner needs to use the stomach to lead in order to maintain a straight posture. Another common mistake is using hands to drag or push the follower instead of using torso to lead, or sending mixed signals by torso and hands not moving in the same direction. Experienced leader keeps the signal from his torso and hands consistent so the follower would not get confused.

Upon receiving the signal the follower acts in an “exaggerated” fashion. That is, she moves farther than what the leader proposes. Since she dances around him who is in the center, she in the periphery needs to make bigger steps around him. Some women take the signal too literally and they do not amplify their steps, leaving the leader little choice but pushing harder. Experienced follower knows that a signal is just a hint or invitation, and it's up to her to make the big leap forward. The more experienced the follower, the subtler the signal, and the smoother the dance.

After the signal, the motion of his torso continues, but the leader holds his leg just slightly to allow the follower step first, and then follows her. If he does not wait, she will feel being pushed. For her to enjoy dancing with him, her movement should be her own action and not a forced one. Waiting and stepping after her also give the leader an opportunity to adjust his step to match hers, thus make the dance coherent. A common mistake is that the leader starts to lead the next step without completing his weight change from one leg to the other. As a result, the follower, who is connected to him, has not completed her weight change either, but is rushed to make the next step before she is ready. On the other hand, a common mistake of the follower is initiating her movement that conflicts the lead. The follower should not anticipate the next move, but wait and follow the lead.

Another common mistake of a follower is not keeping her own balance, thus dragging the leader out of his balance. A good follower is neither heavy nor too light, neither stiff nor too soft. It's strenuous to dance with a heavy woman, but if she is too light he can’t feel her. It's not pleasant to dance with a rigid woman, but if she is like spaghetti he can’t enjoy her either. A good follower is relaxed, comfortable to hold in the arms, surrendered with slight resistance, self-balanced, and remaining in control of herself. Some women tend to be tense in the embrace, and they release their tension through head or hands against the leader, which causes heaviness on him. Everyone has his/her own way to release tension. It is preferable to release tension through feet to the ground.

A good follower follows by intuition so she can concentrate on the music rather than the lead. The leader does his part to lead her dance to the music, but he can only do so by estimating the beat. If the beat is already on, then it is too late to signal her. The problem with estimating is that he can't be one hundred percent accurate at all time, especially when a song has irregular rhythms, and many of them do. Very often, his signal is slightly too early or late. For this reason, the follower should listen to the music and be responsible for keeping her own beat. If she only concentrates on the lead, she will miss the beat more often than she thinks.

Tine Herreman wrote: “For the follower, the music is an added lead, which is additional to the leader's lead. The more experienced the leader, the more his lead and music lead will converge to form a harmonious message. This is one of the things that make a good leader easy to dance with. Familiarity with the music helps the follower anticipate the rhythmic structure of the lead. The leader can rely on the follower's knowledge of the music to interpret his hints. Also, the follower can use the embrace to alert the leader that she wants to interject some musical interpretation of her own, for example, slowing something down to go with a wall of violins, or a freeze when the follower knows a break is coming. Followers are well aware of the opposite situation where the leader leads one thing and the music another, where the timing is off either by being out of sync, or out of phase with the rhythmic structure of the music, phrases pass by like they don't exist, breaks/suspensions are ignored and walked over, and ganchos/boleos are led without the least bit provocation from the music. In such situations the follower has to choose to commit to one lead and tune out the other lead.”

I'M A MILONGUERO AGAIN -A Conversation between Milena Plebs and Mariano 'Chicho' Frumboli

2010-06-26T08:26:00.005-05:00

Milena Plebs (M): I would like to talk to you about the contribution that we dancers and teachers can make from our experience to those who are learning.

Mariano 'Chicho' Frumboli (CH): Each day that we go to a milonga, do an exhibition or a show, we are writing tango history, and this is a contribution. Many young people have gotten involved with tango; we are living the beginning of a powerful era. The genre is here to stay, there is no way that it will become hidden or marginalized again. It is constantly evolving.

M: But sometimes those who are starting lose themselves in all the multiple options.

CH: They are completely lost! I learned with the last great milongueros, I took the information directly from them. Those who are starting to dance don't have this experience, they learn instead from an intermediate generation that I am a part of; we are a nexus between these old dancers and those who are younger. The problem is that we missed something in the teaching. I take total responsibility, and other colleagues should do so as well. I can't pass on what I have learned. I was crazy about creating, because I saw a new vein in the evolution of the movement. I threw myself into that, and I lost the way to be able to pass on the tango essence that I have very much inside. Because of this I feel that lately there are a lot of people who don't understand or know what the real essence of this dance is.

M: You have been dancing for fifteen years. What changes have you noticed in the dance?

CH: Before, people worked with precision and a particular aesthetic, in a functional and mechanical way that gave it a form, and a style. Making a movement or taking a step implied an expression of the entire body. Currently, not only has the essence been lost but the weight of the dance as well, its density and importance. To me, this new tango lost a bit of the respect for what tango is.

