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The Walk
WALKING
Prerequisit - The Connection.
Last Page Update - 3-06-08
The walk is the most important part of Tango. ~ It is the dance. ~ To Tango is to walk. ~ But of course, not just any walk will do. ~ It may not sound difficult, but it is how one does that is most important. ~ What makes Tango ‘Tango’ is the style of Tango. ~ Tango is nothing but style. ~ The look, the attitude, and the beauty of it.
The Points Of Walking The Tango Steps
If you think you already know some of this, it’s very possible you don’t know it all. ~ You may have some of it wrong too. ~ So please just think about and practice well all that follows. ~ Read slowly. ~ Pay attention to each word and thought. ~ Try not to miss or dismiss anything. ~ In the end you will know more. ~ Or at least come to have a new, different and very good way of thinking about it.
I suggest you watch some of the Tango videos that are out there. ~ They will show you Tango like nothing else can. ~ That’s what they were made to do. ~ At this time there are three generally available at Block Busters or other video rental places. ~ ‘Tango’ starring Juan Carlos Copes, ‘Tango Lesson’ starring Pablo Veron and Sally Potter, and ‘Assassination Tango’ starring Robert Duval and his real life ladyfriend Luciana Pedraza, one of the sweetest ladies I’ve ever seen on screen. ~ All three are very good, each in their own way. ~ You will also be able to find just about any title on ebay. ~ My favorite is Tango Bar with Raul Julia. ~ Two men and a woman (of course) present the history of Tango in skits, dancing, and ‘staged’ routines, vintage clips and re-enactments. ~ It’s much better than it might sound here and I recommend it highly. ~ There are also others such as ‘Tango, Our Dance’ and the latest to date, ‘Encan’,
* Walk on the balls of your feet. ~ Keep your spine straight.
When you stand facing your partner you will lean your weight forward onto the balls of your feet and keep it there. ~ The front half of the feet and not the heels. ~ Many followers stay on ‘tip-toes’ and never put their heels to the floor while dancing. ~ I recommend this technique if one can do it. ~ And it has absolutely nothing to do with the fact that I am 6 ft 4... ;-) ~ What is being looked for here, is the slightly more forward tilt that each will then have toward their partner, which causes them to be closer together at their upper body, and further apart at the floor, than they would otherwise be. ~ They may in fact have to step back from each other just a bit, to accomodate this characteristic ‘A’ shape they have just created. ~ There is often a lot of action at the feet during Tango and the extra room down there is always a plus.
It must also be, even though your weight is on the balls of your feet, that a straight line be maintained from your heels to your shoulders. ~ To the best of one’s ability and.., it applies specifically to the heel of the current ‘weight bearing’ leg. ~ The free leg will of course need to bend at the hip and knee at times just to take a step and walk. ~ The partners must retain this elegant look by keeping the *axis* within their body in a very straight line. ~ There should be no inward ‘swayback’ look, nor ‘butt sticking out behind’ with either partner. ~ The partners keep the attitude and stand-up posture that they tend to have when practicing the walk by themselves. ~ There should be no relaxation by either partner of this ‘by yourself’ control. ~ No reliance on the partner to hold you up nor to keep you from going ‘wild’ in pivots and so on. ~ So again.., and for the most part.., one will not bend their waist and/or spine in any direction. ~ Twisting at the waist is allowed. ~ Bending at the waist is not.
* Touch your ankles together as you walk each step.
Brush your knees & ankles together as you take each and every step. ~ This is in keeping with the traditional, basic, look and style of Tango. ~ ‘Neat Feet’. ~ In a two step sequence of a forward step and then a step to the side, the trailing forward moving foot comes to the ‘center point’, where the ankles touch, before changing direction and moving to the side. ~ The feet should never move directly to any particular spot on the floor using a more direct or diagonal step. ~ Every step is either forward, backward or sideways, with ankles touching at the beginning of every step, and touching again at the end of that step. ~ Which of course is the beginning of the next step. ~ There is nothing else to think about now. ~ Believe me.
* Walk, moving smoothly and catlike around the floor.
Walk each step with knees slightly flexed while they’re under you, and straighten them as they are sent in the led direction. ~ Keep your head and body at a constant level. ~ Flow, as in ‘Puma’, smoothly across the floor. ~ Do not ‘bob’ nor ‘bounce’. ~ Be sure that your feet are coming down directly in a line with where they started. ~ For instance, when the follower is stepping backward, her left foot should not be set down behind her right foot in any way. ~ The left and right footprint ‘tracks’ should be seen as two lines that stay parallel to each other, separated by just a few inches. ~ If the leader would like to ‘displace’ the followers foot with his, he needs to know it is straight ahead of his own. ~ Not tucked around behind her other foot. ~ In addition.., keeping the tracks as close as possible minimizes the ‘sway’ that happens as one walks. ~ Where the weight is first carried over one foot, and then shifted sideways to be carried over the other foot.
