The Argentine Cross. Probably the single most overused and highly misunderstood piece of Tango vocabulary ever danced. In a given song, you’ll end up either leading or following a Cross a dozen or so times, at minimum! From a leading perspective we believe that we’re leading a cross, when in actuality it’s more like we’re expecting it more than anything else. From a Following perspective we’ve been led to this venerable piece of vocabulary 10 thousand times and then some, and what’s so weird about that figure is that we can’t even recount just one of them. It’s so engrained in us, so ubiquitous, used so often that we will cross our feet by default without understanding why, or even when it happens, or (and here’s the kicker) that we crossed at all!
The Argentine Cross as it is taught is the most venerable piece of tango vocabulary, yet it is poorly understood, overused, yet danced so often you’d think that half the dance was the Follower crossing their feet for no good reason! And that’s because well there is no reason for it. A good portion of the time the Follower crosses their feet because they don’t know what else to do! It seemed like the logical thing to do at the time, further still is that the lead isn’t Mr. Clear either. Beyond that a good portion of the time you have Rushed Crosses, Forced Crosses, and Placed Crosses.
What is The Argentine Cross ? In it’s simplest form, the ‘Cross’, as it is known, is a distinct and unique piece of Tango vocabulary that doesn’t exist in any other social dance in this form. While there are ‘crosses’ in other social dances, there isn’t another cross like this anywhere else. What makes it unqiue ? For one, in this version of the cross, the Follower is a willing participant, and actually an expectant one. Why ? Because it’s used so often nearly everywhere that you really do have to wonder sometimes if that’s all we ever do in Tango. Two steps and then we cross. You could quite literally spend entire song or tanda doing nothing but Argentine Crosses. Mind you, doing so will not achieve the desired results of pleasure that you’re looking for out of your partner. More like they’ll be insanely bored and pissed off at the same time. So, not so much with the ‘Cross’ for an entire song. Still another reason why this is unique is because, in every other social dance, the Cross is ‘placed‘. Meaning that the Follower is put into position by either crossing the Follower’s legs deliberately which ends in crossed feet, or moving their feet to a crossed position deliberately. In this cross, while the Follower can be placed, or forced, or pushed, which by the way we do not want to do, in this instance, they’re quite decidedly led in a very specific way to put them and their body into a position where they have only one option, to cross their feet, hence the reason where it get’s it’s name from. Further still in every other social dance, their version of a Cross is where the Follower simply crosses their feet. In Argentine Tango, the Follower is walked into a position to thereby cross their feet. This is known as “walking them to the cross”.
The Fundamental Stepping Stones! An aspect that is wholly overlooked is the engine of the cross. Meaning what drives it, what makes it possible. Believe it or not, it’s not two steps, and then stepping outside partner. No. It’s far more than that because it’s not about steps, or a pattern, or a figure as you may have been told. The Real Engine of the Cross is Opposition!
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From a Following Perspective: There are very few things in the world that a Follower has control over. This is one of them. You can control nearly every aspect of the Cross as it happens. You control the step prior to it. You control the crossing step itself. You can even control the timing of the step. And to a limited degree, depending on a few factors you can even control the step out of the cross. Which would be the role of the Active Follower! What you don’t or can’t control is the when the cross happens. Uuuuugh.
However, given all of the above, you’d probably not surprised to learn that very infrequently do you ever think of controlling any of that stuff. Quite honestly, you just cross your feet and move on from there. We get it, who wants to spend oooodles of time thinking about how they should cross their feet! Seriously! It’s a cross for cryin’ out loud!!! How hard is that ???? Well, obviously, it’s a bit more detailed than that otherwise we wouldn’t be yapping about it. Yes you cross your feet, yup. However, the important part is whether or not you cross cleanly, or do what we have referred to as a “Dirty Cross”, please go look at our Practical Tango Advice on the Topic for more information. And most important is the ‘how‘ you cross your feet! This is where the Follower can exhibit an enormous amount of control over not just themselves and how they look, which is always very important, but also where the couple goes next! Further still the Follower also has insane amounts of control over when the crossing action can occur and can interpret, musically, any number of ideas of when their cross can happen. They can slow the lead (the action) down by planting their feet a bit more, thereby becoming far more ‘lethargic’ deliberately and deciding when the cross can happen and what to do when it does! There are more than a few options that can happen here. Gosh, what kind of options you ask ? Funny you should ask, because we have an entire video series on just that item in our Follower Technique videos. Over 2.5 hrs of video on every aspect of Following! If you want to see just the Follower Cross section, just follow this link!
One last thing to keep in your head, and this is something that we’ll discuss in the next section a bit more: The Cross is YOUR vocabulary. Not the Lead’s. It’s your opportunity to show off, shine, or interpret the music. No matter what anyone tells you, this is yours, and because it’s yours…you should embrace it, tune it and make it your own! Along the same lines, we do have to issue a warning of caution with this stuff. Not every Lead is going to allow you the space to make it your own. More than a few of them get all persnickety when you have a thought in your head let alone actually an idea about how to make the dance look and feel about 10,000 times better than it is! Which is to say that you should pick your Leads very carefully that will allow you invoke any kind of an idea, let alone this specific idea!