M: The knowledge that the milongueros passed on to us intuitively, the indescribable flavor in the way they moved is lost.

CH: Yes, it took me five months to get on the dance floor of the milonga of Almagro, I didn't dare to, and I went every Sunday only to watch. One breathed an air of respect that cannot be found now. Maybe I still feel it in some milongas like Glorias Argentinas, La Baldosa or in places that are further from the circuit of younger tango. I also took that essence from you and the dancers of your generation. I feel that the people of today are not motivated, they don't want to work or research. They don't want to go to the bottom of the situation; they stay on the surface. This also has to do with the new movements and dynamics that are used, if they are not performed with some power they turn out cold.

M: The internal discourse of the movement is as important as the external form.

CH: Ten years ago, when I went to milongas, I could stay watching a couple go once around the entire dance floor because there was something that attracted me, made me keep my eyes on them. Today I don't watch for more than twenty seconds because they are all the same. You see a couple circling and the next one behind them is doing the same thing, and the rest as well. There isn't anything that attracts me, which excites me. Except if I go to the few traditional places that are left.

M: Do you think that the people who dance automatically or repeating formulas could do it in a more internal way?

CH: This demands a lot of things! You know it, because you are a teacher as well, that currently the available tango pedagogy is much more decoded than ten years ago and so it is easier to learn. Today you do a volcada and a colgada and it is the same because they are there, commercially speaking, in the same package. Then, between doing a sandwichito or a volcada, people do a volcada, because it's more eye-catching. In tango people are self-centered; there is much individuality. They are not going to make a sandwichito to enjoy that moment, but whatever shows them more and better. In the musical field Astor Piazzolla broke with everything but you listen to it and it is tango. And today in the dance many think that they are Piazzolla and they aren't. I see men and women that only worry about how they are seen from the outside. It is a pretty complicated situation because it has to do with a very porteño personality and identity.

M: But the milongueros from other times were also porteños.

CH: Yes, but those milongueros had respect, delicacy and sensibility. It was totally different. I know my role is contradictory, because I also collaborated in generating this young movement. In its moment I got tired of the strict milonguero codes that didn't correspond with my time and to rebel I tried to make my way. Today I'm a milonguero again (laughter). I'm against the people who do not cabecear (nod), who don't have codes or respect. The value of tango has been diluted. That is why I say that many dancers are lost, they barely hold on to each other to dance and for two hours like zombies, it is very sad.

M: Sometimes I notice a competition between new currents that allow more ample movements, where the dancers use more space, and those who defend traditional tango with a closed embrace.

CH: There's something surprising about that. There are the traditionalists who defend roots to the death and then there are those modern or alternative dancers, in other words, new tango. But if you think about it there is nothing in the middle. The traditionalists complain about the modern ones contending that they don't dance tango, instead they do gymnastics, and the modern dancers complain that the others got stuck in time. There is no fusion, it is one group against the other, and it makes me sad because in reality we are all together.

M: Do you have any wish in relation to tango? Any pending undertaking?

CH: I'm going to tell you a story. I was into rock-and-roll; I had long hair and played the drums. I hated tango, I didn't like it one bit, I couldn't even listen to it. But when I went to take a class with Ricardo Barrios and Victoria Vieyra, I embraced my dance partner for the first time and I got goose bumps. I said, "there's something going on here..." and I never stopped. That magical moment was my beginning. On the other hand, a few years ago I went to the "La Trastienda" milonga organized by Horacio Godoy. I walked in and I saw you. I wanted to dance with you but second-guessed myself. I went back and forth until I asked you. I remember we were talking, then we embraced each other and in that moment I felt 40 years of tango. In the embrace, do you understand? We hadn't taken a single step! It was simply from the way in which you held me. For me that was the most powerful moment of the tanda. Then we danced for a long time. It was great, we did all sort of things, I enjoyed myself. But the moment of that embrace, like the one of my first class and some others, have marked me in regards to my relationship with the dance. I'm talking about the intimacy of the embrace. With very few people have I been able to feel the same way, much has been lost.

My wish for the dance of tango, then, is that the shared intensity returns, in the soul. Not to stay in the surface, but to feel it inside. That the genre evolves from that intimacy. The essence of tango is in the embrace and the person you are dancing with.

M: What else can I say? Thank you!

* From El Tangauta, a monthly tango magazine from Buenos Aires, December 2009

The Alienation of Tango

2010-06-17T23:59:00.015-05:00

I never saw a dance that is as self-destructive as tango. Unlike other dances, tango music allows interpretations so dancers may treat it at their will. Also unlike other dances, the steps of tango do not have fixed configurations. Dancers are free to improvise and create when they dance. This rather untrammeled nature of tango induces dramatic changes to the dance at times like this when free-spirited foreigners pour in, bringing in too many foreign influences to the dance.

