Have you seen the latest Miles Tangos Post?

Follower’s Left Arm

…Over The Lead’s Right Shoulder ?

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:

1.) There’s no information there. None. Zip. Zilch. Nada. Nothing. Information ? Meaning that as a lead turns to their left or right there’s a wide swath of pre-lead information that is sent throughout the body. However most of that information is located along the one portion of the body where turns are possible: The Spinal Column. And in specific t7, t8, and t9. Those 3 vertebrae are the central point of all the lateral turn information, not to mention the muscles and tendons that are attached to them. The further away from these 3 vertebrae that you are, the more the turn information or pre-lead feels like an ‘echo’. Which means placing your arm around the lead’s shoulder line is a little like using an unplugged kitchen appliance, and about as helpful, or “not so much with that”. The reason is really simple because the lateral turn information, happens but you, as the Follower, hear/feel it about a second behind when it actually happened. There’s a reason why it’s done (2 in fact), one is because it’s what was done ages ago, and second is because every ‘cool’ follower does this. Both of these reasons do not tell you why you should place your arm along and around your lead’s shoulder line. What is the purpose of it ? Answer ? There isn’t one. It’s the visual iconic look of what traditional tango looks like. At one point in time it’s sole purpose was to ‘hang’ on your lead for dear life while they flung you around. However as modern tango has changed – evolved, this embrace construct, bastardized from it’s original construct, is still with us getting in the way of the Follower getting the necessary information that they desperately need.

2.) It’s a body contortion. It’s that simple. You are contorting your body into quite literally being in the lead’s armpit and as a result hanging off the side of their body as though you were an accessory. Meanwhile they’re watching your feet, and the floor, and their head is in the way. And every time you turn, you’re literally racing to catch up with your lead.

To be fair, there are some that will read this and vehemently disagree with it. However, I would like to ask you 2 questions before you launch into said tirade against what seems like some young upstart telling you what’s desirable and not desirable: The first question you already know, 1.) What’s the purpose of this ? And if your answer is ‘connection’, think again. Connection is a fallacy and illusion that you have in your head. If you mean Physiological contact then 80% of your information contact comes from the body on body contact that can occur.  If you mean something else, then please state that in your need to rip me a new one. But understand what you are defending. A visual construct. 2.) Doesn’t that hurt your shoulder ? Answer ? YES! Quite truthfully you have trained yourself after a while to build up a series of muscles to allow you to place your arm there. However, that doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s a desirable thing. Ideally we don’t want the arm to go above the shoulder line. Further still, that’s work. More work than you need. And the shorter the Follower the more difficult this becomes. So ? Not so much with that.

Just as a side note, if you want more information on this stuff, if this has piqued your curiosity, you can purchase the Embrace Bundle from this website, or register for free and get access to some helpful materials (dated: about 60 videos), and then consider subscribing. 

One point of note, a good portion of Follower’s will hear this advice above as blaming the Follower! So the thinking goes, here you have one more male lead teacher/dancer blaming the follower instead of what’s happening for the lead (or so you assume). That you have a Lead that doesn’t Follow (I do, and socially!), doesn’t know diddly about how to Follow (I teach this stuff frequently), hasn’t danced in heels…ever (Not so. I used to own a pair of black velour comme il fauts in my size), and doesn’t take the Lead to task for what’s going on for them! All not true. As evidenced herehereherehere, here, here, hereherehere, and here just to name a few. This site, equally points out the issues with both roles, not just one. This stuff is a lot to take in all in one bite. and it’s hard enough with just one role to hear just one piece of the topic when there are multiple issues that need to addressed for that role. This is one small bite. 

MORE REMINDERS

La Viruta

Let’s get the details out of the way. The sight lines are awful. It’s dark, pitch dark in certain parts of the room. It’s crowded, and hot even with the A.C on in the ‘summer’. The drinks are expensive. The tables are small, assuming you can find one or have reserved one (which is recommended). The ‘hot’ area, meaning a place to ‘get’ dances, in the room is in front of the bar at the back left side of the room, and the entrance fee is on par with everywhere else (see end). There’s a restaurant upstairs, and on Mondays and Tuesday nights there is Salsa there. The rest of the week, it’s all Tango baby. There are classes nearly every night of the week, for different levels.

