Buenos Aires for a lot of people, is their trip to Mecca. It is mythological. It is magical. It is the next logical step in their evolution. In their mind they have seen the videos of dancing at Salon Canning, or Villa Malcolm (pron: Vee-Jah Mal-cum), or the crowded floor at La Viruta with 300 other people, or seen the Sunday nights at Villa Malcolm, or the ‘practica’ at De Queresa, or Cachirulo, or La Glorieta, or La Catedral, or any of the hundred plus milongas and practicas per week there, and dreamt of what that must be like. And then to actually be there and then they’re hit with the reality of ‘Oh shit!’ I’m dancing in Buenos Aires! It’s right about at that point when they see the quality of dance, and the speed of the rotunda, that several things happen for them. Fear comes to mind, then excitation, and then more fear (for a different reason), and then hoping that you can manage the floor (as a Lead or a Follow). It’s right then that they wished they had studied harder or paid for privates with the visiting Argentine instructor, and they try to remember everything they’ve ever been taught. They conveniently realize that they’ve not spent any time Preparing For Dancing in Buenos Aires.
What is Preparing for Dancing In Buenos Aires ? This video is all about helping you out with a few vocabulary choices that can change your dance in Buenos Aires so that you’re not freaked out by it from either role. This video is an important tool that can, at the very least, prepare you, and help you to enjoy dancing in BsAs more than you would ordinarily. The reason is a really simple one: Experience. This video covers the ‘how-to-prepare’ yourself for dancing in BsAs for both roles. However, it’s really just a precursor to the toy that you really want:
Dancing In A Small Space. It should be noted that while this 5 point guide is on the technical aspects of dancing in Buenos Aires, it should and can also be applied for Dancing in a Small Space (DIASS <-Follow The Link…really). The techniques are exactly the same that is described herein this video. The skillsets laid out herein are not only the same but even more applicable because while you’ll only dance in BsAs once per year (if you’re lucky) and only for a few short weeks (sadly), you’ll definitely visit a crowded milonga anywhere in the world far more often! Learning how to manage the floor, manage your space, introduce simple but clear, and small vocabulary from a Leading and a Following perspective is absolutely crucial to your continued success as a dancer especially in Buenos Aires!
Free Tip – When leading the Follower’s Molinete in Buenos Aires, you do NOT want to “open” or turn away from the Follower. This creates an opening that you can not recover from easily. It creates space or a gap between the couple that is tenuous at best. Followers want to essentially do 2 things. 1.) is to over-rotate a bit on the Back Step of your molinete, and 2.) constantly be repositioning yourself even though a good portion of your leads are not going to allow it to happen. I hate to point this out to you, and not to beat a dead horse but the fact is that all of this stuff is present in this video and more.
Pre-Requisites: So that we’re all clear on this part, note the difficulty rating below, it is not an exaggeration! Do not attempt this stuff unless the following is true: You have mastered 1.) your walk. 2.) your stability. and 3.) your equilibrium. 4.) your turns (either role – milonguero turns as well as the follower’s molinete at minimum).
IF …
a.) you need to stabilize yourself against your partner when walking. b.) you need to use your hands or arms in any level of tactilecompression. c.) you are in the habit of watching your partner’s feet (but don’t realize it). d.) you are used to using resistance – compression – rigidity – tension – or force to engage your ideas.
THEN… dancing in small space (DIASS) and/or preparing for bsas will be challenging for you. That’s why it’s a good idea to subscribe to tangotopics.com and clean up these issues ahead of time.
About the Video: Preparing for Buenos Aires is 19m:11s HD in length in 8 sections. This is not a technique video, for the individual techniques discussed in the video, it is highly advisable that you go look to their individual technique sections in the TangoTopics Library that is provided with your subscription. This video is more of a how to make things to work from a Leading & a Following perspective, what to practice before you go, and how to practice them.
Dancing In A Small Space is not without its challenges for a lot of dancers, space, obviously being chief among them. It doesn’t matter what role you’re dancing, you will still experience one, if not multiple, challenges. One common of those areas of concern is, for the Lead, keeping things small enough- at all times while at the same time not being repetitive (hence this post). As a side note, a Lead will tend towards compressing the embrace to ‘protect’ the Follower and may not realize that their version of an embrace is already compressive! So to them adding more compression with their hand or forearm to protect the Follower further, they’re completely aware that they’re adding compression, but what they’re unaware of is just how much compression is there to begin with! For the Follower, the reason that DIASS is challenging is the clear but obvious awareness that the floor is crowded and that they must keep things as tight as possible without injuring one’s self or any of the dancing couples around them. That means so that we’re clear: 1.) The Follower’s Molinete, and in specific their back step, must not go away from their Lead. 2.) The Follower’s Cross (The Argentine Cross), must be clean and small. 3.) Stability is absolutely crucial to your awareness of your surroundings. IF you’re wobbling all over the place, you’re fighting your stability and what not and are not aware of how much space you’re taking up! And that’s just the tip of the scary iceberg. God help you if you’re in BsAs for the first time, trying to dance at either Salon Canning, Villa Malcolm, El Beso…or the like. You’re going to be challenged in ways that this article will not mention but has mentioned in either our BsAs articles (seen here), or our other articles on Dancing In A Small Space.