Whatever things people do, there are always some who tend to cross the line. Tango is without exception. We humans seek freedom, yet unrestrained freedom defeats itself. Our forefathers understood the danger of this human nature. That’s why they created a political system of checks and balances and the rule of law. Tango outside of Argentina, however, is a lawless society. People do whatever they please to exercise their free wills. They replace tango embrace with an open hold, supersede tango music with alternative tunes, exchange male and female roles, and adopt non-tango elements, such as underarm turns, high kicks and body lifts, into the dance. Now you go to a milonga in America, you often hear exotic music of foreign lands and see rogues of all kinds dancing wild. It is still called tango, but the essence of tango has been changed. There is nothing resemble the milongas in Buenos Aires.

Tango is a free dance, but it is not a you-can-do-whatever-you-want dance. It has its characteristics. For example, it is a close-embrace dance. Breaking the embrace and drifting the partners apart is not tango. Tango is an intimate and passionate dance. It lies in the feelings stirred by the music. In fact, tango is more about feelings than steps. No matter how many new steps people try to create, without feelings it is not tango. Tango is a macho dance. It is danced by a man and a woman and contains the beauty of both masculinity and femininity. The man is the leader who leads, protects and shines the woman. The woman is the follower who surrenders to the lead. Refusal of surrender, switching the roles or making tango a same-sex dance is against tango. Tango is danced to the music specifically created for the dance. Foreigners often do not know that the magic of tango is in its music, which connects the dancers, stirs up their emotions, synchronizes their movements, and inspires their creativities. Changing tango music to non-tango tunes, the dance ceases to be tango.

No one can stop the reform of a dance that invites free expressions, I suppose. Only time will tell which reforms may sustain. Tango has gone through the same trial for one hundred and fifty years. Whatever changes people attempt to bring in today must have been tried by others before. Most of those changes did not stay. The current form of tango, including its music, steps and codes as being practiced in Buenos Aires, is the survivor of the fitness among zillions of attempts to alter the dance along its history. Tango will continue to evolve, of course. But its evolution will be in the same direction that makes it tango. Any attempts to make tango a non-tango dance or hybrid will fail. If not so, tango would have stopped being the tango danced in Buenos Aires today long ago.

Tango Moment

2010-05-08T21:49:00.070-05:00

Sometimes I go to a milonga and I cannot find tango. I only see people doing steps, but there is no emotional involvement and emotional connection between them. Everybody is busy doing steps. They think they are dancing tango, but there is no tango.

Just like words and punctuation marks are not an essay but tools we use to write an essay, steps and footwork are not tango but tools we use to dance tango. Tango lies in the emotional connction between a man and a woman when they dance. This emotional connection occurs only when they both connect to the music. It does not usually happen between beginners who do not know the music and are not techniquely and emotionally ready for the dance. That is why mature dancers prefer to dance with an equal partner. The two partners feel an emotional connection between them when they both know and connect to the music. In that moment they are no longer two persons, but one, sypathetic to each other's feeling and body language, stirred by the music to do what the music inspires them. Only in that moment they find tango.

To experience tango, you need to be emotionally involved. You need to know the music well and respond to it intuitively. You need to emotionally connect to your partner, be sensitive to his/her response to the music. And, of course, you need a compatible partner who can connect equally well to you and the music. Nobody experiences tango all the time, at every milonga and with every partner. But once you experience it you will want to experience it again and again. It impacts your soul. It is magic and unforgettable.

Cabeceo

2010-03-15T19:36:00.010-05:00

I don’t know her name. She looked like in her early 30s, sitting with her girl friend, who was about the same age. They sat across the room in the women’s section, chatting and not dancing. I had an impression that they were not interested in dancing, only came to watch and spend some time together, which was not uncommon in Buenos Aires.

While they were talking, she looked across the room at me. But I didn’t pay much attention because I didn’t think she wanted to dance. It was more like that she looked at my direction while having a conversation with her girl friend. I avoided her eyes and searched for other potential partners. Occasionally, her girl friend went to dance, but she never took any invitation, just sat there watching. When her girl friend returned they resumed their conversation.

I danced a lot that night. Every time I returned to my table, I saw the two girls were still talking, and she was still looking at my direction. But I chose to ignore her. I didn’t think she wanted to dance, or even could dance. However, I kept my eyes at her girl friend, who was a very good dancer. The girl must have noticed that, for at one point I saw she talked to her girl friend while looking at me, as if she was telling her I was watching her. But her girl friend only gave me a brief look and quickly turned her eyes away. Only she still gazed at me.

At that moment it suddenly dawned on me that maybe she wanted to dance with me. She might not be a good dancer but I was willing to give a try since she had being looking at me for so long. I nodded at her, and she nodded back. To make sure she was responding to my cabeceo, I turned my head around to see if she was nodding at someone else, but I saw no others making eye contact with her. So I stood up and walked across the room towards her. She stared at me all the way until I reached her table. “A very patient girl! Persistent, confident and brave!” I thought while I was walking. That was one thing I learned that night from this girl.

