Tango Fundamentals Class
August, 2008, Lewisburg, PA
Paul Shrivastva & Michelle Cooper
Tango Elements – An Outline
Welcome to Argentine Tango. Originating Buenos Aires in 1890s the Tango has enthralled both dancers and audiences for over a hundred years. It is an improvisational social dance that embodies passion, and offers satisfying emotional connection between partners. But Tango is more than a dance. It also a special type of nostalgic lyrical music with a distinctive rhythm. Tango is also a culture within communities encompassing lessons, practices and Milongas, and in Argentina it is an entire life style.
Beginners Expectations. Most Americans get introduced to the tango via professional shows, done on stages with exaggerated movements, fancy leg flings, and considerable acrobatic stunts. Broadway and Hollywood have popularized this “show tango” image. And American tango or Ballroom tango or International tango dancing actually seeks to emulate these shows. But Argentine tango is none of these. It is a social dance. In Buenos Aires Milonga floors are so crowded that there is no place to do the fancy footwork.
Beginners should not expect to achieve show tango skills. Those skills take professional dancers many years of full time effort. More importantly, those skills are simply not needed to develop competent Tango capabilities.
A beginners tango class introduce you to walking, turning, stopping, navigation, musicality and some steps. Tango is a dance based on walking so you must practice this essential element. You already know how to walk, you just need to practice taking a partner with you. All great tango dancers work on their walk.
What is Argentine Tango? Argentine Tango is an improvisational dance based on the four building blocks of walking, turning, stopping and embellishments. The dance is like a puzzle of two bodies and four feet. Each dance is entirely improvised, unique and gets put together differently each time you dance. No two couples dance the same way to any tango song. Women and men bring their own unique interpretation of the music and their own styles and embellishments to the dance which makes each dance an exciting and unpredictable experience. Even though dancers follow certain conventions, they never quite know how someone will construct a dance, add an embellishment or interpret the music. The surprises possible within the dance are what make the dance so addicting. It really does take two to tango, because the dance isn't just about the man leading and the woman following. Both partners have important things to contribute—like all good conversations.
Tango as Communication: One way to look at Tango is as a silent bodily conversation with the music and among dancers. Dancers get cues from the music and from their partner. This conversation is not random. It is based on a musical and body language that must be mastered for the communication to succeed. Usually men lead and women follow, although in many communities you can see reversal of these roles or same gender couples. Leading and following are two generic skills that every tango dancer can develop. In both, it is crucial to give right signals to your partner and communicate both ways.
Leaders signal from the center of their chest/torso, expressing direction and energy of the movement. Step are used to guide feet movement. Other parts of the body (legs, thighs, arms, hands) can be used to indicate displacement, and invite or propose movements. Leading must be definitive and unambiguous, moving boldly without hesitation. The follower’s main role is to stay completely in the present, perceive the signals provided by the leader and follow exactly what is lead – nothing more and nothing less. Good followers do not anticipate and back-lead their leaders. In more advanced dancing followers do embellishments, may modify proposed steps, and make their own subtle proposals to leaders. But this level of dancing requires first building trust with leaders and gaining sufficient dancing skills.
Getting the Most out of Classes. The best way to learn Tango for beginners is to take classes. Yes, videos (YouTube has tons of them) and watching others dance can help. However, Tango cannot be learned that way because each step involves subtle simultaneous and necessary torso movements, weight shifts, timing, and steps. Sign up and attend regularly. Signing up and coming to one class a month here and there will just be frustrating.
Besides attending classes, be prepared to practice on your own. Practice can also be done in organized “practicas”. Pracitcas are dance sessions in which instructor(s) and peers help each other with steps. You can also seek out private lessons and group workshops by leading tango teachers in your area. Take ownership of your dance and develop a plan for how you want it to develop. Remember it takes many years to become really proficient in Argentine Tango. So don’t get frustrated if it is taking you months to get the basics.
