The Dance

          When I think of the tango, I think of a women wearing a red dress with a rose in her mouth entranced by the man leading her around the dance floor. I know I am not the only one who thinks this either. Most people do not know the difference between the tango from the salsa from the rumba. I am going to try and clarify what the tango dance is exactly.

           

Before you can start dancing the dance you need to get the embrace correct. The tango is a closed embrace meaning the leads right hand is on the follower left shoulder blade and left hand on their side while holding the followers right hand. The followers left hand is placed half way down on the leads right arm. This seems to the audience that the arm is resting on the other but there is really no weight distributed.

       ¡A bailar! The simplest way to remember the basic tango steps is through the acronym

     T-A-N-G-O. 

1. T (slow): the lead steps forward with the left foot, the follow mirrors by stepping back with the right.
2. A (slow): the lead steps forward with the right foot, mirrored again by the follow's right.
3. N (quick): the lead steps forward again with the left, a slightly smaller step, preparing to step to the side with the right.
4. G (quick): the lead steps to the right with the right foot, using a technique known as "collecting" the foot. This simply means that the right foot comes up alongside the left before stepping to the right, and doesn't move in the diagonal.
5. O (slow): probably the most sultry step in the basic, this is a slow almost-drag of the left foot towards the right, ready to begin the basic again. For the follow, it's the joining of the right foot to the left with a slow, deliberate motion.

(For all information on learning the basic steps of the tango click here)

                     Slow...slow...quick-quick-slow…

This is a short video of how to dance the basic steps of tango. It reinforces and demonstrates the steps explained above.

             The tango is danced throughout the entire world so it has crossed over many physical borders. But the people who are dancing the tango are crossing another type of metaphorical border. In order to dance with another person in this way with such passion you need to trust them and give everything you have to them. You are no longer just thinking about yourself but another person and how they feel in that moment. You’re physically moving around the room but also leaving the borders of your body and entering theirs.