Tango Floorcraft refers to a whole cadre of practices, relationships, and awarenesses that we have to be fully cognizant of in order to dance argentine tango as a Lead or as a Follow. Primarily it deals with spacing between the couples and the maintenance of that space at all times.
Follower Forward Steps. For a Follower, this type of walking step only happens 4 times in the dance. In Forward Ochos (and it’s variations), the Ocho Cortado (and it’s variations), the Follower’s Molinete (not the Milonguero Turn), all Calesitas and Walking Turns, and lastly Milonga! This is an important step
Apilado (pron: Ahh-Pee-Lah-Do), sometimes you will see this word spelled as ‘Apillado‘ and pronounced as Ahhh-Pee-Sha-Do. They mean the same things. The latter is a bastardized – ahem, Argentine version of the word. In short, this word is the past participle of the verb ‘Apilar’ which means ‘to pile up’ or ‘to put in
Follower Technique. This is quite possibly the single most important thing that a Follower can do for themselves, to study how to take their 3 most important steps, Foward, Side, and Back. Usually Follower technique only covers these items. However, in recent years it has grown to cover and certain
The Armpit Dancer, so named because the dancers are literally and factually in each other’s armpits, and spend their entire dance in each other’s armpits! They start out in front of each other (sometimes, which is where it is most advantageous for each partner to be) but then for a
The Follower’s Molinete is considered to be the common turn of Argentine Tango. This is the turn that is taught at the beginning of most foundation courses. It is one of 8 possible turn types that is usually taught and danced. The turn consists of a disassociative Backstep, a ‘circular’
Foundation. While Argentine Tango has it’s ‘8 Count Basic‘, and is considered by many to be a ‘basic’ of the dance. It is not the Foundation of the dance. The Foundation of the dance consists of the following 5 things: 1.) Presence. 2.) Forward Steps, Side Sides, Back Steps (for
