Tango Lessons

One of the reasons I like tango is that I associate it with a certain feeling for style. Conjuring up a time that was not better but certainly more elegant.

More elegant certainly not everywhere where people danced in the streets and courtyards, but certainly in the milongas of the “golden age” of tango.

Back then it was unthinkable to go to a milonga badly or carelessly dressed.

And this wasn’t just valid for women.

With the blatant excess of women at that time, a man who was not well groomed and did not have a minimum of good manners had little chance of ever dancing with a woman.

Today that has changed. There are usually more women than men at the milongas and the pressure on men to maintain a certain style has decreased significantly.

That is unfortunate. Because as I said, in my opinion tango lives from the fact that it retains a certain style.

It doesn’t have to be old-fashioned. For example, anyone who knows the often freaky and creative outfits of “Chicho” Frumboli knows that style doesn’t have to be dowdy.

Baggy military trousers combined with a slightly worn-out baggy T-shirt and a towel soaked in sweat hanging from the waistband or the hip-pocket of the trousers may indicate a personal touch, but not an excessive sense of style.

Yet for me, style doesn’t just mean a reasonably well-groomed appearance, but also knowing and adhering to the codes of a milonga.

This does not mean that we must readily adopt everything that was valid a hundred years ago.

But many of the traditional milonga rules contribute to the fact that being together at the milongas is more respectful, friendlier, more pleasant for everyone and, as banal as it may sound, makes it a nicer experience.

An experience that I wish for every time I go to a milonga or a tango ball.

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Is there a foolproof way to avoid a “no”, inviting someone to dance?

Mirada and Cabeceo for men

Professional tango ladies are not easy to impress, especially when they have traveled extensively in the tango world. Sometimes the dancing skills of the other milonga visitors and the up-and-coming stars are ridiculed.

However, one dancer who can be found regularly in the milongas of Perugia and the surrounding area always receives great praise, even from the most critical tango divas.

And of course every lady wants to dance with him.

Stefano

Who the heck is Stefano?

Now a gentleman in “the best age” as the saying goes. Graying, mustache, alert look. He could play the experienced, cunning detective in a French crime novel.

What is Stefano doing to attract so much attention from the tango ladies? To be honest, not much.

His repertoire of steps is very manageable. Nevertheless, even the most demanding ladies lie in his arms completely relaxed and smiling happily.

So what’s his secret?

Well, Stefano dances very nicely with the music. That is the most important thing!

This is also the first thing that strikes tango dancers who have seen all possible (and a lot of impossible) kinds of moves, fancy steps and sequences and are unimpressed by dancers who want to show off their complete repertoire of figures.

Stefano on the other hand doesn’t stress his dance partners.

They don’t have to dance through dozens of combinations of steps, they can let themselves fall into the dance, into the music, completely relaxed.

Stefano dances confidently, with an overview of what is happening on the dance floor.

He would never jostle his lady into another couple. His dance partner can feel very safe.

Stefano is not a tango teacher. I don’t think that would suit him at all.

Nevertheless, you can learn a lot from him. At least if you want your dance partner to feel just as comfortable dancing tango as Stefano’s dance partners.

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Don´t fall into the figure trap

In my last article I wrote about how important it is for women to have a relaxed free leg.

If the free leg is not relaxed and loose, it cannot “perform” all the beautiful, sometimes spectacular movements in which the leg actually flies without effort.

All the movements become very cramped and can be performed only with a lot of work.

Even the caminada, normal walking in tango, becomes cramped and unnecessarily exhausting with a “working” free leg.

However, the difficulty for many dancers at the beginning of their tango career (and for dancers who want to learn the lady´s role) is that it is not so easy to relax the free leg.

The problem is that we mistakenly think that we have to work with the free leg, after all it’s the free leg that makes these movements and draws the main attention.

So far so good, but why is this article now called standing leg, standing leg, standing leg?

This is where a little trick comes into play, which we use successfully in our courses.

The opposite pole to the relaxed free leg is the standing leg, which is responsible for carrying our body and keeping us on our axis.

All the movements of our free leg do not start from that free leg, as many assume, but from the body and the standing leg, even if these perform their tasks almost invisibly and quite unspectacularly.

The free leg just hangs loosely relaxed on the hip bone and only moves when the body and/or supporting leg move, similarly to a puppet (albeit without strings :-).

A quirk of our body is that, to put it bluntly, it’s always trying to shovel energy to where our brain tells us we need it.

The corresponding body parts are put into working mode, other body parts that are not needed remain relaxed or are relaxed again.

So if our ladies are having trouble relaxing that free leg, we advise them to think only one thing: Standing leg, standing leg, standing leg.