After you've "walked your miles" you'll learn how to turn, how to stop momentarily on the floor, how to navigate a crowded floor, how to listen to and learn the various types of tango music and how to add your own signature to the dance in the form of embellishments. Because tango is an improvisational dance, you should also be exposed to that aspect of the dance as well. Tango is a dance you create on the fly with another person. It isn't about memorized steps that go together the same way every time.
Tango Gear. Dressing up is part of the allure of Tango. At Buenos Aires Milongas women wear sensual dresses or gowns, and mean wear styled suits. But at most American venues dressing varies widely from casual chic to formal. You want to look like you care about how you look. Dressing up honors the community in which you dance.
Tango is typically danced in shoes with leather bottoms. Women wear shoes with three to five inch heels and with straps to keep the shoes on feet. Men use pointed toes leather lace-up shoes with leather soles. There are shoes designed specifically for tango dancers, but your main consideration should be to find shoes that support your feet, don't squish your toes, and are comfortable enough to dance in for several hours. Use pads (Dr. Scholls foam pads or Spenco) to make long hours in shoes more comfortable. Ballroom dance shoes are not suitable because they have little to no support and suede soles. For practices and lessons you can use Jazz sneakers or dance practice shoes, or even just socks.
Line of Dance.Tango has a definitive line of dance - counterclockwise around a floor. Dancing against the line is a strict no no. Dancers try to stay on the outside edges of the floor and away from the center space. If you were able to look down on a tango dance floor, you'd see dancers move as if floating down a river—flowing smoothly forward sometimes and occasionally stopping for a spin in a shallow eddy. But stopping to execute a step of do a figure must be done without impeding the traffic on the floor. It is the leader’s responsibility to see where he is taking his partner and NOT bump into other couples. If you do accidentally bump into someone, apologize briefly and also after the dance is over.
Connection: Connection between partners is central to Tango. It has many meanings and modalities. Of course there is the physical connection between partners in the embrace. The embrace can be open (some distance between partners) or close (chest to chest stereo) or practice – hands on each others shoulders. In all these cases the connection involves a flow of energy and intention between partners. Then there is an emotional connection between partners for the duration of the dance. It reflects empathy, trust, and desire to dance together and create an aesthetic experience. And there is also a musical connection both with the music and with partner in which dancers reflect a joint understanding of the music and its kinetic consequences. Finally, there is a spatial connection with the dance floor and other couples on it. Dancers must be mindful of the floor as it interfaces with their bodies, of traffic pattern on the dance floor, of other couples around them. Experiencing and appreciating all these modes of connection is an important source of the joy of Tango.
General Outline
1. Tango Vocabulary, Music, Posture, Embrace, Axis,
Argentine tango versus American or International Tango
Types of Tango music – Tango, Vals, Milonga
Very short history of Argentine Tango
Warmup – stretches, Demo
Posture, grounding, moving with center
Embrace - Practice, open, close, changes, distance, comfort
Axis - Maintain your own axis, except on specific off-axis or shared axis steps
2. Tango Walk, Step-inside, outside, rock Step
Warmup
Walk straight feet, torso moves in contra
Quick and slow steps
Inside and outside steps
Rock steps – front, back, sides
3. The Basic Eight with Cross – Salida, Cruzada
Warmup
Cross Cruzada
Basic eight
Rock step cross
Milonga Etiquette
4. Basic Eight and Front ocho
Warmup
Review Basic eight
Front Ocho stationary lead
Front Ocho with step lead
Putting Ochos into dance
Tango Styles – Milonguero, Canyengue, Close/Open, Nuevo
5. Front ocho and Back ochos
Back Ocho – a traveling step, demo
Follower exercises – The Pivot, step around square
