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Prerequisit: Everything else.
There are many ‘styles’ of Tango. ~ Each coming into existance to meet a need or want of the time. ~ To conform to or enliven prevailing cultures, their mores, fashions, and other factors. ~ One hundred and fifty years of evolution has grown a Tango ‘tree’. ~ The roots fed the trunk and it then divided to three main branches. ~ Each then sprounting offshoots. ~ The leaves are the musicians and dancers..~ Each generation new, while sadly those from previous times fall to the ground. ~ The tree continues to grow.
Tango will always be Tango as there will always be trees. ~ No matter the style.., the various looks, movements, tempos and beats. ~ They all use the same basic leads and steps. ~ Still we cannot hope to describe them all ~ But there are sites out there who can for most. ~ We’ll talk abut this some below but the main thrust will be to show you where to go. ~ In time you will develope an affinity with several of the kinds of Tango done around you. ~ But you need to know what you want too. ~ By now you should have some good idea.., and I know you do. ~ So please scroll down.
The Three ‘Kinds’ of Tango
There are many sites that explain each and every kind of Tango much better than we could ever hope to do. ~ And as you zero in on your own favorites, others become less important to you. ~ So, we’ll treat this section lightly ourselves, as we only went ‘our ways’ too. ~ Instead we’ll try to point you to wherever you want to go, and we’ll give you lots to persue on your own.
The three largest divisions of what people consider as ‘Tango’, at least in the sense that they are done at Milongas, etc., are Tango and it’s two cousins, the ‘‘Vals’ and the ‘Milonga’.
The Vals being a Tango version of the Waltz. ~ Basically having no stopping, with continuous smooth rotational movements around the floor. ~ It is done to the standard 3 count of Waltz time.
The Milonga is more a ‘party’ dance. ~ As opposed to the often slower and more seductive Tango. It is actually another dance.., but being in the same place, same time, and with the people who were developing Tango, it came to be danced using many of the same moves and leads as Tango. ~ The steps taken are shorter in length, and combinations of steps lead are the more basic and quickly done, both because of the speed by which it is done. ~ There is simply no time within each beat for extended or complicated foot work. ~
There is what is called ‘Traspie’. ~ The term for the quick reversals of single steps, double timing the beat and other quickly done combinations more specific to Milonga.
An example of which is shown here. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iaFRaa39qTU
Today the dancing of Milonga is either liked or disliked by just about everyone. ~ Not many ‘in-betweens’ in my experience.
More about tempo and beats for each type of dance in the section on timing and music. ~ Including syncopation. ~ Dancing to the melody and the ‘skipping’ of beats. ~ But you don’t really of course.
Here are some links and other information on various descriptions of ‘Tango Styles’. ~ There are many ways you can dance Tango.
http://www.tejastango.com/tango_styles.html
Many more to be added... This is all a draft, you know?
Descriptions of a few basic STYLES of frame and dance.
Close Embrace (See Milonguero)
Fantasia (See ‘Show’)
Milonguero (Older style, developed for crowded floors.)
The most striking quality of Milonguero style is the very close embrace that is a ‘requirement’ of the dance. The couples lean forward to make contact from the waist to chest and the hold does not change throughout the dance. The lady drapes herself around the man with her left arm around his neck, her eyes are often closed; she surrenders.
The dance has an intimate quality which, at first glance, one would assume could only be danced by lovers. ~ However, this is not necessarily true, as friends and strangers alike dance Tango Milonguero together. ~ Because of the close embrace the steps are generally small and relatively subdued. ~ Exagerated versions of Tango moves such as Ganchos, Sacadas and Voleos are rarely if ever done.
One frequent complaint of many ladies is that, because of the close embrace, they have little freedom of movement and little or no means of self-expression. This is generally true and the great Juan Carlos Copes teaches that the man must learn to dominate the woman through his arms and feet. ~ However, he then goes on to say that the man must always remember he is dancing with a lady.
One advantage of this style of dance is that it requires very little space and can be danced on crowded dance floors and in small spaces. ~ In Buenos Aires it is mostly danced by the older generation of Tango dancers. ~ Although it is also surprisingly popular among an increasing number of younger dancers. ~ But it must be said that those of the younger generation who dance the Milonguero Style are usually equally comfortable with Tango Salon Style; that is, they are able to dance either style to suit the particular occasion or situation.
Reprinted from http://tangohk.com/Articles.htm .
Salon (Seemingly the style of choice by most.)
It has a more accented `tango-beat` [in 4 x 4 rhythm]. ~ Pugliese, Calo and Di Sarli are typical of the smoother and more elegant Salon style.