All that said, there’s another challenge with Dancing In A Small Space, and that’s the “Lead’s Fallacy”. What’s that ? It’s where the Lead believes, erroneously so, that they can and should add much more vocabulary to keep the Follower interested, or to keep the Follower from being bored, or to seemingly elevate themselves to a better class of dancer. Not true. It is erroneous thinking that will not solve your problems in any way, shape, or form.
Truthfully you can dance the 5 Social Figures of Argentine Tango all night long and never feel a need to expand on it. It should be noted that usually adding more vocabulary is not necessarily a good thing. Ideally what needs to happen is a complete exploration of the variances of the vocabulary that you currently have access to. Again, not to sound like a broken record, this also means from a Leading perspective as well as a Following perspective. Which is to say: Understand what you’re doing. Explore Your Dance! This is also why it is absolutely crucial that the Lead and the Follower understand the Six Ways of Walking in all of their fabulous and wonderful permutations. There’s a reason why this site keeps advocating this idea, and that’s not only because it works, it’s because you could quite conceivably dance nothing but the Six Ways of Walking all night long with every partner and they’d never be bored, you’d never be bored, and you’d have near-infinite exploration of the dance! And then there’s the next layer, that’s adding the musical permutations that can be explored. Hundreds upon hundreds of vocabulary variations that you can think of and then some.
So unless these things are done then Today’s Tango Topic is absolutely pointless! That said, let’s dive into today’s topic of Dancing In A Small Space: The Extended Vocabulary Edition (EVE).
What is DIASS: EVE ? In short, this is a series of 8 pieces of tango vocabulary that tangotopics has identified to be used as accent or “spice” in addition to Five Social Figures (and its variations) as well as volume 1 and volume 2 of Dancing In A Small Space (DIASS) in Argentine Tango. The key component in the sentence here is ‘ACCENT’ or ‘SPICE’. Most of this stuff is a little flash, with the exception of #7 and #8, but aside from those things this stuff is purely to be used as more than a variation and as a singular usage at best. They should not be used as the repetitive movement over and over again so as to annoy one partner and one’s partner should not expect it, nor should it be required of them either!
This isn’t rocket science, it’s really simply in fact. ‘EVE’ as we’re calling it, is really just a conglomeration of vocabulary that you see everyday at Milongas that has been modified to fit within the line, and lane, of dance with one monster modification: They’re Smaller than their regular kissin’ cousins. The idea is to make this stuff fit inside the lane of dance, and fit inside the line of dance, and more importantly to take up no more space than the standing spot that you’re currently over. No stepping backwards (mostly). No breaking the line of dance. No exiting one’s lane. One must keep the ronda moving at all times. This is the Marathon/Encuentro/BsAs environment where things are packed tighter than a snail’s ass! In this environment things have to ‘fit’ precisely, otherwise blood or bones will be exposed and we don’t want that to happen…ever. To be fair, and while it was mentioned above, we’re mentioning it here in its definition as a reminder, do not attempt some of this stuff until you mastered walking cleanly, clearly, and without wobbling or needing your partner to walk. If you can’t walk backwards by yourself in a pair of 3 in heels without crossing over your natural body meridian or you can not walk (as a Lead) without crossing over the body’s natural meridian or supinating your feet to do so, then there are issues to say the least that need to be addressed.
Notation: When the “What is … ” section of an article is blue, that means that the article is freely available to registered, users. When the section is yellow, the article is still free, but the video is for paid users. 😉
What are in the Eight Pieces of Vocabulary in EVE?
1.) – Follower’s Calecita. (All users) This is basically the Follower walking in Forward or Backsteps (although the latter is uncommon and some difficult to actually lead for a variety of reasons, most notably: habit) around their Lead. Calecitas can be done in Open or Close Embrace, but in this case because we’re talking about DIASS methodology, we’re talking in Close Embrace and making things very small and gradual for both roles. All users.