I was wrong about her. She was an excellent dancer, even better than her impressive girl friend. Her beautiful and stylish footwork showed solid techniques that could only result from years of training. In fact, only a professional could dance the way she did with such control, elegance and precision. She told me she was a stage dancer. I was curious why a stage dancer like her would come to a social milonga to dance tango milonguero. “This is not your style. Why do you come here to dance?” I asked. She looked at me for a moment and said, “There are too many good young dancers on the stage. I can’t compete with them any more. I am old…”

Notes on Musicality

2009-11-02T23:26:00.036-06:00

Dance to the music, be calm and unhurried, go slow. If you miss a beat, wait for the next. Take your time to finish the movement, do not rush to catch up the beat, do not be afraid of waiting, use slow motion and pause. Tango challenges your multi-tasking ability, and among all the tasks you have to perform, listening to the music is your first priority. You dance the music, not the steps. Do not fix your attention solely on the movement and forget about the music.

If a tango is mono-rhythmic, it is palling to dance to. But if its rhythm is too irregular and unpredictable, it is not suitable for dance either. Not all tangos are created for dance. There were periods in Argentine history that tango as a dance was banned, but musicians continued to produce tango music for listening and not dancing. A good DJ knows the difference and plays only the best danceable tangos at a milonga.

A danceable tango has a clear rhythm with variations that are interesting but not too difficult to follow. In fact, a good, danceable tango often contains layers of rhythms and melodies, but there is usually a dominant rhythm and melody interwound with subordinate ones. Dancers can choose to follow the dominant rhythm or melody, or the subordinate ones, or jump from one to another, depending on their interpretations of the music and how they want to express their feelings in the moment. Some dancers are more rhythmic. Others are more melodic. They develop different dance styles according to their musicality.

Within each piece of music there are different movements and phrases. Some are shorter; some are longer. Some are slower; some are faster. They express different emotions: sad, happy, romantic, sentimental, passionate, melancholy, and nostalgic… Dancing to the music not only means stepping on the beat, but also means dancing to the mood of the music. A good dancer steps on the beat. An excellent dancer dances to the mood of the music.

Tango music is quadruple time. It has four beats in each measure. The first and third beats are strong beats. The second and fourth beats are weak beats. The dancer usually steps on the strong beats, but there are many other possibilities. For example, one can step on the weak beats, or a combination of strong and weak beats, or just on any one beat or all beats, or make two steps on one beat, or pause to skip few beats, etc.

A small step takes less time. A larger step takes more time. A quick step takes less time. A slow step takes more time. A 180-degree turn takes longer time than a 90-degree turn, but shorter time than a 360-degree turn. A good dancer has the ability to use different tools to make very fast as well as very slow, very small as well as very large movements to play with the music.

A beat may last a fraction of a second. Although stepping anytime during that duration can be regarded as “stepping on the beat”, precision requires stepping on the beginning, not the end, of the beat. A good dancer, however, can use the duration of the beat to delay or catch up time, to adorn a footwork, to prolong a movement, to sustain a posture, and to change the rhythm by shortening one step in order to elongate another, or vice versa.

Dancing to the music means more than just stepping on the beat. It also means dancing with cadencia. Cadencia is the correspondence of the motion of the body with the music. The body produces a momentum in each step when it is in motion. By increasing and then halting the motion, one can maneuver the momentum to create a lilt, swing, or cadence. The cadence is in horizontal rather than vertical direction, like waves of motion across each step in correspondence with the rhythmic flow of the music, adding more sensation to the dance. The ability to dance with cadencia is one of the things that mark a good dancer. It is a challenging task due to the variation and complication of the rhythmic pattern of tango music.

Too many tango students pay too much attention on learning visible movements than invisible musicality, but what is invisible is more important than what is visible. Musicality is an art that only few master. Unless you master it you can’t reach excellence.

Mirta

2009-10-29T22:35:00.059-05:00

At Milonga de los Consagrados there was a woman who caught my attention. Her waist was so flexible that she could twist her lower body over 90 degree from her upper body. In such twisted position she had plenty rooms to maneuver her legs and could step in any direction while her upper body was connected to her partner's torso.

When doing front ochos, her upper body and lower body seemed disassociated. She only turned her lower body and stepped forward to one side of her partner. Then, she turned her hips 180 degree and stepped to the other side of her partner. While making these movements of her lower body, her upper body was constantly connected to her partner's torso. At the end of the ocho sequence, she first turned her hips to face leader's side, crossed her free leg and kept it stylishly bent, then turned back her hips to face the leader before landing the free foot and changing weight. She did so with elegance and beauty. No matter how complex the movement seemed, she executed it with ease and style. No matter how fast the music sounded, she remained calm and unhurried, giving herself time to complete the movement, yet still managed to finish the step on the beat. She was a master of tango and had an extraordinary musicality.

