10 Essential Tango Fundamentals All Tangueros Must Know
Note
The fundamentals discussed in this article are best understood with video demonstrations. Embeded videos, however, kill webpage speeds; I've included links to videos by Tango Space, a UK-based tango school, within this article instead.
So, you’ve decided Argentine Tango is right for you.
You’ve found the right teacher and are excited for your first class.
You’re in it for the long-haul, but what does the road to advanced tango look like, especially for newbies without a dance background?
Read on to find out.
1. The Walk
Like with all things in life, you gotta walk before you can run in Argentine Tango. Because without a fluid, stable walk, tango is literally impossible.
Tango’s walk, however, differs from your everyday gait.
For followers and leads, a proper tango walk is like a cat’s stride, deliberate, precise, and controlled despite its limber, weightless appearance. To summarize the complex mechanics of the caminar, you must caress the floor with your feet, engage your core, and shift your weight from one leg to the other, all while keeping your knees, upper body, and glutes relaxed.
Weight shifting, where one leg is always “free”, is perhaps the most important element of the walk in tango, as it’s how leaders and followers inform each other of the space they occupy.
Move it Like Jello
To quote a beloved male teacher I studied under in Houston, a jiggly booty is the hallmark of a great tango walk, a sign proficient leads and followers alike look for when assessing your abilities on the dancefloor.
2. Open and Closed Embrace
A couple walking in tango’s closed embrace position.
Argentine Tango is often described as a 10-minute hug, all thanks to its signature embrace.
And like the walk, there’s more to tango’s embrace than meets the eye.
To quote the feminine half of my Houston tango instructors, the embrace is like a living organism. Curvaceous and flexible, it breaths. It opens and closes. It continuously adapts to match conditions on the dancefloor, the music, and the dynamic between the couple.
The above elements are why, when attempting to understand the mechanics behind tango’s embrace, I find it best to focus less on the technical and more on the intuitive. Dance is a primal instinct after all, and the unseen qualities that make for a great hug from a loved one, such as gentleness, presence of mind, and unconditional acceptance, are the same qualities that make for a great tango embrace…
3. Dissociation
As the act of positioning your torso and hips in different directions, dissociation is crucial for executing tango figures and maintaining the connection between yourself and your partner. For both roles, dissociation means keeping your chest locked onto your partner’s while your legs move in all directions.
4. Pivots
Pivots are like dissociation’s cousin, involving smaller, often 45°, movements with your feet and hips. And though small, pivots are an essential building block for literally every tango move under the sun. Master them, and the tango world is yours.
Confused with tango’s Spanish terms?
5. Ochos
The leader is inviting the follower to do front ochos in this photo.
Front and back ochos were the first move I learned in tango class; the same might ring true for you as well.
Meaning “eight” in Spanish, ochos are tango’s bread and butter, home to endless variations and designed to show off the follower’s bodacious curves. For followers, ochos involve forming a figure-eight via pivots with their hips and weighted leg, all while alternating gentle pressure with their arms against the lead.
And though leads are relegated to the sidelines for this move, the stability and direction they lend through their strong legs and chest are crucial ingredients for the smooth, sexy ochos milongueros go nuts for.
6. Cross
Just hearing the word el cruce is enough to strike fear into the hearts of tangeuros nuevos, as this move asks you to ignore your walking instincts.
Occurring when the lead deliberately steps into the follower’s walking path, thus “forcing” the follower to slide one leg in front (or behind) the other, the cross is easy to enter and tricky to escape from. To exit el cruce, the lead must invite the follower to shift their weight onto their back foot, a truly perplexing predicament that results in tumbles if the lead forgets this critical step.
And in case the above process isn’t confusing enough, leads and followers can also initiate crosses on their own, as embellishments during ochos and planeos.
7. Giros (aka Molinetes)
Involving circular turns around the leader’s axis, this fundamental is the bane of my, and every budding milonguera’s, existence.
The reasons for this are because forming a proper, non-wobbly circle involves being vigilant over the size of your steps, the fluidity of your embrace, the degree of hip dissociation, and their combined proximity to the leader. Giros also put the leader’s embrace technique to the test, as a flimsy axis and forceful arms spell disaster for this move, no matter how advanced the couple are.
And as the culmination of several other tango fundamentals, namely the walk, pivots, and embrace, I believe the giro is what truly makes of breaks your ability to progress as a dancer.
8. Parada
An example of a tango parada.
Tango instructors often pair the parada and giro together in their lesson plans, and for good reason.
Because as the act of stopping the giro, where the lead places a foot in the follower’s path, the parada is the giro’s fun and easy antithesis.
Technique-wise, paradas are lead like every other move, from the chest. And though executed via the free, unweighted leg, the lead’s foot placement must be felt by the follower, by gently sliding their foot against their partner’s.
For followers, the parada is a gold mine of adornment opportunity; when dancing with intermediate and advanced leads, most will invite you to embellish to your heart’s content as you step over their foot and pivot back into the parallel position.
9. Tap
And speaking of embellishments…
Beginner’s tango thankfully isn’t all work and no play; the tap, executed via kissing the floor with the tip of your shoe, usually while walking and in-time with the beat, is the beginner milongeuro’s gateway to more showy and complex adornos, or embellishments.
Though subtle, taps are also a great way to signal to watchful leads (leads love to silently observe how followers progress) that you understand and are moved by tango music, qualities that will help you become a highly-sought after dancer.
10. Caricias (caress)
Big, crowd-pleasing emotions like passion and zeal hog the spotlight when it comes to the moods dancers create through tango. And it’s a damn shame too, because smaller, more intimate emotions, like mirth and cheekiness, are where the real tango fun resides.
As the act of caressing the floor or the shins and feet of your partner with the top and sides of your foot, las caricias, or the caress, are another essential embellishment for beginners, a versatile way to experiment with tango’s many moods.
I find that when paired with the right orchestra, caresses never fail to delight and surprise, meaning they’re guaranteed to instill the kind of subtle, memorable emotions that help you enter the ronda and stay there.
What’s your favorite Argentine Tango fundamental?