This almost always solves the problem very quickly. All energy goes where it is needed, namely in the supporting standing leg,

The brain forgets the free leg and this can finally swing happily, relaxed and freely.

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Important for all ladies who dance tango: the relaxed free leg

In my courses I see again and again that the women believe that they have to work actively with their free leg.

But this is almost never necessary and makes tango dancing less smooth and unnecessarily difficult. Let’s look at a few examples.

Voleo

At a voleo, the lady’s leg flies more or less high.

This works practically by itself due to impulse that the lady receives from the man (impulse to take a step + counter movement before the lady can complete the step and put her leg down) if her free leg is really loose.

However, many ladies believe that they need to actively perform the voleo with their free leg.

Doing it that way they make life unnecessarily difficult for themselves and never manage to create a nice, fluid movement. The Voleo always stays cramped, doesn’t feel good, and never looks good.

It is important and correct to let the free leg relax as much as possible and simply allow the movement.

Backward Ocho

The backward ocho is actually nothing more than a backward cross step by the lady initiated by the gentleman, followed by a a pivot also initiated by the gentleman’s impulse and another backward cross step.

Actually a simple thing if the lady is stable in her axis and her free leg is relaxed. But here, too, many women make life unnecessarily difficult for themselves because they think that the backward ocho is a figure that they have to perform actively.

First mistake:

They turn by themselves, instead of simply letting happen the pivot initiated by the man.

Second mistake:

Because they think that they have to perform the pivot on their own, they often clamp the free leg to the standing leg during the pivot, either because they hope to gain more stability by doing so, or because a tango teacher has told them at some point that this is the way to do it .

The undesirable result: what is actually a simple motion sequence becomes a cramped, labour-intensive, mostly fairly unstable “figure”, which is also bad for the spine in the long term. With a relaxed free leg and simply “allowing” the movement, this is much easier.

Gancho

I seldom lead ganchos, but the same applies here: The lady does not perform the gancho actively, but simply allows her free leg to move.

The gancho is not, as many seem to believe, an active “kicking backwards”, but a bend of the free leg (almost always in the backward motion) caused (not executed) by the lady’s backward step suddenly being stopped just at knee height by the man’s leg.

However, this only works nicely and smoothly if the lady’s free leg is completely relaxed.

There are many more examples of why it is essential for the lady to keep her free leg completely relaxed, but that is beyond the scope of this post.

It is important to first internalize that the free leg is completely relaxed and, if possible, does not work. Then women already have the best prerequisites for dancing beautifully and pleasantly relaxed.

Of course if a woman has more dancing experience she can perform actively embellishments with her free leg.

In this case she works with her free leg and this is no longer relaxed.

The important thing here is to switch back to the relaxed state of the leg when the man gives an impulse to move on to the next step. But for that she needs already a fair amount of experience.

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    Standing leg, standing leg, standing leg

No, now it doesn’t get esoteric, although I am asked that again and again, somewhat mockingly, when I bring the pendulum motion into play.

But many movements in tango can be perfectly explained with the pendulum movement. So, let’s take a look at a pendulum.

I’m neither a physicist nor a mathematician, so I’ll keep the description simple.

The pendulum is suspended from one point and, once set in motion, swings from side to side.

At the highest point, the turning point, it pauses for a moment and then swings back again. Each of us has probably seen this before.

At the turning point, the pendulum has its highest potential energy, which, as soon as it swings down, is converted into kinetic energy. Driven by the kinetic energy, the pendulum is carried up on the other side until it reaches the turning point again. The movement of the pendulum is, at least with a large pendulum, very dynamic on the one hand, but also very calm on the other.

How can we make use of the pendulum principle when dancing tango?

One of my most popular pendulum examples in our courses is the “lead” and accompaniment of the lady’s backward ochos.

We swing from left to right and back again.

When we have landed on our right leg, for example, we stand on it for a moment.

By the weight of the free leg hitting the standing leg and the moment of inertia our body automatically is turned counterclockwise, if we are standing straight with a good posture.

This moment corresponds to the turning point of the pendulum, I also call it a moment of silence.

The left leg (at this moment the free leg) is not put down (shifting weight to the left leg), but hangs freely at the hip joint.

If we relax the right leg and the movement continues, the left leg will swing to the left, land on the dance floor and become the standing leg. We straighten up on our axis, the right leg (now the free leg) falls to the left leg (now the standing leg), but is not loaded and can swing back freely.

The weight of the free leg in combination with our intencion ensures that our body moves on.

This pendulum-based movement is both dynamic and calm. Leading ochos becomes easy and practically works by itself.

Two more things are important:

On the one hand, the free leg that falls to the supporting leg is not loaded because otherwise the flow of movement is interrupted.