I liked the way she was dancing and had a desire to dance with her, so I stared at her intensely and did not let my eyes move away. Eventually I caught her attention. As her eyes met mine I nodded at her and she nodded back. So I walked towards her, keeping my eyes at her all the way until I was standing a few steps in front of her. She gave me a smile, stood up, walked towards me, and let me hold her in my arms. We started to dance.

She was an incredible dancer, light, but not too light, followed perfectly, as if she knew in advance where I wanted her to go, but she always waited for the lead and never initiated a move. She had such a beautiful line and danced with such elegance that I could not help but want to let her shine. Every time I led her do an ocho, I gave her extra time to show her style. We danced in perfect harmony and satisfaction. When we finished the tanda she said she wanted to give me her card. I walked her back to her seat. She took out a card from her purse and handed it to me. On it there printed “Mirta Mark, Profesora Nacional de Danzas”. “Let me know where you will be,” she said, “so we can dance again.”

We danced again a few days later at Club Gricel. She didn’t feel very well that day, but she came to dance with me anyway because I was leaving Buenos Aires next Monday. Unfortunately the floor was too crowded on the weekend and we couldn’t dance the way we would like to dance. I sent her an e-mail to say goodbye next morning. In her response she wrote, “These things do not happen every day…If you think the same way, let’s continue to write…and who knows, we may again have the opportunity, in Argentina or USA, to enjoy our dance and maybe an exquisite dinner…”

I miss that wonderful moment dancing with her, and am looking forward to that day!

Push (II)

2009-09-18T01:54:00.047-05:00

To simplify things, I use the word PUSH as a general reference to indicate a lead that is slightly forceful. There may be proper reasons for the leader to use such leads, such as when he wants the follower to make a faster turn or make a larger step. There may also be improper reasons, such as when he intends to force the follower do things beyond her ability. Whatever the motivation, that lead may or may not be followed perfectly. When it is followed perfectly, we don’t have a problem. When it is not followed perfectly, from the follower’s perspective it feels like pushy or pully. When that happens, it is an indication that the relationship between the two partners needs some adjustments. In a previous post, I discussed some of the causes from both the leader and follower’s perspectives. I believe both sides have issues to be addressed. The discord can only be resolved by cooperative efforts, not by the leader alone.

In Buenos Aires I noticed that, in general, Argentine woman dancers are more adaptive to the lead than their North American counterparts. Other than skill levels, there may also be cultural reasons behind this, since Argentina is known as a macho society, whereas American culture is heavily influenced by individualism and feminism. Many American women are not used to the physical closeness and surrender required by the dance. They are more independent and less accommodating than Argentine women. In response to the same lead, an Argentine woman may turn faster or make a larger step, while her American counterpart may say, “Don’t push me!”

Some theories created by some American tango instructors reflect a cultural bias. Such as “It is always the leader’s fault.” If the follower is not stepping where the leader intends, then it is the leader's fault because his lead must not be clear. If it is clear, then it is too pushy because the lead should be suggestive and should be as subtle as if there is no physical contact, as these instructors believe. But if the follower fails to follow such a lead, then it is still the leader's fault because that lead is beyond her ability to follow. The leader should lead according to her level and then wait for her to move at her pace, even though that pace is off beat or she is doing her own thing regardless of the lead. I just don't buy the logic behind this kind of talk. I think it is one-sided and follower-centered.

“There is NEVER a reason to push a follower” is another one. I recently attended a workshop about how to use push as a leading technique. There are many reasons to use this technique. For example, the follower is not always familiar with the music and you need to lead her rather than letting her dance off beat. When the music has different intervals, you need to hold the movement, or accelerate it, or decelerate it. Sometimes you push the follower to make a larger step to accommodate a prolonged note, or push her move faster to adapt the accelerating music, or slow her down if she is too hurry. Most women I have partnered with appreciate such lead because it helps them to dance to the music.

It is true that too often push is used improperly. The follower may interpret the music differently from the leader by accident. She may need more time to finish a step. The leader should allow her time and freedom to be an active part of the dance and accommodate her as much as possible (as the music allows). Just as the undersdanding of the follower's perspective could help the leader to adjust his lead, the understanding of the leader's perspective could help the follower to be more coordinative. I prefer a balanced view and not just blame one partner for everything, or just ask one partner to listen to the other. I believe tango is a dialogue between the two partners, who should listen to each other, adjust themselves to each other, and allow each other to make mistakes sometims. However, I also believe tango is a led dance in which the leader's role is to lead and the follower's role is to follow, not the other way around.

This post is a response to the following comment http://groups.yahoo.com/group/cu-tango-discuss/message/103

Close Embrace and Open Embrace (IV)

2009-09-16T03:54:00.026-05:00

Dancing close embrace is so comfortable that I have heard time and again from my partners that they felt like a baby lulled to sleep and did not want to wake up when the tanda ended. The beautiful music and rhythmic motion have a hypnotic effect to the dancers, especially followers, causing them fall deeply into a state of meditation or dreaming. Some dancers describe it as intoxication or euphoria. Others call it duende, as the dancers appear to be possessed by a spirit that gives rein to the dance.