Read More »

The Waiter Hand

Another one that you’re going to see a lot of is the Lead who places his palm upward, flat, and outwards, sometimes fingers outstretched as if they were a waiter serving drinks at an upscale bar. The elbow is dropped, and the hand is well below shoulder level.

Read More »

Couple Exercises

There are lots of really good tango exercises for your feet, your balance, your stability, but there aren’t so many for the couple to practice. Or so you would think. The really obvious ones are 1.) The Molinete Together Exercise. 2.) The No Arms Exercise. and  3.) The Walk Together Exercise.

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Spectrum of Ideas.

Because there are no ‘Standards & Practices’ in Tango, therefore ‘Right’/’Wrong’ are subjective, which are for the most part, based on your teacher’s point of view of how things should be done. And as a result you, the unwitting student, take one those ideas as your own because you believe that because X is teaching that they must be the soul of all wisdom. Very infrequently do tango teachers teach a fair and balanced, or well rounded point of view. They usually teach what their subscribe to in their Tango world view, what they agree with, and what their teacher showed them. Very infrequently will they teach something that is outside that world view.

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Practice with Tango Sticks

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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Good/Bad & Dancer/Teacher

At the beginning of our Tango lives, most people go to a Tango Class to learn how to dance Tango. Some people throw caution to the wind and just go to the Milonga and ‘learn’ on the dance floor sometimes with positive but most of the time with disastrous results. And some people take the route of skipping group classes all together and start with one-on-one sessions to begin their Tango journey.

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The ‘Right’ Shoes

Some day soon, you’re going to want the perfect pair of shoes. These shoes in your mind, completes the Tango image you have for yourself dancing socially. They make you look elegant. They make you feel like you can do anything. Mind you that image is an illusion in your head, but let’s not quibble about reality. These shoes are either handmade in Italy, Istanbul, Buenos Aires, or somewhere and/or something in between. They’re the shoes you always dreamed of. They’ve got all the features that you believe will allow you to become, finally, the dancer that you’ve always wanted.

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Alternative

There is another option as it’s referred to in the Tango world, Alternative Tango. Sometimes Alternative Tango is known by it’s other names “Neo” Tango or “Nuevo” Tango (which is a misnomer, as this was name that Astor Piazzolla gave to his musical genre that changed Tango music forever). Frequently “open embrace” is lumped in there as well due to the fact that a good portion of the vocabulary of Alternative Tango seemingly comes via an opening of the embrace.

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Practice (part 1)

For most people the idea of practice is about practicing the dancing part. Not about the actual "practicing" part. Practice really wants to take apart what one does, how one does it, while asking for feedback & input. Then asking questions, and then figuring out where things aren’t working and why, to smooth out the rough edges of something, and then continually refine, and refine, and refine it so that it becomes effortless.

Read More »

10 REASONS TO SUBSCRIBE

There are 4 Levels of Access: Free, Basic, Premium, and Premium+. Free pays nothing but gets a perk just for signing up. 

1.) Free Users get to see 5 of the 125 Different Tango Topics on the site. Plus you get access to the entire Tango Reminders and Tango Ideas sections of the site. These are short form Topic descriptors with a little detail about the topic and the video.

2.) 
Basic and Premium users Save A BOATLOAD of MONEY! Buying this stuff outright is expensive.

3.) Basic, Premium, and Premium+ users get access to the ALL ARTICLES and THE FULL ARTICLE which you can’t see right now.

4.) Basic, Premium, and Premium+ users have way better video resolution: Free = 420p, Basic = 720p, Premium = 1080p and 4K. 

5.) Basic, Premium, and Premium+ users get the ‘Dancing Perspectives’ & ‘The Soup’ sections of the document you just read (Lead, Follow, and Dancing) which are open to you. And that’s where all the good stuff is at. 

6.) Video Downloads! 

7.) Access to the Tango Topics Music Library (22 Curated Golden Age Orchestras)

8.) Access to ‘Tango Del Dia’ – Our Music Education System with access to 14 Days of Music, 30 Days of Music Education, and 30 More Days of Tango Del Dia. 

9.) We explain things, break the vocabulary down in a visual way, from multiple angles, showing feet, hands, and close ups! Yes there’s a lot of talking but we want you to understand what it is that you’re doing and why, not just steps, patterns, and figure

and #10:
No more annoying ads at the bottom of the page, begging you to subscribe! 

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 dancingWhereas 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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