Excessive sway will make it extremely difficult for your partner to stay with you and may throw them off balance altogether. ~ Practice walking extremely straight, forward and backward, stepping in time to the music.
On each and every step, as the leader ‘gives’ a lead, and the follower is ‘searching’ for it, they both tend to have some hesitation. ~ To move a bit slower. ~ At least to do so does give extra time, and that’s always nice to have. ~ The ‘hesitation’ looks good too. ~ Then, when it’s known where they’re to go, after the mid-point when the lead has been given and received, they’ll need to catch up to the beat of the music. ~ So both now quickly take the step. ~ It is a quicker ‘pulse’ in the direction they are moving. ~ Slow, then fast. ~ Slow, then fast. ~ Slow each lead given. ~ Fast each step taken.
* Keep your weight and balance as per Tango style.
Your full weight should always be on only one foot or the other. ~ That is; you should be able to lift the non weight-bearing foot off the ground at all times without falling over. ~ When you transfer your weight from one to the other, do so as quickly as possible. ~ Balance should always be completely and totally over the foot with the weight on it. ~ To balance means to do just that. ~ One does not support themselves in any other way. ~ Partners, for the most part, do not ‘hold each other up’. ~ Balance comes from keeping your body directly over the foot and leg that is holding your weight. ~ That weight evenly distributed around the body’s axis. ~ The axis being the ‘line’ that runs pretty much through the center of your body, from the top of your head to the sole of your foot.
Never share your weight between your feet unless specifically led to do that. ~ More on this later.
Stepping, or moving from foot to foot in Tango, can be considered to be very similar to Tai Chi’s ‘moving into one’s space’. ~ Move your foot along the floor to where you want it to be, before you move your body weight onto it. ~ Keep your weight on the previous foot until you have the new position and then move into that new place, changing your weight in one quick motion as you do. ~ This is the same catlike surge as described above. ~ One takes a little longer for the lead’s sake, setting up the step. ~ Then quickly takes it. ~ One does not just aim the foot and let it fall towards the floor, with their body weight following closely behind. ~ That’s ‘normal’ walking. ~ We’re doing Tango here.
* Walking backward.
While the overall principal applies to both partners, moving in any direction, it is the follower who walks backward during most of the dance. So we will concentrate specifically on that. ~ The most difficult version. ~ Then all others should be understood too.
So you are the follower and being led to do a backward step. ~ From the midpoint, where ankles are together, keep your balance and weight on the weight bearing foot while you stretch and reach back with your free foot as far a you comfortably can. ~ Try to go further back than a normal walk. ~ When you reach that distant spot, touch the toe of that foot to the floor and then move your weight onto it by rolling backward to the ball of it. ~ Transfer your weight quickly and smoothly. ~ Learn to *stop* there too. ~ Do not let inertia cause an overshoot. ~ One must instantly regain single leg balance again at that point, to start feeling for the next lead.
To reiterate... Picture yourself continuing to balance your entire body weight on one leg, ~ With that leg’s knee slightly flexed to allow the other leg to reach further back along the floor. ~ Once it’s as far back as you’re going with it, try tapping that toe on the floor a few times, to show you’re still fully balanced on the weight bearing foot. ~ This is the condition we are striving for prior to transferring the weight. Can you picture it.
To signal a direction to a follower, the leader moves or ‘tilts’ his upper body into the direction of travel he wants her to go, before he takes any step. ~ The leader signals to the follower with his body (the frame) first. ~ Once the follower is moving, the leader can move his own feet. ~ Hence the term “The leader follows”. ~ The leader starts the move and, as the follower responds, he can then do whatever he wants to do. ~ To keep up or do something else. ~ Shifting his weight, embelishing, etc. ~ He must direct the lady first, before she misunderstands his later movements. ~ All of this should be practiced and it will soon become second nature.
* You must walk and move to the music.
Step precisely on the beat. ~ You will find much more of this in the section regarding the music one dances to. ~ Stepping on the beat, syncopation, etc. ~ But here simply understand that the music rules. ~ Leaders and followers need to move exactly as one, so they rely on the beats in the music to tie their dancing together in time. ~ Both partners need to listen to and enjoy this music. ~ It tells them when to put their feet down, change their weight, how much time is in their empty time, and much more that is needed to produce the perfect Tango.