Unlike in open embrace where fancy movements are made to impress, in close embrace simple steps are used to pleasure the partner. When impression is the goal, movement is the center of attention and the partner becomes secondary. When pleasure is the goal, the partner becomes the center of attention and movement is secondary. The two styles emphasize totally different things. What open embrace is after in an effort to impress is precisely what close embrace wants to avoid. The chief principle of close embrace is to pleasure the partner. The dancers are not in a position to challenge each other with difficult footwork. They are in a position to give comfort to each other. The goal is to achieve euphoria or duende. Every movement is aimed at that end; any thing contradictory to that end is avoided.

That does not mean that close embrace neglects the artistic quality of the dance. Tango at its very root is a close-embrace dance. Some of the most beautiful tangos ever danced are danced in close embrace. The beauty of close embrace lies in the compactness, simplicity, intimacy and elegance of the movement. Unlike in open embrace where each dancer keeps his/her own axis and balance, in close embrace the two dancers lean on each other for support, their bodies are slightly bent from a vertical position, resulting in a frame and line that is different from that in open embrace. Dancing in that posture requires techniques and skills that are uniquely close-embrace, deferent, but equally elegant and beautiful when done well.

Legendary photographer Joe McNally commented on a photograph he entitled Paloma Herrera’s Feet: “Beauty and pain go hand-in-hand—especially in the world of dance. Paloma wasn’t happy about it, but I asked her to take off her shoes at the end of a workout. Her feet were a mess.” I am aware of the pain a ballerina has to endure in order to reach perfection, but I use this story to make another point. There is a philosophical difference between dance for show and dance for pleasure. When asked whether comfort or elegance is more important in tango and should a dancer sacrifice either one in favor of the other, my teacher milonguero Ruben Ayber answered, “What is comfortable should also be elegant. What is elegant should also be comfortable.” True tango masters do not compromise beauty for comfort, nor do they compromise comfort for beauty, because to them beauty and comfort go hand-in-hand.

Close Embrace and Open Embrace (III)

2009-09-10T11:20:00.040-05:00

The feeling of dancing close embrace is very different from that of dancing open embrace. When two partners are in a close embrace, the male leader feels his female follower’s soft, springy, flexible and responsive body. She surrenders herself to him, melting in his embrace and becoming an obedient part of him. Whatever he does, she follows wholeheartedly. As he leads her dancing, her body twists to his left and right, her breasts rub his chest, her thigh touches his thigh, her muscles relax and tense, and her whole body adapts ingeniously and femininely to his changing posture... All these generate a very pleasant feeling and sensation. He feels a real flesh-and-blood woman. He enjoys her company. The beauty of her body and her femininity excite him. He enjoys that moment being with her because only she as a woman can stir the feelings within him that make him a man, strong, in charge, protective, and dependable, just as only he as a man can stir within her the feelings that she enjoys as a woman. His masculinity, strength, support and protection let her feel safe, loved, and beautiful. In his embrace she returns to her womanhood and childhood again. Only in that moment she can truly feel and enjoy being a woman, as in real life she has to be less. Tango is known as a refuge, and it has to be danced between a man and a woman to have that effect. When tango is danced by men or women alone, something mysterious and magic is missing. And that to me is anti tango. I know some may argue with me about this. But, hey, that’s me. I like women and enjoy a dance that contains the beauty of both masculinity and femininity.

But that is not all. If close embrace is physical and sensuous, then it is also romantic and poetic. No one has described this aspect better than Eugene Grigoryev in his essay What Is Tango? I want to quote the essay in its entirety here because I cannot say it better than Eugene, and the description of close embrace would not be complete without a depiction of this inward, heavenly, dreamy and soulful feeling. The following is the entire quote of Eugene’s masterpiece.

“Tango is more than just a dance or a sequence of steps. It is an expression of our emotions, an inner reflection of who we are and what we experience, a way to channel what we feel through movement. Tango is a language of expressing what we feel through motion, stirred in us by music, in unison with our partner. It comes into your lives in many different ways, as simple interest, a hobby, or a fascination… and ever so slowly it becomes an addiction.

A simple look, a gesture, a smile, an eye contact, his askance to lead, her acceptance to be led, all done without any need of verbal communication. As the music compels them, she comes close to him, they embrace… they feel each other breathe, they feel the passionate song unfold, it flows through their bodies, invigorating them, stirring emotions, which they both share… they can be strangers in real life, but as long as they are in this tango moment, they can be anyone they want… You don't have to know the person or even want to know them. Time ceases to exist during this moment, both dancers are moving to the music, listening for it to tell them what to do… they slow down, pause, accelerate, suspend, all in the moment… almost as being possessed by the music. Outside of this moment is the real world, with its everyday problems, solutions, responsibilities, deadlines… but not here, not now… Now it is only tango, a refuge, a moment of surreal experience of desire, longing… words are not meant to describe it.

