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Tango is more than a dance – its an expectation leading to addiction.
It was nineteen years ago, back in 2006, that I resolved to learn to dance Argentine tango. Tango was the one dance I had never tackled, despite having learned folk, Playford, salsa, West Coast swing, modern jive and performed ballroom as a national finalist. My life partner Stephanie was also a dancer, steeped in ballet, latterly competing in South Africa as a Latin American dance, so Argentine tango was new to her too.
What we hadn’t anticipated was that Argentine tango wasn’t just another dance.
I guess many would-be-tangueros (the generic name for tango dancers) may think that you can simply ‘learn’ Argentine tango. The truth is that tango must be absorbed rather than learned. So here are my tips for the start-up tanguero or tanguera.
The music – the frontline of tango
Before you start to learn about the dance, listen to and learn to love the music. By music, I mean ‘Golden Age tango’ emanating from Buenos Aires orchestras that recorded between 1920 and 1950: Orquesta Tipica Victor, Julio De Caro, Francisco Canaro, Carlos Di Sarli, Juan D’Arienzo, Anibal Troilo, Rodolfo Biagi, Alfredo De Angelis, Edgardo Donato, Ricardo Tanturi, Enrique Rodriguez, Osvaldo Fresedo, Miguel Caro, Pedro Laurenz, Angel D’Agostino, and Francisco Lomuto.
Tango music (and its relentless development throughout the Golden Age) tells its own story, progressing from early Canyengue (danced in simple form, often on cobbles, with bent knees), via polished Paris ballrooms – to return to Buenos Aires as tango de salon, later to break away with the rhythm switches of Osvaldo Pugliese and beyond into tango nuevo. But it is said that if you don’t understand and believe in the music of the Golden Age, you will never dance tango in any of its incarnations.
The pista – more than a floor
Unlike many dance forms that accentuate movement between the steps, Argentine tango remains rooted to the floor. The pista is your friend and the dance depends on your contact with it. Movement across the pista is simply a mechanism (invariably a walking step) to reach another point of balance. Tango happens not in the transitions, but when one or both feet are firmly placed on the floor. This is why new dancers are both confused and disappointed when their teacher insists on teaching them to walk. Their aim is to get you swiftly and safely to a point of balance, where through communicating intention, the dance happens – the dancers’ balance may be switched and the direction of movement changed.
Thus dancers experienced in other dance disciplines that prize an illusion of weightlessness are at a distinct disadvantage until they have assimilated this very different concept of being connected with the floor.
The embrace – unspoken communication
Experience tangueros may be critical of my failure to mention before now the embrace, a factor so essential to Argentine tango that, without it, tango becomes meaningless. It is something you need to learn and experience before you start to learn the dance. Argentine tango demands an embrace, not to steady the partnership, nor for the lead and follow, but to unite and exchange the dancers’ energy. The embrace is the fuse, the lightening conductor, the caress, the solace, the joy-giver, forming unspoken communication between partners. When dancing, there will be no set patterns or regular steps to guide either leader or follower. Direction and distance are determined through intention communicated by both partners through the embrace.
The codigos – not so much rules, but essential history
Most dances may be mastered by technique. Whilst this is what your teacher will hopefully teach, ‘technique’ falls behind ‘tradition’ when it comes to learning Argentine tango. In some milongas (the socials where tango is danced) you will not invite a partner to dance without an understanding of the ‘cabeceo and mirada’ – the unspoken glance and acknowledgement that secures the next dance. Having entered the pista, you are doomed unless you know the mechanism of the ‘tanda’, concluded by a ‘cortina’. Even entering the pista requires an appreciation of the code by which you will insert into the line of dance. Just as ‘manners maketh man’, the tango codigos mark out those who have made effort to appreciate the dance’s evolution. They are the custodians of tradition that will be honoured on the pista.
Addiction
Argentine tango is a difficult task master. A famous tanguero once said, ‘It takes a lifetime and a half to learn tango.’ Learning is endless. But as skills become prominent, so does the addiction. Wardrobes are populated with tango shoes, the choice of shirt or skirt is made on how it will look on the pista, holidays, friends and conversation start to revolve around obsession with the dance.
Yet unlike many other forms of obsession, Argentine tango is a life-giver. Just take a peep behind the curtain at a traditional milonga in Buenos Aires and you will see many dancers still active in their 80s. Tango may not be the elixir of life – but one thing is certain: it will certainly enhance life’s journey!
