The tango face

The tango face comes late in the tango development, I'll try to characterise it.

The talk with the mouth phase
Tango is little more than a dialogue between two partners. Absolute beginners take this very literally and it's a common feature to hear them exchanging views on what they do for a living, where they live or where they are from. It's a mixed face of relaxation and not really understanding what they got themselves into, typical of someone giving their date a lift one day after getting the driving license (ie danger on the road/dancefloor)

The feet attraction phase
When a tanguero starts, it's almost 100% sure that he will be trying to walk looking to the partner's feet. It makes absolute sense for the beginner, he doesn't want to step on the partner because he wants the partner to dance with him again. It's just tango survival at a beginner level! However, the crude harsh reality is that looking to the partner's feet is a big mistake and worse than closing your eyes. You get all confused by the fact that your partner is doing the complete opposite of you're doing. But when you're a beginner, it is not that obvious.

The sorry phase
Sorry phase starts right at the beginning. But if in the beginning this is obscured by obvious reasons to ask for forgiveness, now it is just annoying. Looking to the brighter side, the tanguero is actually admitting that he is wrong, which demonstrates at least some sort of "looking-into-the-mirror-and-seeing-what-is-there" attitude. Or not.

The scrunchy face phase
After some practice, lots of being told off by teachers about this feet obsession, the tanguero starts to let his eyes actually look into the dance floor. But this tanguero is still in a learning phase. Concilliating movement, coordination with navigational skills is very very difficult and as a results he/she starts making funny faces everytime a more daring move is made. Biting the tongue is a very common feature but scrunching the forehead, opening mouth or adding sound effects to the move are other features that are quite common.

The limbo phase
(also called the growing pains)
The tanguero has done the beginner, improver and intermediate modules and has (in his mind) depleted all movements. Until this point that tanguero could see his progress week by week but now that the standard "moves" have gone, he feels he is learning nothing. This is the fase where the tango face starts to blossom. But like everything in nature, it needs the appropriate conditions to do so. Good teaching, good attitude and realisation that instead of learning moves every week the tanguero has to work on his technique are indispensable requirements.

The Nirvana phase
This accomplished tanguero has learnt how to control his body and his partner's in favour of the music. He dominates the moves very well and is keen on going back to the basics. When dancing he evokes a face that seems to be many millions of light years away from the dance floor. The tanguero has learnt to focus on the dance. He may look very serious but in fact, he is enjoying every little bit of the dance. Occasionally, this tanguero may disguise a smile when something goes unexpectedly right or wrong but that will be coated by a glow of serenity and control. This is the tanguero that everyone wants to dance with. Not the end product but close to it.

The local heroes

I would like to praise the real tango heroes that are most of the times forgotten in blogs and conversations. I would like a word of praise to those local people who put an incredible effort to organise and teach tango, sometimes puting their own money forward, squeezing their time and neglecting their jobs in order to make the local community grow.
It's only due to there people that tango stars can be invited to teach outside their original country. It's only because of them that we are here discussing tango in blogs.

DISCLAIMER: I'm a tango part-time organiser. This post is not written because I want to be pampered or praised. It's for all of those who probably are the people that made it possible for you to be reading this.

Tango is serious

One of my beginner students was telling me. "Tango is serious, salsa is all about messing around, but in tango you have to stay within limits". Those might not have been the exact words (I wasn't recording what she said) but definitely she was touching a subject that I think is very stereotypical and not truth to reality, that tango is all about seriousness.
Tango looks quite daunting. For a lay person, it's a very intricate dance, with apparently little space to put your feet on, and with lots complicated moves that seem just impossible for the common mortal to do. The music doesn't help that perception either. Dozens of instruments playing sometimes very melodramatic melodies with romantic voices and lyrics...
But tango is FUN! Even in those Pugliese or Di Sarli tracks, where the waves of music are as big as it can get, you can always dance with fun. It may be within limits, but it's all about fun. The day that I am not having fun while dancing, I'll stop.

Tango is only serious when you make it serious.

Neotango rant (III)

Nowadays, most people spend far too much energy on the war between traditionalist and nuevo. The problem is not the styles themselves. The problem is that everybody believes that they are right, when probably, nobody is.

Women leading (II)

I have said it before, I love comparing the way how women and men lead in tango. I do think that there are characteristic features. Women tend to be more careful with their partners (mostly because they have probably experienced the opposite treatment from not-so-good leaders), tend to do more roundy figures and to give more space and time to their partners.
Hormones do leave their mark!
So, if you don't know this one you should definitely have a look. Ariadna Naveira has a pedigree, daughter of the all-mighty Gustavo Naveira and of the much revered Olga Besio, she has a wicked sense of musicality and a technique above what is usually found in maestros. Bear in mind she is still a teenager (or came off teens recently). The future looks bright!

How the shortcut can be the longuest way

I'm going to tell you the story of Mr and Ms Innocent.
Mr and Ms Innocent were a young couple that started tango roughly at the same time. They had been dancing mainly within their community and, grapevine says, they were fairly good at it, good enough to be allowed to do advanced workshops.
The Innocents saw an international festival which starred one of the Innocent's favourite dancers, at the time. When considering the level, they thought "let's go for the advanced level, after all, we're allowed into advanced classes in our tango hometown".
The class finally came and the Innocent's were getting butterflies in their bellies. The maestro came in, put some music on and asked them to dance. By the end of the dance he seemed to be very pissed off, much more than he was when he came in (probably as a result of a very bad hangover). I am sure that most teachers would just lower the level so that students could get it but Mr tangomaster taught them a double lesson. He kept on with his level and did very complicated moves, difficult challenging and when made by him, very graceful. Mr and Mrs Innocent managed to skim the surface of what he taught but they felt they didn't get half as much as they should have got. When looking around, with the exception of a few couples, all the other couples were having the same or even more difficulties. The truth haunted their minds - they just weren't good enough for that level.
By the end of the festival, much of what had been taught in the workshop had gone. Not because Mr and Mrs Innocent were having amnesia or neurological problems but because there was so much information that they could only skim the surface that in the end it evaporated away before they could mull it over. This left the Innocents a few euro poorer but also with their confidence a bit dented, after all, they were not as advanced as they thought they were. Last but not least, they could have visited less hurriedly the limestone plazas and cafés of the sunny destination where the festival was being held, certainly, something that would have brought much more satisfaction.

A few years down the line, the Innocents learnt how to be more humble. They learnt that you are not an advanced taguero because you attend advanced workshops. They understood that they are advanced tangueros because they know what level they are within the "tango food chain".


This tango fable shows that if you want more out of your hard worked munny you should choose an appropriate level for you. This means looking into a mirror and trying to see what's in the other side, as opposed to see what you wished would be on the other side. If you can't see past your imagination ask your teacher for advise.
Doing workshops above your level will not only give you less than you're paying for but also by not doing appropriate level workshops you'll be missing important concepts that are needed in order to progress to the next level. And without those, you'll allways be a pseudo-advanced dancer (or maybe not even that).