The social aspect of milonga is fascinating. It holds anticipation, surprise, heavenly music, moments of contact and separation. The challenge and satisfaction of rhythmically moving in unison with another person is what lures us to Tango. The experience is both physical and surreal. In three minutes of a song, you can experience a rollercoaster of emotions, but you will not experience them alone. For those three minutes there will be a person embracing you, sharing what they are feeling with you… all without a single word being spoken… pure, raw emotions expressed through motion.”

http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note%20id=39585867347

Close Embrace and Open Embrace (II)

2009-09-03T03:08:00.019-05:00

Close embrace and open embrace are like two different dances. The two styles have little in common in their structures, techniques, feelings, and philosophies (what tango is about, why people dance tango, the role of the partners, and principles of partnership), so different that people who can dance one style may not be able to dance the other style without learning. I know this from my personal experience. When I first tried to dance close embrace after three years of dancing open embrace, I had no clue how to do it because everything, including posture, connection, axis, balance, space, movement possibilities, and the way to lead and follow, changed.

In fact, open embrace has more in common with ballroom dancing than tango. Just as in a standard ballroom dance, in open embrace the two partners are apart by an arm length without torso connection. Each partner is on his/her own axis independent to the other, so the two partners do not rely upon each other for balance. Theoretically, the leader is supposed to lead with his torso. But since there is no torso connection between the partners, the leader tends to use hands to lead. This is especially true when one or both partners are inexperienced dancers. The feeling of dancing open embrace is just like dancing another standard ballroom dance. No comfort of embracing another person. No sensation of the partner’s body movement. No dreamy feelings stirred by the rythmic motion of the dance. No intimacy between the partners. The fun of dancing open embrace mainly comes from a broader range of movement possibilities due to the increased space between the partners. Basically each partner enjoys his/her own movements. They do not enjoy the physical existence of the other person.

I like to dance open embrace just as I like to dance ballroom dances. It is spectacular, intricate, dazzling, and showy. But that is not the reason why I love tango. The reason I love tango is found in close embrace: its togetherness, inwardness, simplicity, subtlety and depth; its sentimentalism, intimacy, sensuousness, physicality and coziness. In close embrace, the two partners lean into each other, chest against chest, cheek touches cheek; her head rests on his shoulder, his arm holds her back, and hers around his neck. In such closeness the two partners literarily feel each other’s breaths, hear each other’s heartbeats, smell each other’s perfume, and sense each other’s impulses. They are not two persons, but one, depending on each other for balance. There is a shared axis and little space between them. Consequently, the way they move their bodies is different from that in open embrace. The leader leads with his torso against the follower's and therefore does not need to use hands. The follower receives the lead with her chest. She closes her eyes, surrenders herself to him, and follows. It is a very comfortable position to be and dance in.

Close Embrace and Open Embrace (I)

2009-08-29T14:15:00.023-05:00

I like everything about Argentine tango: its music, passion, beauty, its artistic, sportive, social and recreational functions, and its culture (milonguero legends, milonga code, cabeceo, and even machismo, etc.). All of these, however, would not mean so much if tango were not danced between a man and a woman. As Susana Miller said, “If you like tango, then you like women.” Let’s face it, at bottom it is women that attract men to tango, and vice versa. Although to some degree that is true with all partner dances, tango is different. It is much more intimate, physical, and sensual.

One BBC commentator remarked, “Tango contains a secret about the yearning between men and women.” That is right on. The yearning, however, is not necessarily a sexual one. I believe tango fulfills a human need for intimacy between opposite sexes in a nonsexual way. Our society is so sex oriented that this innocent yearning between men and women has been deprived. Any intimacy between opposite sexes is deemed sexual and, therefore, is repressed either voluntarily or involuntarily. Men and women cannot be intimate unless they want to have sex. In other words, our culture does not approve innocent intimacy between the two sexes.

But Argentine tango represents a different view, or a culture, that recognizes and sanctions nonsexual intimacy. Tango is a product of that culture. In this context tango is not just a dance. It is a way by which that innocent human desire can be met with stylized sophistication and elegance under a set of rules designed to maintain the dignity and decency of the participants. (That is why milonga code is such an important part of tango.) The influence of tango to the world, I believe, will be far more cultural than artistic. Tango is now becoming a worldwide phenomenon for a reason. It meets a fundamental human need: fulfilling that secret yearning between men and women.

But that aspect of tango is still new to Americans, as evidenced by the way we embrace tango. We dance tango as but another ballroom dance. We are not intimately engaged to each other in the dance. Many of us still shy away from close embrace and prefer to use open embrace instead, which, although rarely seen in Buenos Aires, is the dominant style in American tango scene. Cabeceo and milonga code are not taught and practiced at most milongas in the U.S. The general culture and atmosphere in our tango community is still more individualistic, competitive and even hostile than intimate, cooperative and friendly. Those who have been in Buenos Aires know what I compare with.

