The Argentine Cross. Probably the single most used piece of tango vocabulary. In a given song, you’ll end up either leading or following a Cross a dozen or so times, at minimum! From a leading perspective we believe that we’re leading a cross, when in actuality it’s more like we’re expecting it more than anything else. From a Following perspective we’ve been led to this venerable piece of vocabulary 10 thousand times and then some, and what’s so weird about that figure is that we can’t even recount just one of them. It’s so engrained in us, so ubiquitous, used so often that we will cross our feet by default without understanding why, or even when it happens, or (and here’s the kicker) that we crossed at all!

What is The Argentine Cross ? In it’s simplest form, the ‘Cross’, as it is known, is a distinct and unique piece of Tango vocabulary that doesn’t exist in any other social dance in this form. While there are ‘crosses’ in other social dances, there isn’t another cross like this anywhere else. What makes it unqiue ? For one, in this version of the cross, the Follower is a willing participant, and actually an expectant one. Why ? Because it’s used so often nearly everywhere that you really do have to wonder sometimes if that’s all we ever do in Tango. Two steps and then we cross. You could quite literally spend entire song or tanda doing nothing but Argentine Crosses. Mind you, doing so will not achieve the desired results of pleasure that you’re looking for out of your partner. More like they’ll be insanely bored and pissed off at the same time. So, not so much with the ‘Cross’ for an entire song. Still another reason why this is unique is because, in every other social dance, the Cross is ‘placed‘. Meaning that the Follower is put into position by either crossing the Follower’s legs deliberately which ends in crossed feet, or moving their feet to a crossed position deliberately. In this cross, while the Follower can be placed, or forced, or pushed, which by the way we do not want to do, in this instance, they’re quite decidedly led in a very specific way to put them and their body into a position where they have only one option, to cross their feet, hence the reason where it get’s it’s name from. Further still in every other social dance, their version of a Cross is where the Follower simply crosses their feet. In Argentine Tango, the Follower is walked into a position to thereby cross their feet. This is known as “walking them to the cross”.

Difficulty Rating: (2 / 5)

There’s a lot more to this Article! There’s the extensive Lead’s Perspective, the deeper Follower’s Technique Perspective, and sometimes we throw in a complete Dancing Perspective part, all of which are only visible to Tango Topics Freemium Registered Users, Gold Subscribers, Diamond Level Users, and Milonga Madness Users. To become a Freemium user, Registration is absolutely 100% FREE, click the button below, and you get access to this article, and over 400 videos, hundreds of articles on a wide range of Tango Topics. So what are you waiting for, go register, then login to your Tango Topics Library page and then select the “ARTICLES” button and you’ll see this article with all that good stuff in there. Easy. No ? 🙂

FREEMIUM REGISTRATIONpractical tango advice, open articles, free videos

This Article Is Free! But there’s a catch. There’s always a catch to these things. But we think it’s a small, very small price to pay. The price: You actually have to register as a free user! You get oodles of benefits, posts like this in their entirety with ALL the trimmings, including the Leading Perspective, the Follower’s Perspective, and the Dancing Perspective! Plus a Free Tip for the Advancing Dancer. And of course access to the Full video itself. No teasers. No gimmicks. Just pure video with the full Tango Topics video that you want to see. In addition to that, you get access to ALL of our Practical Tango Advice videos and the full articles! Tango Thoughts, all of them so you don’t have to go searching for them. Plus access to our music library to start training you on how to hear the music. Plus a host of over 100 MORE videos entirely free for you to watch. Nothing to download. Just watch, learn, and improve! How can you pass that up ? And it all starts with you scrolling to the end of this page, and registering. If, however, you’re already a registered user, then all you have to do is login and go to your tango topics technique library landing page and select the “Free Articles” button. You’re welcome. And thank you for registering. By the way, there are more than a few of these articles on the site that are open. Just look for the blue “What is…” section after the video. If that section is yellow, then that means that the full article is available to you but not the full technique or subject video.

About The Video. This video comes in at 21m:13s in length in 6 Sections. This video contains has combined Follower and Lead Technique.

Section 1 – Lead & Follower Technique – 00:11:28
Section 2 – Open Embrace – 00:01:28
Section 3 – Close Embrace – 00:00:54
Section 4 – 5 Errors of The Cross – 00:03:24
Section 5 – Getting In Front – 00:01:51
Section 6 – Examples – 00:01:39

Related Videos Mentioned.

The 6 Ways of Walking – Download
Dancing Foundation – Download
Follower Technique – Download/Article
Leading Technique – Download/Article

The Missing Information. Dearest Reader. TangoTopics is glad that you want to read this Topic, so that you can dig a little deeper into your foundation, into the music, into the codigos of the dance. However, you’re missing three important parts to this Article: The Follower’s Perspective, The Lead’s Perspective, and The Dancing Perspective. Which can change your thinking by informing of some important pieces of information that you may not necessarily be aware of. Watching a 5 minute video will not help you to change. Change is a concerted effort and requires a little thinking on your part: Becoming a Freeium User! As the name implies, it’s FREE. Register. You get to see everything above, and a whole lot more! 😉 Have a nice day.

Why should you subscribe instead ? Several reasons. 1.) Probably the biggest reason is to save a boatload of money. Buying these things outright isn’t cheap. Besides when you buy you only have access to the one video. Subscribing, on the other hand, gives you access to everything else so you can see the foundational material that goes with this stuff. 2.) Even if you’re a Free User, you’ll get access to free tips that aren’t available to anyone just reading the post like this one. 3.) Sometimes there are slightly different versions of the videos, that add a bit more content for the free user vs. an unregistered user. 4.) Because the Dancing Perspectives (Lead, Follow, and Dancing) are hidden to the open user. And that’s where all the information is at, unless you actually subscribe. Until you do, those very important textual descriptions of what’s going on for both Lead and Follow you want to read. 5.) And the real reason you should subscribe ? If you’re used to YouTube videos where you’ll see a performance, those Youtube videos don’t explain or walk you through how these ideas work! That is why! What you’re seeing is a presentation, a performance. Not how things work! And what you really need to see is how things work, and more importantly why they work! This website shows you that and more!

Remember that what you’re seeing 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 Dancing’ or how to make things function on a social dance floor. Social Dance floor ? Your local milonga! They’re showing flashy moves as a presentation! But not stopping and talking about how this works, why you’d want to put that piece of vocabulary there, or how to make things fit. This website is all about those things and more!

You could watch those 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.

FREEMIUM REGISTRATION BELOW

First Name:*
First Name Required

Last Name:*
Last Name Required

Address Line 1:
Address Line 1 is not valid

Address Line 2:
Address Line 2 is not valid

City:
City is not valid

Country:
Country is not valid

State/Province:
State/Province is not valid

Zip/Postal Code:
Zip/Postal Code is not valid

Phone:
Phone is not valid

I give my consent for GDPR in the operation of this website:*
I give my consent for GDPR in the operation of this website is Required

Yes.

No.

I am an EU Citizen:*
I am an EU Citizen is Required

Yes

No

Email:*
Invalid Email

Password:*
Invalid Password

Password Confirmation:*
Password Confirmation Doesn’t Match

Password Strength

I have read and agree to the Terms Of Service*

This site collects names, emails and other user information. I consent to the terms set forth in the Privacy Policy.

Please fix the errors above

Tag: argentine

Argentine Cross – Tango Topics

The Argentine Cross

FREEMIUM REGISTRATION BELOW