You can imagine it like a large church bell swinging back and forth in the church tower. As long as it can swing freely, once it has been set in motion, it will swing without much effort.

But if it touches the floor of the church tower (with very unpleasant consequences for that church tower) and comes to stand there, it would be extremely difficult to pull it up again and make it swing.

On the other hand, the pendulum movement in this case is not linear, but diagonally towards the lady.

The gentleman aims with his free leg at the lady’s free leg.

Swinging back and forth on a line is exhausting for the lady in the long run, because she has to make a 180 ° turn every time and twist herself strongly. It’s also boring and doesn’t get us an inch forward in the line of the dance.

We also find the pendulum principle in other movements in tango. For example at the caminada, walking in tango. Every time we straighten up after a step or several steps in the axis to start the next step, or when changing direction in the Molineta. There will be more about this in another blog post soon.

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Tango and the inflatable dolphin 

I keep telling the gentlemen among my tango students and everyone else who wants to hear it that they shouldn’t hold their left hand higher than the shoulder height of the lady with whom they are currently dancing (apart from some final poses).

Some time ago, however, I caught myself with my left hand wandering up again and again.

On the one hand, when I signal a change of direction to the lady, for example when I prepare the lady’s cross, or in the Molineta, when the lady walks around me counterclockwise and I want to change the direction of rotation again. My arm goes up, like the policeman’s trowel at the traffic control, and amplifies the “stop” signal given by my body.

On the other hand, whenever I stop completely in my axis after one or more steps and prepare for the next step.

 

 

At first I was a bit surprised, until I realized that this is completely natural, because as soon as I consciously go into my axis, I inhale and thus build up tension for the next step.

Like the fin of an inflatable dolphin, my left arm rises in these moments, together with the whole body, slightly tense and ready to move on.

As soon as I start again, I exhale again (or rather, my body does it for me, I don’t even have to think about it), the air escapes, my arm sinks down like the inflatable dolphin’s fin as soon as you pull the plug, my body relaxes and starts to move.

The body of my dance partner feels that and joins in. The nice thing is, none of us really needs to think about it.

If you use this consciously and a little more emphatically, you will find that good, straight posture and the use of your breath help you to make your entire dance more exciting and interesting without having to work a lot for it.

And if you are still tense, just try a smile. That helps and relaxes.

Why you should laugh, or at least smile when dancing Tango

I know sometimes it’s hard to stay calm when there’s a crowd on the dance floor. Somebody is always in your way, obstructing your dance flow, pushing you from behind …

It goes without saying that you are not one of those “bullies, tailgaters, bloody beginners, figure wankers” and so on.

Or are you?

If you often have stress with the rest of the other dancers on the dance floor, you should ask yourself whether that might also be a little bit up to you.

When tango dancing is no longer beautiful and relaxed but degenerates into stress, remember that you also are part of the “Ronda” on the dance floor. You also contribute to everyone being able to dance beautifully.

 

Most of the time, it helps if you lead by example. 

If you find that sometimes difficult, just give this exercise a try. I found it to be very helpful.

For the next 4 to 5 milongas or the next 4 to 5 practice evenings  you overtake NO ONE on the dance floor, not even the annoying dance floor bollard that ALWAYS blocks you.

Instead, you use every trick from your repertoire to dance BEHIND the dancers in front of you in a simple, stress-free and nice way until they go on (even if you think that it takes waaay too long :-).

The bullies, bloody beginners, figure wankers in front of you are not worth to get so much attention from you. They are not important.

 

Important is  the lady you are dancing with!

Most of your attention should belong to her.

Don’t get upset about the other dancers, but make sure that your lady feels comfortable and is safe on the dance floor.

As soon as you have done this for a while, you will see that your dance changes, that you “work” less and dance with less stress.

And you will find that the ladies love it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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A little Tango lesson: Help me Ronda! Dancing in harmony with all the other dancers on the dance floor

No, here I don’t want to provide special guidance on inviting at queer tango  : – )

 

 

 

Actually this is by no means necessary because inviting with mirada and cabeceo works exactly the same way between men as inviting between men and women or for the sake of completeness, between women and women.

What I would like to suggest to all men, or whoever takes on the role of the leader, is something different.

I want to describe something that often happens to me (but certainly not only to me) at milongas.

The tanda has already started, I dance nicely with my lady along the edge of the dance floor, I see that I have space, I just want to take a bigger, lively step …

Suddenly another couple shoots onto the dance floor in front of me.

Like a truck driving out of a courtyard at full throttle, regardless of losses. Without looking to see if someone is coming, without looking to see if someone might get in their way.

I have to stop my lady abruptly and can be happy if I can get her to safety in good time.

It becomes completely critical when the couple behind me pushes forward lively and suddenly stands on my heels.