Push

2009-08-20T11:57:00.029-05:00

In Buenos Aires I danced with many portenas and I never heard any complains about pushing. Argentine women understand and accept tango as a macho dance. They know the way to avoid being pushed is to follow well. There is no need for the leader to push the follower if she moves in harmony with him. But if she fails to do so, a little push serves as a clue for her to keep in track--speed up, slow down, step on the beat, or step to the place where the leader wants her to be. In America, however, women are much more independent and less accommodating. They would say, “Don’t push me!” even when they failed to follow. When the follower refuses to surrender to the lead, partnership becomes impossible.

The problem partially comes from a misconception on how tango is led. We often hear teachers say, “The leader leads with his torso, not hands.” But that theory works only when the follower is an experienced dancer who knows how to follow. In reality, many followers can’t just follow the leader's torso without some help from his hands, especially in open embrace where there is no torso connection between the two partners. Even in close embrace, the milongueros still use their hands in combination with their torsos to lead.

An inexperienced follower may be pushed by the leader because she has not yet acquired sufficient techniques to dance tango. In tango, the leader dances around the floor and the follower dances around the leader. In order to do so the follower has to disassociate her lower body from her upper body at the waist so that her upper body and lower body can move in different directions. This disassociation of the upper and lower body gives woman a sexy appeal since she alternately turns her hips to the right and left while her upper body remains constant in connection with the leader. Woman who can’t disassociate her upper and lower body tends to detach her torso from the leader when she moves around him. Consequently she may feel the pressure from the leader in his attempt to prevent her from breaking the connection.

Another reason the follower may also be pushed is that she fails to dance to the music. To an experienced tango dancer, music is what gives the dance its soul. To dance tango is to share, enjoy and express that music through body language, movement and communication between two partners to achieve a harmonious agreement or unison with the music, and with each other. The satisfaction of dancing tango comes from that agreement or unison, and in his attempt to achieve it the leader may push the follower to dance to the music if she fails to do so.

On the other hand, arguments can be made to support the follower. Women want to be treated gently. Everybody comes for enjoyment. Nobody wants to be pushed. Each partner has a duty to make the other partner feel comfortable. For that reason a considerate leader should balance the interest of the partner with that of the dance, even sacrifice the dance for the sake of the partner. That means to accommodate to the partner’s ability rather than push her to the limit for the sake of the movement. Tango is a passionate dance. It’s easy to get so intense that some leaders may use too much force unconsciously, or hold the follower too tight without giving her enough room to maneuver. Also, hands should move only as an extention of the turning torso. If the leader uses his hands without turning his torso, that will send mixed messages, a common mistake by inexperienced leaders.

So there are adjustments to be made on both partners in order for them to reach harmony. Tango is a constant dialogue between two partners. Like in real life, sometimes one has to raise voice for the other to hear. The goal, however, is to reach tacit agreement with quiet whisper or even without words.

Obligation

2009-08-07T11:40:00.012-05:00

Sam offered Max, Rebecca and me a ride to the milonga we were going. The three of us gratefully accepted. It was a ten minutes drive. Since tango was the thing that brought us together, the conversation naturally centered on tango.

"I am fed up with the attitude in the milonga."

"I know what you mean."

"Some women are so arrogant as if they are too good to dance with beginners."

"Men too. I often sat there for hours but nobody came to dance with me."

"I remember the time when I just started. It was tough."

"My sister quit tango because she doesn’t like the hierarchy in the milonga."

"Well, this is the process one has to go through. It's a part of the tango experience."

"But why people have to be so snobby? "

"Everybody wants to have fun. If they are good, it's only natural they want to dance with their equals."

"Don’t good dancers have an obligation? If others didn't dance with them when they started, how could have they become good?"

"Better be nice to beginners. You never know how good someone can be in a couple of years."

"But most people don’t come to train others. They come to enjoy themselves. Besides, dancing with beginners may develop bad habits..."

"So you don’t think good dancers should dance with beginners?"

"Well, it depends..."

"How long have you danced?"

"Seven years."

There was a moment of silence after that. I felt tension.

Then, the topic changed to something else.

Why People Quit Tango

2009-08-05T17:00:00.004-05:00

Seldom we see people quit tango because of tango. Most often we see people quit tango because of people. When we dance tango we dance with people, and people are much more complicated than the dance itself. People have different interests, needs, style preferences, skill levels, phylosophies and attitudes, which are not easy to accommodate. People can be nice, kind, considerate, friendly and encouraging. Yet they can also be selfish, inconsiderate, rude, mean and discouraging. People can be as open-minded, tolerant and acceptant as they can be opinionated, discriminative, arrogant and snobby. And people have egos. They are easily hurt and difficult to forgive. It won’t take many misbehaviors to damage a tango community. To be a social dancer, one in fact has more to learn about people than what one has to learn about tango. Yes, it is important to improve our dance skills. But it is even more important to improve ourselves as persons, our skills in dealing with each other, and our dance community on which our tango experiences, whether good or bad, depend.