2.) – The Simple Sacada. (Freemium/Subscriber) The Simple Sacada can be done in Open or Close Embrace, but this is DIASS so we’re employing it here in small spaces as methodology to engage a turn. Which by the way has an interesting possible side effect where the Follower can be led to engage in a Milonguero Turn as a result instead of the resolution that you see above. The Tango Topics Subscriber sees both of these options in the full 22-Minute video. 🙂
3.) – Argentine Enganche/Wrap. (Subscriber Only) In North America we call this a ‘Wrap’. Where the Follower’s leg wraps between and around the Lead’s. The problem with these pieces of vocabulary are that they can go wildly wrong, mostly on the part of the Follower who is unconscious of their leg and what has to happen to it. 😉 And when we’re talking about DIASS methodology, that wrap has to be insanely tight, small, and fast. The Follower has to get in and out just as quickly.
4.) – Single Axis Turn. (Subscriber Only) Seemingly this piece of Tango vocabulary was made for DIASS methodology. Thankfully it takes up very little space. The only problem with it is its entry point, and a failure to engage the Mordita (the foot sandwich). A lot of Followers, and rightfully so, mistake the opening of the Single Axis Turn for a Volcada. Why ? That’s because they start out almost exactly the same way. And due to the prevalence of the Volcada over a Single Axis turn the Follower will mistakenly think “Ahh Volcada”, and thereby release their ‘free’ foot/leg and allow it to swing free. While this isn’t such a huge thing. It does impede the required centrifugal force that is generated by the turn itself. Thereby slowing down the turn.
5.) – Social Volcada. (Subscriber Only) Yes you can add a Volcada to DIASS. Should you ? That’s a completely different story. All we’ll say is this: Use. It. Sparingly. Like as in ONCE IN A BLUE MOON! There’s a reason why this entire topic is accent vocabulary and not the meat of the dance. This piece completely exemplifies it. Yes it’s loads of fun, and yes it’s cool. But to engage it as your goto move…not so much with that! That said, the SOCIAL Volcada is not an egregious one. Meaning it’s really small and fits within the line and lane of dance. It’s nothing more than a glorified argentine cross, that’s a bit more flashy. There are several examples of this piece of vocabulary here on Tango Topics, here’s just one of them:
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6.) – Floating Cross. (Subscriber Only) Arguably on this list this one will create an enormous amount of confusion, because watching the floating cross, and doing/feeling the floating cross are two very different things. There is a tiny amount of ‘lilt’, and that lilt is the floating part. It’s a glorified Follower’s Back Cross, but it’s a back cross that takes its time.
7.) – Parallel System Rock Step. (Subscriber Only) The quintessential goto move for most Leads. They use it so often and with such frequency that you’d think that it was one of the 7 primary foundational moves. That’s not true of course. But still. This piece, when used properly and not overused (hint, hint, hint … remember this is accent vocabulary here), can create an interesting surprise for the Follower. At the same time the Follower has loads of options to play with Rock Step adornments and amagues, especially with the resolution. The two problems, as with all adornments and amagues is always a.) the Lead not rushing through X. and b.) time! The other problem with the Step Step/Resolution is that it is all too easy for this thing to violate the prime directive of DIASS. It can take up too much space! Oddly enough this particular Rock Step can lead (no pun intended) to the last item on this list….
8.) – Ocho Cortado. (Subscriber Only) THE goto move of most leads in DIASS, but oddly enough it was left out of the first 2 iterations but was included in the FIVE SOCIAL MOVES
When are Different Vocabulary Used and Why ?
In certain types of Tango Events one particular type of moves are used more often and more predominantly than others. The reason is that some types of vocabulary work best depending on the venue and the type of Tango being invoked or danced. For instance:
Weekly, Local Milonga ? All 8 Marathon? All 8 Festival or Mini-Festival ? All 8 Encuentro ? All but #1 & 3. Buenos Aires ? It depends on the venue. But, all but #1,#3,#5. There’s no space for that noise.
About The Video. Total runtime for this video is: 25:55. This is a combined video format, lead and follow technique are mixed together.
(Important Notation: If you haven’t seen the Article/Video on “DIASS”, look at that first, otherwise this stuff isn’t going to make a whole lot of sense to you!)
Quite possibly you’ve been at a Milonga and the available space continues to decrease to the point that it feels cloistered, because of that you feel like you can’t do anything at all. What’s worse, whether you know it or not, due to this experience (from a leading perspective) you start to repeat the same things over and over again, and (from a following perspective) you feel like a record stuck on repeat. Not only is your vocabulary limited at this juncture, but your embrace becomes compressive, restrictive, and wholly uninviting.
