For a lot of people, the idea of Leading a dance in Argentine Tango either strikes fear into their heart, and they psyche themselves out to the point where they believe that they can’t do it. Or they overthink the thing to death and reach the same point of thinking they can’t do it or that it’s exceptionally difficult. Or there are those that believe that they feel comfortable enough with Leading a dance. In all three of these types of Leads, regardless of the role (Leading or Following), there’s a moment of “What’s Next ?” right at the beginning of a song. For the Follower, the moment comes in the form of the Follower asking the question in their mind, “What do they (the Lead) want ?” over and over again in their minds. Even though they’ve settled into the embrace, until there is movement, until there is some kind of signal (resistance and compression based or intention based dancing) the Follower exists in a heightened state of hyper-awareness of asking this question. For the Lead, the question becomes “What am I going to do ?” over and over and over again until they’re either forced to move because they’re holding up the line of dance or they fall into their standard opening. In both cases, the dance starts from a place of confusion and cluelessness of “What’s Next ?”. What if as a Lead or as a Follower that state of confusion, that state of feeling dumbfounded were to completely disappear ? What would happen to your abilities as a dancer if you created a series of Openings (and closings) to the dance. Not a series of intricate patterns, no….but rather, simple ways to start a dance that put both Lead and Follower at ease ? That’s where today’s Tango Topic picks up. It addresses what to do at the beginning of the dance with 7 Ways to Start a Dance, as well as 9 Ways not to Start a Dance. So without further yappment, Tango Topics presents the importance of Seven Argentine Starters!

What Is A ‘Starter’ ? A ‘Starter’ is a bit misleading, no pun intended because one might erroneously reach the conclusion that an Argentine Starter was a specific piece of vocabulary, a pattern, that you can use. Unfortunately that’s not the case. It’s more of a simple primer, actually 7 simple primers, that you can use to create more complex choices. Think of an Argentine Leading Starter as something a Vaudeville dancer would call “Vamping” until you’re ready for something else. Which roughly translates from a Vaudeville perspective of doing the same thing over and over and over until everyone is on the same page, doing what they need to be doing, in the right key, on the right note, singing the right words, in the same steps, and then they can proceed with the next thing. The same thing is true in Argentine Tango to an extent. In it’s simplest form an Argentine Leading Starter is a series of simple movements to begin a dance with. That’s it, that’s all. There’s nothing grandiose about it but there is something calming about it. And that’s the important part. Calming both partners. We desire calm, rational, clearly thought out movement, as well as thought and creating a state of placid, serene, almost tranquil state of mind and body for three distinct purposes: 1.) Getting to a deeper state of integration with one’s partner. 2.) Creating a heightened state of readiness for all that may occur that is as much about awareness as it is about being delightful. 3.) Removing any and all nervousness and confusion because we’re employing simple things that can translate to more complex things later on. This is an Argentine Starter.

Follower’s Notation. It should be noted that if you’re a Follower, just because this topic sounds like “Leading…” whatever, that shouldn’t pay attention. When the reality is that you DO in fact want to pay attention to this stuff for a wide variety of reasons which we’ll get to in the Follower’s Perspective below.

The Nine Non-Starters. Let’s paint a picture.

You finally get the chance to dance with the parnter that you’ve been wanting to dance with all night long. You’ve been waiting for your chance, just the right moment when they’re available, the right tanda, the right…everything. You seize the opportunity with your best Cabeceo/Mirada! The potential partner responds with a hearty nod in your direction. You look around you briefly to make sure that they’re replying to your Cabeceo/Mirada, you look back at them and they smile and nod emphatically that it is indeed you that they’ve said “yes” to. The Lead walks around the dance floor, not across (tsk, tsk, tsk) it, to get to the Follower. The Follower waits for the Lead to get to them, and they stay seated until the Lead gets to them, so that they can extend their hand to the Follower. The Follower, in keeping in the vien of these things, hasn’t jumped up to meet the Lead, because they’re making absolutely certain that this Lead is was the one that accepted your cabeceo for.

They do so, and they then take the Follower by the hand walking to them entry point of the Milonga floor. And that’s when the Lead invokes the very needed and acceptable practice of: The Lead’s Cabeceo! Once the couple has entry to the floor guaranteed, they both embrace each other in their best, delisioso embrace that they can muster. It’s soft. It’s warm. It’s inviting. It’s lite but engaging. It’s inviting yet comforting. They feel their partner melt into them and vice versa. They match every nuance of their arms and body molding together. They’re both glowing from ear to ear. OMFG!!! They feel good to each other. It’s a delight of the senses. The first few bars of the music are finally breaking through their consciousness. And that’s when the Lead is reminded that they want to impress this Follower with their best move. So they whip out their finest Volcada right from the start.

NOT!!!!!

This was a lovely set up to a dance with a lovely partner. Lovely right up to the point where the Lead lost their damned mind and decided to use an Argentine Volcada to start their dance! The embrace setup was nice. The walk to the floor was almost bordering on the magical. Even the Lead Cabeceo was a nice touch. The Follower recognized this as the Lead taking care that they’re not jostled in any way. That they have time. And then….the lead had to go and ruin it with this jarring transition from a lovely experience  to “Here let me try to impress this Follower with my utmost bestest move….”.

MAJOR ‘NOT’!!!!!

This is a monster no-no on multiple levels.

The reality is that as a couple you can start the dance any way you want to do so. But TangoTopics suggests that there are 9 pieces of Tango vocabulary that you do not want to begin a dance with, and the Argentine Volcada is one of those nine! Truth be told all the items on this list of Tango No-No’s all have one thing in common: They’re All Jarring! Meaning that they’ll all transpose from a lovely embrace starting point into OMFG…WHAT WAS THAT!?!?!?!? Poof….wave good bye to the magical moment.

Think of it this way, imagine that you’re waking up in the morning and you’re having the loveliest of dreams and then your alarm clock goes off with blaring loud music at 6 am in the morning! About the only thing that you can say in that instance is that you’re up. But for you peace of mind and the idea of gently waking from sleep….not so much with that. So without further yappment of what not to do, here are the Nine Ways Not To Start A Dance:

The Free Tip. There’s a ton of free information in the paid article. However, this idea of an opening for you to consider > is a Dark Side Salida. That will give you a few ideas of what you could do.

About The Video. This video is 25m:13s in length in 4 sections. Both lead and follower technique are combined and integrated into the video. Bold items below shown in video sample video above.

Introduction – 00:02:43
9 Ways Not To Start A Dance – 00:06:08
7 Ways to Start A Dance – 00:13:59
Closure With Examples – 00:01:51