Leader exercises – duck walk, torso move
Sensitize to size of turn, size of step
Incorporate front and back ochos in dance
6. Musicality - Tango, Vals, and Milonga
Listen to Tangos, Valses, Milongas, Nuevo
Major orchestras – Rythms, beginnings, endings
Identifying rhythm and stepping on it
Musical phrases, and dancing to them
7. Steps and Figures
Turns, Giro, Molinetta, Pivots
8. Embellishments
Follower skills, Pauses, Slow downs, Speedups
Tango Words
Abrazio: embrace, dance hold / Lapiz: pencilAdorno: embellishment / Llevada: to lead, to carry
Amague: feint / Media Vuelta: half turn
Arrastre: sweeping action / Milonga: type of dance, place to dance
Barrida: to drag / Molinete: windmill, grapevine
Boleo: (Voleo) whipping action / Mordita: bite, sandwich
Cadena: chain, repeated movement / Ocho: figure eight
Calesita: carousel, circular movement / Ocho Cortado: cut, or interrupted figure eight
Cadencia: transfer of weight with no step / Parada: a stop
Caminata: continous walk / Pasada: pass over, woman stepping over mans foot
Carpa: tent position / Practica: tango training session
Colgada: hung, shared axis turns / Quebrada: break, corte'
Corrida: run / Sacada: displacement
Corte: cut, sudden stop / Salida: exit, go out, first movement when starting the dance
Cruzada: crossing, with legs crossed / Tanda: series of four or five dance melodies
Enganche: hooking action / Traspie': stumbling type movement
Enrosque: corkscrew / Volcada: tent, tilt, leaning position
Entrada: entrance
Firulete: quick embellishment without interrupting movement
Freno: braking action
Gancho: hook
Giro: turn, circular movement
Tango Styles
There are numerous individualized styles or approaches in which Tango is danced in Argentina and around the world. Style refers to a way of dancing used by many dancers that creates incompatibilities with other ways of dancing. But style is a confusing term, because it is not used consistently. Many tango dancers do not accept a categorization of their own dancing by any broad stylistic name. Here are a few of the common distinguishable styles of Argentine tango as described in the words of Stephen Brown of Tejastango.com: salon, milonguero, club, orillero, canyengue, nuevo and fantasia.
Salon-Style Tango. Also known as "tango de salon," salon-style tango is typically danced with an upright body posture with the two dancers maintaining separate axes. The embrace can be close or open, but it is typically offset (with each dancer's center slightly to the right of their partner's center) and in a V (with the woman's left shoulder closer to the man’s right shoulder than her right shoulder is to his left shoulder). When salon-style is danced in a close embrace, which is common in Buenos Aires, the couple typically loosens their embrace slightly to accomodate the turns and allow the woman to rotate more freely. Salon-style tango is typically danced to the most strongly accented beat of tango music played in 4x4 time, such as DiSarli.
Milonguero-Style Tango. Milonguero-style tango is typically danced with a slightly leaning posture that typically joins the torsos of the two dancers from the tummy through the solar plexus (in an embrace that Argentine's call apilado) to create a merged axis while allowing a little bit of distance between the couple's feet. The embrace is also typically closed with the woman’s right shoulder as close to her partner's left shoulder as her left shoulder is to his right, and the woman's left arm is often draped behind the man's neck. Some practitioners of this style suggest that each dancer lean against their partner. The couple maintains a constant upper body contact and does not loosen their embrace to accommodate turns or ochos, which can limit the couple to walking steps and simple ochos until both partners develop the skills for the woman to execute her turns by stepping at an angle rather than pivoting. Milonguero-style dancers typically respond to the ric-tic-tic rhythm that is prominent in the music of Juan D'Arienzo and Rodolfo Biagi and also found in the playing of many other tango orchestras. The ocho cortado is one the characteristic figures of milonguero-style tango because it integrates the embrace with rhythmic sensibilities of the style. Milonguero-style tango can also be identified as apilado-, cafe-, and confiteria-style tango.
