Dancing In A Small Space. You’re at a Milonga, early, and you have lots and lots of space to dance. There are a few couples dancing, and it feels so spacious to dance ‘freely’. As the night progresses, more and more people show up to the Milonga, and before you know it, there are more and more people on the floor, and about an hour or so later, there is hardly any room to move on the floor. And right about this point, the DJ is hitting their ‘stride’. This is the moment that you get annoyed, pissed really, that you can’t do what you want to do. You begin to cut your ideas short, you inadvertently bump into people, your partner has stepped on someone or so you think, elbows are seemingly everywhere, your choices musically become stilted, and on top of all of that, you feel claustrophobic. As a result, you change lanes out of the outer track of dance, hoping that that will be a little better. Everyone always wants to be in the outer track of dancing. A little while later, the same thing happens, you’re crowded again. You change lanes to the inner mob scene where it’s just chaos and no lane or line of dance, it’s just bodies moving in their own space and god help you if you survive. You step off the floor, and looking at the outer track of dancing and wonder, “How do they dance like that? All bunched up!” or “How is that pleasurable?”. What’s the ‘that’ ? Dancing In A Small Space!
What is a ‘Dancing In A Small Space’ ? There are two parts to the answer to this question:
Before we answer that question, there is a misperception that ‘Dancing In A Small Space‘ is strictly “Milonguero” Style of dancing. This is not the case at all. Whether you believe it or not, this is not necessarily a ‘style’ of dance. It’s a marketing term to address a series of ideas that fit under the umbrella of “Salon” dancing. Salon Dancing is vast umbrella that includes most of the styles of Argentine Tango that we’re most familiar with. Dancing In A Small Space is a practical concept that borrows heavily from all of those forms, not just one style. Whatever embrace you use or are comfortable with the ideas contained in this video series can be exceptionally helpful to you.
First, in it’s simplest form, it’s all about the vocabulary and engaging Five pieces of Tango vocabulary. The Five Pieces? 1.) 5 of the 6 Ways of Walking. 2.) Milonguero Ochos (sometimes referred to as ‘Lazy’ Ochos). 3.) Milonguero Turns (not the Follower’s Molinete). 4.) Back and Forward Crosses (not the Argentine Cross, there’s no space!). And 5.) Linear (and Circular) Ocho Cortados. This is all done in Close Embrace. Note that there are no Sacadas, Colgadas, Volcadas, Ganchos, Boloeos, or Death Drops and/or Drags. None. Not in typical sense. However it should be noted that the Social Vocabulary ideas can be interjected here: The Social Turns, The Single-Axis Turn, The Close Embrace Sacadas, etc. However, there are a whole bunch more pieces of Tango vocabulary that almost never get talked about, or thought of here, that can also be applied, such as Calesitas, Paradas (Step Over), Pasadas (Drags & Sweeps), ’Patter’ (sometimes referred to as ‘Pitter-Patter’), The Incrementals (see Golden Nugget Extensions), just to name a few.
Secondly, there’s the actual ‘Dancing’ part of the statement which is more about movement more than anything else. Said movement is done in a very confined space, no bigger than one-meter square, if that. The people that practice this way of dancing, are consciously aware of not taking any more space than is absolutely needed. This is dancing in very crowded milonga environment really, where the distance between couples, on all sides, is no more than about the length of one hand (about 17 centimeters, if that). So from the perspective of the Small Space Dancer, there is seemingly (operative word) precious little space to ‘do’ anything due to the conditions of the ronda, so as a result of this seeming confinement, the dancing part is really about the minimal. Everything is done either around the lead, or the space that the couple currently occupies and does not extend beyond that space. Quite factually, one would take up no more space than the space that one’s feet occupy at that moment in time, and no more than that, but without moving from that spot!
The Biggest Problem! Is perception. How’s that ? A frequent problem that crops up for a lot of people is that they think or believe that the only way to make this stuff work is by pulling their partner into them with their arms, and to go one step further by holding their partner very still, trying to steady their partner, and compressing even more. There’s lots of tension, pressure, and compression.
This is not true. You do not need to hold on tight to your partner in order to make this stuff work. Truth be told the solution to making Dancing In A Small Space function is actually all about body placement and in specific foot placement and weight distribution. Place these things in the right position and you’re good to go. Put them in less than optimal positions and you’re quite literally screwed and end up squeezing the living daylights out of your partners!
Let’s Talk About Fear. The other side of the perception problem is the reality that Dancing In A Small Space is going to freak you out! You’re going to be afraid of X, whatever X may be. Mostly because it’s unfamiliar to you. Most leads lose their collective minds when they have to navigate at a crowded Milonga. They’d rather sit than have to step all over someone’s feet or stumbling and bumbling here and there and apologizing everywhere. So rather than dance to their favorite Di Sarli or De Caro, they’ll sit out and wait for the floor to clear a bit. Followers have a slightly different bend on fear, it’s the fear of stepping on someone’s feet, and not necessarily their partners. It’s OTHER people’s feet. Why ? Because they know they’re in 3 in heels and those things are like lethal weapons on their own. One good ‘stomp’ and that’s someone’s night right there at a hospital emergency room!