The embrace for Tango Salon is close but often with little or no contact at the chest. ~ It has a more elegant and upright style than Milonguero and, with both partners having their weights forward, i.e. forming an inverted `V` shape, the first contact is often made at the head. ~ In Buenos Aires it is not uncommon to see couples dancing with their foreheads touching.
Unlike Tango Milonguero, the embrace in Tango Salon can change from a close embrace to a more open one. ~ It is this characteristic that gives the dancers the greater freedom necessary to dance a much wider variety of steps and figures than is possible in the Milonguero Style. ~ The lady has much more opportunity to express and impose her style and personality on the dance, rather than merely being a passive follower.
My earlier comment about the psychology, or mind-set of the dancers, can be illustrated by a quotation from a modern Tango dancer and teacher.., the great Ozvaldo Zotto, who is the epitome of elegance and teaches in the Tango Salon Style. ~ He describes his leading as an invitation to the lady, which may be compared with the comment of Juan Carlos Copes who seeks to dominate the lady. ~ However, Ozvaldo Zotto then goes on to say that 'the lady can either accept the invitation, or decline - in which case the game of Tango comes to an end.'. ~ The result, in either Tango Milonguero or Tango Salon, is the same.., the lady must follow. ~ However, in Tango Salon there is more a feeling of the dance being a collaborative adventure rather than the man dictating the entire sequence of events.
Reprinted from http://tangohk.com/Articles.htm .
Show Tango
As the name makes clear, ‘Show Tango’ is the choreographed Tango seen in professional Tango stage-shows and movies such as The Tango Lesson. ~ It is frequently the first style of Tango seen by people outside Argentina and can give a completely wrong first impression of Tango.
When you learn ShowTango figures, the first thing the instructor will tell you is that these figures are for the stage only; they are not to be danced in the milonga.
Because it is choreographed, many social dancers look down on Show-Tango, describing it as ‘artificial’, ‘gymnastic’, or 'not real tango'. ~ The truth is that the best Tango dancers, those who are good enough to go on to professional careers, become Show-Tango dancers and all the great names in Tango, such as Miguel and Ozvaldo Zotto, are Show-Tango dancers. ~ The technique, balance, speed and agility required for Show-Tango far exceeds that required for social dancing and by learning and practicing some Show-Tango style, the average dancer can greatly improve the quality of his/her social dancing.
Reprinted from http://tangohk.com/Articles.htm .
Here is some additional text copied in on the V embrace. It may be re-written or deleted entirely, as we see where we want to go here.
Oleh says ‘I personally have danced with a follower in V embrace only once and found experience dissatisfying: even though there were no major problems with lead-follow communication, some of the smaller check steps where virtually impossible to lead.’
This type of misunderstanding could be avoided if teachers would properly warn their students. ~ By saying, ‘Look I start dancing with a back step but many dancers will start with a side step.’, or ‘I use this type of Tango embrace but other dancers will use a different one’
It seems to me that most of the misconceptions always come from those that learn to dance "Milonguero style" only. This in turn comes (IMO) from the way certain teachers promote their style by misleading their students to believe that the form they teach is "the only way you can dance", "the only form for social dancing", " the only one where you can obtain a tango trance", "the only one where you dance for your partner", " the other forms are just for exhibition and for show off, you end up kicking everybody around", etc, etc.
The tango embrace in Salon style, as taught and danced by most milongueros all over the world requires that the man places his right nipple on the chest bone of the woman. ~ This embrace has a "closed"side (the right side of the man and the left one of the woman) and an "open" side (the left side of the man and the right one of the woman). ~ It is asymmetrical, the position of the bodies with respect to each other is like a V. ~ This embrace is very elegant and very conducive to leading any type of tango moves both in open or in close embrace.
It is a minority of dancers, those than "only" dance milonguero style as taught by Susana Miller and others that dance with a parallel tango embrace. ~ This second type of embrace causes some limitations with respect to the moves that can be lead. ~ People that are used to dance only in V embrace find difficult to adjust to it and to place the head in the correct position. ~ Some of those in this second group may even argue that dancing in parallel embrace is an impossible proposition. :)
The tango embrace depends then on the style of tango that you dance.
I use a V frame 90% of the time and a parallel frame when I dance milonguero or during some walks in Salon close embrace.
I certainly hope that no one feels offended to learn that there is more than a single form of tango embrace and that parallel embrace has some limitations with respect to a V embrace as to leading certain moves. On the other hand, it could be very gratifying as it permits a more intimate contact of the chests.
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