The couple who jostled themselves onto the dance floor in front of me did not notice anything and probably will not notice anything in many other situations either.

Of course, this doesn’t contribute to harmony on the dance floor.

Yet it could be so easy.

If you lead your lady onto the dance floor first take a look around and see whether there is space, whether another couple is approaching, before entering the dance floor, …

 

If so, make eye contact with the leader of this couple who, as we all know, is responsible for the navigation. Talk to each other without words by eye contact.

If the leader of the other couple is so absorbed in the music, his thoughts or the cleavage of his dance partner that he doesn´t see anything else, wait until that couple has passed (That ´s safer anyway. You don’t want to dance near a couple, whose leader does not pay attention to the dance flow of the others).

If there is still little space,  try your luck with the next couple. Do not worry! At some point you will be able to safely enter the ronda.

“Mirada y Cabeceo”, or “look and nod”, works not only when asked to dance, but in many other situations in our lives. But only if you don’t run blindly on or across the dance floor or through your entire life.

 

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Good old Mirada and good old Cabeceo

A little Tango lesson: Help me Ronda! Dancing in harmony with all the other dancers on the dance floor

At every milonga you can find him, everyone knows him, at least everyone who visits the respective milonga regularly.

Who usually knows him best are the female dancers. Outside of the dance floor he can be quite nice. However, he has an annoying habit that most women could do without.

I am talking about the milonga babbler, the permanent dancing lecturer who explains to the lady he dances with how to dance the tango during the entire dance.

He is convinced that he´s the only one who knows how to dance, apart from maybe his current tango teacher.

Regardless of whether he is dancing with a

• beginner (preferred option, because he can still really impress her, and she does not contradict him)
• tanguera who dances a lot better than himself who is not impressed, but just rolls her eyes in annoyment

he can’t get his waffle shut (only exception: while dancing with his current revered tango teacher. Of course she must be at least a world-class dancer).

Sometimes it seems a miracle that the other dancers around him can still hear the music. Whether he hears it himself can be doubted. But honestly: For him that´s not so important…

In his boundless goodness he probably thinks  that he is doing his dance partners a big favor. Or maybe his vocal cords are just so relaxed that they move uncontrollably every time he takes a breath.

How do women deal with him?

If he’s a nice guy who just tends to talk too much, a method that a friend of ours successfully tried will help.

With the short sentence “Simply shut up and dance!”, delivered with a smile, you can not only save a tanda, but also make nice acquaintances.

If he is one of the notorious know-it-alls who do not understand that the lady does not dance what he wants her to because he simply cannot lead, and not because of the ladies inability, there is only one remedy.

Delete him from the list of your potential dance partners.

The same applies to those who dare not only to annoy their dance partner with constant chatter, but even maneuver them to the ballet bar of the dance studio during the milonga, with the request to do posture exercises there before they´re allowed to continue dancing with him (and if now someone should believe that this is satire, by no means – I saw that with my own eyes).

For the men applies. Should one of you recognize yourself in my description, please heed this little piece of advice:

While you´re dancing simply shut up!

One of the biggest (and most unpleasant) mistakes small men make when dancing with larger women.

Women of average size or very large women often do not like to dance with smaller dancers.

Not because of the height itself (which is rather unimportant if the gentleman otherwise dances well), but because smaller dancers often have a rather unpleasant habit.

They clamp their larger dance partners in a vice grip and pull them down at the same time.

Unfortunately, also many older Argentinian “milongueros” have this stupid habit, which can lead some dancers to think that this is normal and “authentic”.

The consequence of this is that the ladies cannot move freely and also have to dance constantly with their knees bent.

Both is extremely uncomfortable and painful and can even lead to long-term damage of back and knees.

So, if YOU are one of the men who are of shorter stature, be sure to check how you hold your dance partners.
Never pull them down to you, but hold them in a comfortable, loose hug and make yourself as tall as is comfortable for you.

Never block the lady’s freedom of movement by hugging her in a vice. Always remember: If you block the lady’s freedom of movement, you also block your own freedom of movement.

Even if the lady is taller than you, you do not need any extra effort, just a clear but friendly invitation.

If, on the other hand, you are a taller lady and suffer from dancers who dance as described above, do not unnecessarily try to be polite, but ask the smaller dancer kindly but clearly not to clasp you so tightly and not to pull yourself down.

After all, you want to enjoy the dance and you have every right to do so.

If the dancer does not understand this or does not want to respond to your request, you also have the right to end the tanda and you should. This is not rude but pure self-defense.

Dancers who are of good will but are not aware of the problem can learn quickly if they receive feedback from their dance partners.

And finally, with men who are not willing or able to learn, you shouldn’t dance anyway.

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