Club-Style Tango. Club-style tango has the rhythmic sensibilities of milonguero-style tango, but it uses the posture, separate axes and embrace of close salon-style tango. Club-style tango is danced with an upright posture with the two dancers maintaining separate axes while embracing closely in an offset V. The couple loosens their embrace slightly on their turns to allow the woman to rotate more freely and pivot without requiring much independent movement between her hips and torso. If the woman rotates her hips through the turns independently of her upper torso, the embrace need not be loosened as much. Club-style tango is typically danced to the ric-tic-tic rhythm that is prominent in the music of Juan D'Arienzo and Rodolfo Biagi and also is found in the playing of many other tango orchestras. Club-style tango uses the ocho cortado and other rhythmic figures that are found in milonguero-style tango. Possibly a rhythmic variation of the salon-style tango, some people regard club-style tango as a mish mash of the salon and milonguero styles rather than a separate style.
Orillero-Style Tango. Orillero-style tango is an older style of tango whose name suggests that it may have had its origins in the streets of poor outlying tenements in Buenos Aires. Later it came to refer to the man dancing around the edge of the woman. In either case, orillero-style tango was not considered acceptable in the refined salons of central Buenos Aires during the golden age of tango. To the extent that orillero-style tango is still danced it has become more like salon-style tango. It is danced with upright body posture with the dancers maintaining separate axes, and the embrace is typically offset in a V and can be either close or open. In the turns, the woman is allowed to move freely and pivot without requiring much independent movement between her hips and torso. When orillero-style tango is danced in a close embrace, the couple loosens the embrace slightly to accommodate the turns. If the woman rotates her hips through the turns independently of her upper torso, the embrace need not be loosened as much. Orillero-style tango differs from salon-style tango because it adds playful, space-consuming embellishments and figures that do not always respect the line of dance.
Canyengue. Canyengue is a historical form of tango that was danced in the 1920s and early 30s that may or may not be accurately captured by its current practitioners. The embrace is close and in an offset V, the dancers typically have bent knees as they move, and the woman does not execute a cross. At the time canyengue was popular, dresses were long and tight. Consequently, the steps were short and frequently executed in the ric-tic-tic rhythm that is characteristic of the tango music played by the old guard which included Francisco Lomuto, Francisco Canaro (early in his career), Roberto Firpo, and Juan de Dios Filiberto. Some dancers of canyengue use exaggerated body movements to accent their steps.
Nuevo Tango. Nuevo tango is largely a pedagogic approach to tango that emphasizes a structural analysis of the dance in which previously unexplored combinations of steps and new figures can be found. The style is danced in an open, loose or elastic embrace with a very upright posture, and great emphasis is placed on dancers maintaining their own axes. Although the advocates of tango nuevo emphasize a new structural analysis over specific figures, some of its most identifiable figures are overturn ochos and change of directions in turns, which are most easily accomplished in a loose or elastic embrace.
Fantasia (Show Tango). Fantasia is danced in tango stage shows. It originally drew from the idioms of the salon- and orillero-styles of tango but today also includes elements of nuevo-tango. Fantasia is danced in an open embrace with exaggerated movements and additional elements (often taken from ballet) that are not part of the social tango vocabulary. These balletic elements integrate well with salon-style tango because the way a couple relates to each other's space in salon-style tango is very balletic in nature, even though tango movement is more grounded like modern dance.
Liquid Tango. Liquid tango is an emerging approach to dancing Argentine tango that is danced with an embrace that shifts between close and open to allow the integration of various styles of tango, particularly the nuevo and club styles. It is probably premature to consider this a separate style of dancing because the approach is largely compatible with nuevo and doesn't have an identfiably separate group of adherents.
Tango Music For Beginners. Below are 10 leading traditional Tango orchestras from the classical and golden periods. If you were going to buy only 2 CDs I would start with DiSarli and D’Arienzo. The most famous Tango musician today is probably Astor Piazzola and his nuevo tango. That music was originally designed for listening and is not easy to dance to, so I have not included it here.