Talking While Dancing

Tango is a ‘Social’ dance. Meaning that the whole reason you are there is to hang out, meet new people, and to be social with each other. The dancing part is what brings us together but it’s really about being a social creature. That’s why it’s called a ‘Social’ dance. “Social” in this case means talking and sharing your day or what’s been going on with you. Mostly it’s lots of talking, sharing, listening, and more talking.

However one thing is true that probably no one told you, that the ‘talking’ part ends the moment your feet hit the floor and you’re in your partner’s embrace.

To be clear, there’s an axiom that the more advanced dancer adheres to for a variety of reasons: “If you’re talking, you’re not dancing”.

What does that really mean aside from the obvious STFU ? It means simply that IF you are talking to your partner AS you are dancing with them, you are more than likely (not always, but most certain more than likely) not really focused on dancing with them, nor your own technique, nor what’s happening around you, nor your embrace. Your balance, posture, stability, foot placement, leg trajectory, all suffer because you’re not focused on what you’re supposed to be doing. As a result you’ll start to miss things, you’ll start grabbing on for balance and stability, you’ll engage pressure (tsk!), compression (tsk!), tension (tsk!), force (tsk!). All because you’re rather focused on the talking part instead of the dancing part. Put simply, your technique suffers when you are talking instead of dancing. You forget how to execute ‘X’ properly because you’re too busy talking. Those wonderful private lessons you’re taking, will all go right out the window because you’re talking instead of dancing, instead of focusing on your dance.

Argentine Tango requires all of your focus, all of your awareness, not just some of it, not a piece but all of it. If you’re talking you’re going to miss things, very important little tiny things. And those little tiny things are the dance. The devil, in this case, really is in the details and when it comes to Argentine Tango the details matter, immensely.

Some people believe that they’re capable doing two or more things at once or multitasking. Studies have shown that when you’re  ‘texting & driving’ things tend to not work out so well. The same is true here just without (thankfully) the deadly consequences. Unfortunately Argentine Tango doesn’t work that way. You need to focus all of your attention on the details, the nuance, and more importantly the music, and your partner. This is one reason why the better dancer in the room is ‘better’ because they’re not talking while they’re dancing. They save the talking part for either before the tanda, during the song breaks, or after the tanda, but not while they’re dancing with their partners.

Do what you want, but quite honestly, unless you can sing (ON KEY please), you’re doing nothing more than distracting your dance partner by talking to them while you believe you’re dancing with them. To be clear, this isn’t the tango police dictating to you how you should or shouldn’t social dance, nor is it arrogance, or anything else that would prevent you from hearing the message of Talk Less, Dance More. It is a simple reminder that talking is a distraction. Let the singer, the music, and the dancing do all the talking for you.

MORE REMINDERS

The ‘Passion’ Lie

“The Passion of Tango” or “Tango is a Passionate Dance”. You have heard these statements repeated over and over again, from so many people, teachers, dancers, and teacher/performers that it’s almost like second nature at this point. These statements and others like them promote an idea or a series of ideas about Argentine Tango that get people into the dance, and ultimately to stay with the dance.

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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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The Birthday Song

The Benefits of a Birthday Song. There are a few, but important, benefits to having a Birthday Song for one or more people at the Milonga. 1.) From an organizational position, the Milonga Organizer can use this as a way to advertise the weekly Milonga. "It’s Miles’ Birthday, Come and Dance with him into the wee hours!". That sort of thing. 2.) It’s a way for the Community to come together and support one of their own.

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Watching The Feet

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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Follower’s Left Arm

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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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.

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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 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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