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Presentation Tango

There is a very popular idea in Tango that gets paraded around a lot, an idea which gets confused with Social Tango which is NOT Social Tango at all but rather is all about the steps, patterns, and figures is known as ‘Show’ Tango, ’Scenario’ Tango, ‘Stage’ Tango, ‘Fantasia’ Tango, or Presentation Tango.

Another way to talk about this kind of Tango which is best classified/described as Posing-Every-3-Steps-Performance-Tango-To-Overly-Dramatic-Music-From-The-Late-60’s-That-Resembles-A-Wrestling-Match that can not be used on a social dance floor, ever!

These are steps, patterns, figures that are taught as a way to sell classes or a teaching couple, to package what they do that works for them in a performance. This stuff can not actually be used in the line of dance because it’s usually too big. However if it is reduced, made smaller (which no one ever talks about or displays), then it may be used, possibly. However given the space and size of that planeos, boleos, colgadas, volcadas and what not takes up, generally not. However this is exactly what gets paraded around as ‘Social Tango’. It’s not. It’s Presentation Tango. The overly sharp bodily lines. The pointed toes, elbows, and legs.  The very rough, and forceful movements. The huge, gaping steps, taking up oodles of space. The figures, after patterns, after more ‘steps’, repeated endlessly….all of which actually has no relationship to what’s happening in the music. This is Presentation Tango. 

Presentation Tango does not work on a social dance floor. Ever. There’s no space for it. Especially in Buenos Aires or a crowded dance floor. 

To be fair there are some good aspects of Presentation Tango. It does teach, and reinforce, that the dancer (not the couple), the individual, must focus on being clean in their execution of X, that they must employ good posture everywhere not just momentarily, that they must apply a bit of ‘spit & polish’ to everything that they do…from their walk to their embrace to their vocabulary choices within the line and lane of dance all within the musical construct of tango, vals, or milonga. However make no mistake, Presentation Tango has no place on a social dance floor, it should not be confused as Social Tango.  

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MORE REMINDERS

Tango Frustration

May 20, 2017 No Comments

Contrary to what you may have heard, the reality of Tango for some people is, as a Lead as well as a Follow, is not all happy and lovely. The fact is that some of those dancers go to the Milonga knowing that they are going to sit, a lot. And that sitting leads a winding path through a host of emotions that ultimately lands them on the door step of Tango Frustration.

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The Shoe Lip

March 1, 2017 No Comments

Today’s Tango Thought is a bit of Tango minutiae that seems unimportant at first, but is in reality very important actually. It is an awareness that can help you to understand why certain kinesthetic instabilities (regardless of gender) exist: A fair number of street shoes, male or female, have a thick hard leather construct known as the ‘Sole of the Shoe’. The Sole serves several purposes, one of which is to protect your feet from harm, still another (which relates to today’s thought) and secondly it’s what we call the ‘Shoe Lip’.

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Watching The Feet

April 8, 2017 No Comments

Put simply – If you can see your partner’s feet while dancing with them…there’s a problem. The problem ? Well actually there are several that you’re completely unaware of, below are just a few of them….

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Practice with Tango Sticks

June 9, 2017 No Comments

At some point along your tango curve, you have wanted 1.) to practice a step, a pattern, or a figure. Or 2.) you have seen something that you want to try out. Or 3.) you’re imagining an idea of how something might work and want to try it. In all three of these instances, you will need a practice partner. You’ll need to schedule their time against yours. And once you’re in the same room with them, balance their issues of how they do X vs. how you engage X. And once that challenge is overcome then it’s getting into the idea of what it is you had in mind to begin with. All told, this could be several hours or days between the idea and the actual doing of it.

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Follower’s Left Arm

January 17, 2017 No Comments

You’re going to see this, and quite honestly, from a whole swath of Followers from your run of the mill local social dancer to professional doing this. Is this desirable ? No. Why ? Several reasons. Two of the more common reasons:

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Wood Floors

February 11, 2018 No Comments

The toy of choice for most dancers is a ‘Sprung’ floor! That’s a work of art, science, and pure magic. Sprung floors are to dancers, what honey is to bees.  A ‘Sprung’ floor ? What’s that ? A Sprung floor is a dance floor that easily absorbs shocks, giving it a softer feel. Such floors are considered the best available for dance and indoor sports and physical education. They enhance performance and greatly reduce injuries.

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The Negative of Tango

May 1, 2017 No Comments

There is distinct negative side to Tango. Ask anyone that has done any level of work to improve their dance, and they’ll tell you that it is at once eye opening, again blistering, noxious and wholly demoralizing. Demoralizing to the point where they want to quit dancing altogether.

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Social Dancing

December 13, 2016 No Comments

‘Social Dancing’ means going out with friends, or to meet friends, at a Milonga, for the purpose of getting together to dance Argentine Tango (or most any other dance) better known as ‘Social Tango’. The emphasis is on the social part, and not the technical part.

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Keep something in the back of your mind: What you’re seeing in a youtube video is a couple that is performing for the 15th row for a room full of people. They’re not social dancing! Whereas this website is all about ‘Social Tango’  or how to make things function on a social dance floor. Social Dance floor ? Your local milonga! They are showing you flashy moves as a presentation, to show off! But not stopping and talking about how this works which is what you need to see. This website and all of it’s content show you the how and  why you’d want to put that piece of vocabulary there, or how to make things work. This website is all about those things and more!

You could watch Tango YouTube videos and thereby spend your time, trying to infer, and figure out how things may work in that particular situation. Bend your body this way or that, twist and force this position or that. Place your foot here or there and figure it out. This is known as Tango Twister.  Which can be a lot of fun, but more than likely it won’t help you, because you’re missing something: The explanation from an experienced teacher showing you how to properly excute this stuff from a Leading Perspective as well as from a Following Perspective!

The goal of YouTube videos is to get you to study with those teachers in person. The goal of Tango Topics videos allows you to work at your own pace, in the comfort of your own space, so that you can play them over and over again to improve your understanding of the vocabulary or technique being described to therefore better your dancing experience. The goal of classes and workshops is to get you to come back over and over and over again, thereby spending more money with that teacher. This website and the videos under it are here to act as a resource for you to help you to improve your dance. Pay once and you’re done.

Eventually, one way or another you’re going to pay for this lesson, either here and now, or with them. TANSTAAFL! The difference between that lesson and this ? Is that you get to play this lesson over and over and over again. Further still, there are supporting materials (other videos) that help to explain the language and the underlying technique of how and why things work, so you can easily reference those things in the corresponding articles that go with the material, and or any language in the Tango Topics Dictionary. 

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