Confusion & Consternation. In one respect YouTube has been the biggest boon to Argentine Tango in the last 50 years since Petroleo came along. And that’s because of the proliferation of everyone’s sharing of their ideas of the form, there are way too many notable examples of Tango on youtube to name here. However, the less than desirable is that when you see dancing on YouTube, it is very infrequently actual social dancing. It’s a performance. So the belief or idea in your head when you watch X, Y, and Z performance is that what you’re seeing should be doable on a social dance floor. The reality is that most of that stuff is a.) under certain conditions. and b.) if and only if you drop the egregiousness of the movements themselves. Further still is that fact that what you’re seeing IS A PERFORMANCE, not actual social dancing. Whether you realize it or not, you’re being fooled into seeing that things work on a social dance floor. Yes they work when there’s lots of space, however…when there’s loads of people on the floor and you have no more than a few centimeters between yourself and the next couple ? Not so much with that! Which is to say that, more than likely the performance-y side of what you’re seeing does not work on a crowded dance floor because there’s no space for that stuff. Not now, not ever.
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How Do You Dance In A Small Space ? Carefully. Which is easier written/said, than actually done.
To be clear this is not an easy practice to learn. There are precious few teachers or dancers that talk about this stuff. Occasionally you’ll find a random class on the subject, at a workshop weekend, or a tango festival but for the most part the people that dance the principles of Dancing In A Small Space, divided up into it’s component elemental vocabulary. It is only during those vocabulary sessions that the thought of how to make things smaller, tighter, much more confined is left up to the instructor to ‘mention’, and that’s assuming that they mention this stuff at all. Usually, they don’t. And so that we’re clear here, this statement or descriptive is not to disparage anyone’s teaching or a specific teacher in any way, shape, or form. Some teachers have a full load and a lot on their minds and this stuff is way down on their list of things to remind you about. Hence this video series. Further down the rabbit hole of ‘Carefully’, while there are very few teachers that talk about this stuff, there are even fewer resources that can be used to practice this stuff. You would think that practicing this stuff in the line of dance would be a good place. And it is to a degree, however, a Milonga is not practice, that’s what a ‘Practica’ is for. A Milonga can be a good experience, but it’s no substitute for actual practicing of the guiding principles of Dancing In A Small Space.
The How Part:
1.) Smaller. You would think that just making things smaller would help. It does to a degree. Yes, learning to confine and control one’s body in the execution of X, Y, and/or Z is absolutely crucial. Truthfully the thing that makes this stuff work, is not necessarily about the vocabulary used, but rather about the length of the steps taken, and just how judicious one can be with not only one’s feet, but rather one’s legs!
2.) Economy. Honestly this is about an economy of motion. Typically on a social dance floor you have the freedom to move and do whatever you want, and take up oodles of space to do it. However, when under the conditions of Dancing In A Small Space, you must look for other ways to do exactly the same thing, but without taking up space to do it. Enter – The Economy of Motion. Why take 5 steps when 1 will do ? Why move forward when there’s no reason to do so, especially when there’s no space to move forward ? Under these conditions one must learn to utilize the space that one has, and work in the minimal. Exceptionally minimal.
3.) Solo Practice. The reality of Dancing In A Small Space is that it doesn’t just ‘happen’. Not by a long shot. This stuff takes time and patience to get, and so that we’re clear about this one, not at a Milonga! Practice in this case is actually spent in private practice working by one’s self, on one’s execution of one’s technique. This is really about conditioning one’s body to respond in a very specific way, on command. And like it or not there’s only one way to do that: Solo Practice.
4.) Private Practice with Tools. You’re going to ask yourself, once you feel like you’ve done the Solo practice execution thing to death, what and how do you actually practice with another person in the embrace ? There are a few exercises that one can train one’s self to do be able to respond to Dancing In A Small Space. There are several ideas laid out in the video above, so you’ll have to see the video to get an idea of what’s there in terms of ideas. But one simple idea is working on making things economical and small, without sacrificing the quality of motion, or form, or speed of what you would normally do. However, this is about conditioning so there are limits that must be place on the dancer so that they learn to mitigate these things, without sacrificing anything. That’s the trick right there.
About The Video. This video comes in at two parts: Section 1 on the Vocabulary of Small Space Dancing is 22m:46s in length in 11 Sub-Sections. Section 2 is on the How Part of Small Space Dancing and is 13m:49s in 2 Sections. Lead and Follower is combined and commingled, in both videos. This is NOT a technique video. For the technique on each of these topics, please see their respective areas linked in the text below.
Section 1 – The Vocabulary
Sub-Section 1 – Introduction – 00:02:14
Sub-Section 2 – The Walking Turn – 6 Ways of Walking – 00:02:00
Sub-Section 3 – The Milonguero Turn – 00:01:40
Sub-Section 4 – The Linear Ocho Cortado – 00:02:38
Sub-Section 5 – Ideas In Context (Example) – 00:00:38
Sub-Section 6 – Calesita – 00:00:30
Sub-Section 7 – Circular Patter (with Example) – 00:02:25 [seen above]
Sub-Section 8 – Linear Patter (with Example) – 00:02:29
Sub-Section 9 – Ideas In Context Part 2 – 00:00:58
Sub-Section 10 – Back Crosses – 00:00:31
Sub-Section 11 – A Few Exercises – 00:05:44
Section 2 – The How Part
Sub-Section 1 – The Example Idea – 00:05:41
Sub-Section 2 – Resetting The Couple – 00:07:58