* Going to the ‘cross’.
Learn to do the ‘Cross’ (or hook) step. ~ This is where the follower will cross one foot in front or behind the other, at the ankle, and follow with a weight change. ~ It is in fact two half steps with a weight change between them. ~ This allows the leader to change the ladies weight when her ankles are together, instead of the usual ‘only when the feet are apart’. ~ The ‘cross’ is an addition to Tango that came somewhere in the middle of it’s history. ~ Perhaps Europe? ~ But it matters not. ~ It is here now. ~ A ‘convention’ that, while more or less contradictory to Tango, is well used and an accepted feature of the dance now.
It serves many purposes. ~ It is home plate in Tango. ~ A very familiar position for both partners to be in. ~ It is the start of a new dance within the current dance. ~ Where both can enjoy a quiet spot. ~ Or where they can go when one or both are confused. ~ Not knowing where they are after a mis-step or confusing pattern, or when either partner may not be on the right foot.
It is also well known and familiar position from which new moves can begin. ~ There are many the leader can set up more easily by being at the cross first. ~ This may be for doing a transition from the last move. ~ Transitions from one pattern to the next are sometimes difficult to imagine and do on the fly, and some may even ‘need’ this ‘transfer point’. ~ But for whatever reason, the leader may take the follower to the cross at any time. ~ A neutral point between other moves. ~ It is a warm and cozy place to be.
The most commonly done version of the cross is where the leader is walking forward, on the outside of the follower’s right side, while she walks backward and keeping step with him. ~ When the follower takes enough steps backward, usually after the ‘third’, she will be able to bring the left ankle across the front of the right ankle. ~ That is the secret. ~ When she ‘can’, she ‘does’.., when the leader is outside her right side. ~ This is the ‘contradiction’ to Tango. ~ It is a remembered sequence, and quite often not even led. ~ When she can do this, she will usually do so automatically. ~ Then shift her weight and wait.., for the leader to say what’s next on the plate.
Automatically I said.., unless she understands that the leader would rather lead the cross himself. ~ In other words, she would simply continue walking backwards in that case, or follow whatever other lead that came along. ~ And she may indeed feel the leaders clockwise (C.W.) nudge to the frame too, at the time she would normally have crossed herself, and this would tell her that he actually wants her to.
Some leaders prefer to lead the cross and weight change and not have the lady assume it. ~ So it sometimes becomes a bit of a hassle as to who will win out. ~ The follower who has been taught to cross automatically, or the leader who wants to enjoy his concept of dancing more than to allow the lady hers.
Another motion that will bring about the cross, is simply a step to the leader’s left. ~ As the follower’s ankles are closing together again, the very start of a lead for a CW pivot is given, but then immediately cancelled. ~ A ‘nudge’ in other words.
Here the follower would start to do the pivot, moving her left foot in the CW direction to go around the foot with the weight. ~ At the same time her body would start a torque on the weighted foot to go in that direction too. ~ But then the action is stopped and returned. ~ The follower’s left foot falls back to her ankle. ~ Except that now, it has already crossed over the front of her right foot, so it falls back to the right of that foot, and stays there. ~ Effectively the followers ankles have been crossed by the leader. ~ He has ‘swung’ the followers left leg across her right leg. ~ The follower didn’t have to think about it. :-) ~ Beause....
nd use of Inertia. Many steps and moves done by the follower are accomplished using the idea that the follower’s free and moving leg is simply hanging loose below her. ~ Any lateral movement or twist to the follower’s axis imparts a swing to the leg, much as a dangling rope would have. ~ This is not a very ‘eloquent’ description but it does come through to most people, and that is what is most important. ~ The moving leg is hanging loose and can be swung around a bit. ~ The follower should work to emphasise and enhance this appearance of free flowing motion, when doing ‘voleos’, ‘crosses’, ‘leg wraps’, embellishments, etc. ~ For instance, a quick reversal to a pivot direction, would cause her loose leg to whip upward at her knee, at the instant of the reversal. ~ Much like the end of the rope would whip up on a snap. ~ A voleo.
In the case of that CW ‘nudge’ used as a lead to the cross, the inertia carried the left foot across the right foot. ~ But no effort should be expended by the follower to pick it up again, simply to take it back to where it came from. ~ It is already where it was meant to be.
Walking can be varied and combined in many interesting ways. ~ As you become more advanced you want to do more than walk in a steady, march-like rhythm. ~ You'll want to practice double-time, triple-time, or even faster-tempo steps, including the very short, very fast "stutter" steps that Juan Bruno & Miguel Angel Zotto (among others) do to spice up their dancing.
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