What is Tango?

Tango (as in Argentine Tango) originated in Buenos Aires in the early 1900s. Tango is both a specific genre of music and dance. A more interesting question to ask would be if Tango is a music and dance what is unique about it.

Tango is all about connection and the connection can be broken down into two important parts – connecting with the specific type of traditional Tango music that is unique to Tango and the connection with your partner called the embrace which again is very unique to Tango.

You can listen to some of the classic Tango songs in our Tango Playlists section. You can then read this section about Tango Musicality to understand how to dance to the music. Dancing to the music appropriately is very important to enjoy Tango to it’s fullest and also to make sure that your dance partner is able to enjoy the dance with you. You connect with the music and your partner is also doing the same and when you both connect to the music in a similar way, there is synergy and the Tango experience becomes even more beautiful and transcends to the next level beyond just looking and feeling great.

The embrace, El Abrazo in Spanish, is simply a hug. This hug should have the same warmth and softness it would have when you hug a loved one. The technique for this hug when dancing Tango has to be learnt meticulously and fine tuned with every passing day, week and year to make the Tango experience more and more beautiful for you and your partner.

Tango Embrace

Tango Embrace (El Abrazo)

The Tango embrace is a beautiful thing. There are many different possibilities for achieving beautiful Tango embraces. Everyone has their favourite – some people are fanatical about their preferred embrace and would even say that that is the only way to embrace. Like most things in life, that is usually only a small slice in a wide spectrum of possibilities, I encourage you to keep exploring the different possibilities so you could dance with a wide range of dancers from around the world. Having said that there are some very useful technique tips that you can follow to make sure that the embrace is comfortable for you and your partner.

We teach the following and more in our classes at various levels:

  • Open Embrace
  • Salon Style Close Embrace
  • Milonguero Style Close Embrace
  • Open Embrace in Tango Nueovo
  • Current style of dancing to Traditional Tango

I hope to expand this section with more instructions and videos soon. In the meantime, please feel free to checkout these online resources related to Tango Embrace.

Sebastian Arce and Mariana Montes talk about embrace in detail in this video. Some of the anatomical points mentioned in the video are debatable but it is really nice that they are analysing and breaking this down. Ideally, everyone should analyse their own embrace style and how it works with different partners based on their own body type, style, etc taking into account their partner’s body type, style, etc too. You can watch the Youtube video about embrace here:

If the video above does not load, please click here to watch it.

This is an article about Tango embrace giving some useful tips about what to do and what not to do. It is a subjective view of the embrace but with some really good points. You can read the article here.

The Tango embrace is more than just figuring out where to place your hands and how to hold your frame and the process behind analysing what is a good comfortable embrace is even more fascinating. You can read our own Veronica Toumanova’s article here.

Tango walking

The beauty of Tango Walking

Walking together with your partner in Tango is one of the unique experiences about Tango. Lots has been said and written about this topic. The gist of it is that you should be able to get into a comfortable embrace, keep the upper body soft, derive the energy to move by using your legs as the driving force and glide along the floor all the while maintaining your balance beautifully. Simple as this may sound, in reality it takes lots of practicing and many different exercises to become fully versatile with Tango walking.

How to approach Tango walking

  • The first and foremost thing is stay balanced. This will help you and your partner immensely.
  • Realise that different types of Tango music, whether it is Milonga, Vals or Tango or even a different Orchestra require adjustments to the technique and style of walking, so pay attention to the music and learn about the different styles of music.
  • Different teachers have different approaches to teaching walking. Some people like focusing on feet, some on hip positioning, some on how to lead the movement from the chest and so on and on. The reality is we function using all parts of our body and everything needs to be in order. Learn from these teachers on what they articulate the best and put it all together. It is very important to do individual walking exercises on your own. Focus on balance and how you transfer your weight while you walk. Just observing this will help you fine tune your walk.
  • Apart from the individual technique, the other most important thing or something that is even more important is the connection with your partner as you walk. Build the ability to perceive where your partners weight is and how they are transmitting or receiving the energy from you. When you master this skill, it doesn’t matter what technique your partner employs, you will be able to adapt to their energy and bring your own technique to the fore.

As you can see from the points above, the approach that you take to Tango walking is more important than the individual exercises and technique work that you can do. This way you will be free from the shackles of just learning movements but will be able to create something beautiful with your connection based on solid foundations of your own technique.

Walking exercise

So you have bought into the idea of how to approach Tango walking, is there any exercise you can do to improve your walking? Yes, in fact there are many of them. One simple exercise you can do is to build the awareness that there are many little things that happen between going from Point A to Point B when you take a step. It is the journey that matters from Point A to Point and it takes a great deal of attention and awareness to know what happens between Point A and Point B. At the very least you can break it down into extension of the free leg, weight in both the legs equally distributed, full weight transfer onto the leg that is stepping, collecting the feet together. You can do this exercise where you are by analysing and observing how you achieve these little parts within the same step. Instructions for the exercise:

  1. Keep all weight on left leg. Have a small flexion in your left knee.
  2. Extend the right leg pointing the toe and all the while brushing the floor with your right feet. At this point both the legs are straight.
  3. Push the left leg and transfer half the weight to the right foot. At this point, both the legs are straight and there is equal weight between the legs.
  4. Push the left leg and fully transfer the weight onto the right leg. Flex your right knee slightly. The left leg is fully straight and the left foot nicely extended back at this stage.
  5. Use the right leg for stability and energy and pull the left foot towards your base and collect the feet together.
  6. Repeat steps 1 to 5 on the other leg.
  7. Repeat the same exercise walking back on both legs.

You can also of course come to our classes and we will teach you lots more exercises and tips for connection. When we get the time, we will also expand on this topic more.

Figures and Movements in Tango

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Basic Walk in Tango

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Forward Ocho

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Back Ocho

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Ocho Cortado

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Tango Cross (El Cruce)

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Calesita

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Media Luna

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Giros

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Volcadas

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Colgadas

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Boleos

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Ganchos

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Paradas

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Sacadas

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Lapiz

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Enrosques

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Planeos

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Barridas

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Adornments or Embellishments

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Tango Music

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Tango Artists and Orchestras

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Tango Musicality

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Tango Playlists

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