From a Leading Perspective: First and foremost, this section is not going to tell you HOW to invoke the cross. Instead we’re going to talk about some rather important factoids about the cross itself, not to mention a state of mind that will hold you in good stead everywhere in the dance, and last but not least about creating space with the Cross itself. Secondly, get the thought out of your head that you’re actually leading the Argentine Cross. That little dream died ages ago. You don’t lead the cross. You ‘infer’ it! To be more specific: What you’re doing these days is more ‘guiding’ it more than anything else. The reason we say this is because the cross has become one of the Seven pieces of Foundation Vocabulary that every dancer must know in order to speak Argentine Tango. Thirdly, it’s high time you realized that the Follower has a voice and a role in today’s version of Argentine Tango, and because of that, they have a place where they can show off and shine. The Argentine Cross is ONE of those places. That said, we know you’re not going to agree with that line of reasoning. We also know that you’re going to continue to do what you’re doing because that’s what’s comfortable for you. And what’s comfortable for you, and easiest, is just to continue what you’re doing. What you may not realize is that that way of thinking does not promote growth, nor does it create a much wider palette for options and opportunities to foster and grow! Which is a fancy way of saying that some really cool things can happen when you create space for the Follower to invoke their own ideas of how and when to cross! Note what we said there, “Create Space…”! That’s the key right there. Creating space means slowing down a little bit, right before the cross happens. It also means loosening up the embrace to allow for the Follower to get back in front of you, which we’ll talk about in a moment. And it also means not rushing THRU the cross to get the next thing. Oh and we almost forgot, it also means being conscious of when and where you are invoking a cross and not the Inadvertent, which means Unconscious, Cross that happens so often.
Having said all of that, this is going to sound counterproductive to what we just yammered on about, but we’re going there anyway: You do actually want to initiate some level of askance over the cross. The distinctive line in the sand appears in the language itself. “Some level of askance”. What does that mean ? It means that you’re going to ask for something very specific, usually when the cross happens, the actual crossing step itself, and then suggest to the Follower that said Cross should happen then. That suggestion can be with a La Marca moment, or it can be with the primary tool of the Cross Engine itself: Opposition. In either case, while we advocate the Opposition over the employment of La Marca, we do realize that a whole swath of you reading this will want to go the easier route of La Marca, instead of Oppositional Motion. The key component here is to ‘suggestion’ not to press, not to push, not to pull, not to force but rather suggest and then let it go. If you suggest appropriately then you may actually get what you want and how you wanted it. Then again you may not. But the component that we’re after is really letting go of the control that you typically exert over the Follower’s role here in this vocabulary. Create space for them to invoke their ideas and to shine. We believe that if the Lead does this frequently, it will create a domino effect in creating a much more powerful and responsive Follower, which is ideally what we want.
Unfortunately just because we create space does not necessarily mean that the Follower is going to immediately recognize this and then act on it. Truth be told, they’ll more than likely not even engage the space that you’ve created. The issue ? Has everything to do with how the Follower was raised to begin with. Remember that a good portion of the time, and you’ve probably said this yourself, “You have to wait for your L/lead!”. Uuuuuummmm that’s why they may not recognize that they have space. That and they’re so used to being told what to do, and the fact that they’re being rushed to do more with less that they may not have time, and you haven’t given them that time. All of these factors may contribute to them not taking some level of control over what they’re doing. So how do you get them to invoke on their own ? Keep creating space for them. Don’t push. Don’t pull. Don’t invoke La Marca. A,ctually slow down and stop at the cross itself! The slowing down itself may invoke them to engage. Just a thought.
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The Last Word: Dance this way, or don’t dance this way. Take these ideas with a grain of salt and continue to do whatever you want. You will anyway. However, going down that road, that way only leads to stagnation. If you want growth, change, to become a better dancer, and who doesn’t want that, then may we suggest that you follow the ideas laid out in this article ? Yes we know that it sounds arrogant. It’s not meant to be. It’s meant to give you a pathway to let go of what you’ve been doing that may not have been working for you and instead to embrace an idea in scope that is so vast that it boggles the mind. The reason we say this is that once you start with the Cross, and invoking these ideas, that you may…want to apply it everywhere else! And at that point, trust us, your dance is changing. And that’s the primary goal. Change. Look you may not want your dance to change. You may like what you’re doing. Great! Keep doing it. But all we’re telling you is what we learned on our own and the response that it’s had on multiple, multiple dance partners over years and years of dancing/floor time. That’s all. YMMV. Good luck.
About The Video. This video comes in at 21m:13s in length in 6 Sections. This video contains has combined Follower and Lead Technique.
Section 1 – Lead & Follower Technique – 00:11:28
Section 2 – Open Embrace – 00:01:28
Section 3 – Close Embrace – 00:00:54
Section 4 – 5 Errors of The Cross – 00:03:24
Section 5 – Getting In Front – 00:01:51
Section 6 – Examples – 00:01:39
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Dancing Foundation – Download
Follower Technique – Download/Article
Leading Technique – Download/Article