There are a few reasons for this experience to occur, not the least of which is the Fear Of Hitting Someone or Something! And if you’re thinking of this stuff solely from a Leading perspective, think again. Fear happens for both roles, the more cloistered things become, the more disjointed and compressive the dance ‘devolves’ into. It is for this reason that we need to learn how to Dance In A Small Space (DIASS). Honestly, there are very few classes, workshops, and/or tutorials on this stuff. Which has to do with the fact that it’s because the topic is so wide and so incredibly vast that it almost seems like you shouldn’t bother in the first place. Nothing could be further from the truth! Factually speaking, very few teachers talk about this stuff for a few more reasons, because the topic takes into consideration Close Embrace, Close Embrace vocabulary, Navigation, Floorcraft, Musical Interpretation, and the Neurology of Leading, as well as the Experience of Following (which are not the same things by any stretch of the imagination). Tango Topics has already produced a video on this nebulous topic called, “Dancing In A Small Space”. Today’s Tango Topic video is an addendum to Dancing In A Small Space. That said, let’s dive right into Dancing In A Small Space (DIASS) – The Addendum Edition!
First a reminder of What is “Dancing In A Small Space” (or ‘DIASS’ as Tango Topics refers to this idea) ! There are two parts to the answer to this question:
First, in it’s simplest form, it’s all about the vocabulary and engaging Five pieces of Tango vocabulary. The Five Pieces ?
1.) The 5 of the 6 Ways of Walking. 2.) Milonguero Ochos (sometimes referred to as ‘Lazy’ Ochos) 3.) Milonguero Turns (not the Follower’s Molinete). 4.) Back and Forward Crosses (not the Argentine variety, there’s no space!). And 5.) Linear (and Circular) Ocho Cortados.
This is all done in Close Embrace. 🙂 You’re welcome.
Note that there are no Sacadas, Colgadas, Volcadas, Ganchos, Boloeos, or Death Drops and/or Drags. None. However, there are a whole bunch more pieces of Tango vocabulary that almost never get talked about, or thought of here, that can also be applied, such as Calesitas, Paradas (Step Over), Pasadas (Drags & Sweeps), ’Patter’ (sometimes referred to as ‘Pitter-Patter’), The Incrementals (see Golden Nugget Extensions), just to name a few.
Secondly, there’s the actual ‘Dancing’ part of the statement which is more about movement more than anything else. Said movement is done in a very confined space, no bigger than one-meter square if that. The people that practice this way of dancing, while they may not be conscious of it, there is a sincere desire to not to take up space, mostly because there isn’t any space to begin with. This is moving in a milonga environment really, where the distance between couples, on all sides, is no more than about the length of one hand (about 17 centimeters). So from the perspective of the Small Space Dancer, there is precious little space to ‘do’ anything at all due to the conditions of the Ronda, so as a result of this confinement, the dancing part is really about the minimal. Everything is done either around the lead, or the space that the couple currently occupies and does not extend beyond that space. Quite factually, depending on which city we’re in when dancing this way (Buenos Aires comes to mind), one would take up no more space than the space that one’s feet occupy at that moment in time, and no more than that, but without moving from that spot!
About The Video. This video comes in at 12m:01s in 8 sections in HD 1920×1060 resolution. Lead and Follower is combined and commingled, in both videos. This is NOT a technique video. For the technique on each of these topics, please see their respective areas linked in the text below.
Section 1 – Introduction – 00:00:26 Section 2 – Cross Body Incrementals – 00:00:37 Section 3 – Closed Sided Turn – 00:01:51 Section 4 – Close Side Turn Trick – 00:01:36 Section 5 – Media Luna – 00:01:47 Section 6 – Follower Reminder for DIASS – 00:00:37 Section 7 – Example of 4 Ideas – 00:01:48 Section 8 – The Wrap Up/Example – 00:02:55
Dancing In A Small Space. You’re at a Milonga, early, and you have lots and lots of space to dance. There are a few couples dancing, and it feels so spacious to dance ‘freely’. As the night progresses, more and more people show up to the Milonga, and before you know it, there are more and more people on the floor, and about an hour or so later, there is hardly any room to move on the floor. And right about this point, the DJ is hitting their ‘stride’. This is the moment that you get annoyed, pissed really, that you can’t do what you want to do. You begin to cut your ideas short, you inadvertently bump into people, your partner has stepped on someone or so you think, elbows are seemingly everywhere, your choices musically become stilted, and on top of all of that, you feel claustrophobic. As a result, you change lanes out of the outer track of dance, hoping that that will be a little better. Everyone always wants to be in the outer track of dancing. A little while later, the same thing happens, you’re crowded again. You change lanes to the inner mob scene where it’s just chaos and no lane or line of dance, it’s just bodies moving in their own space and god help you if you survive. You step off the floor, and looking at the outer track of dancing and wonder, “How do they dance like that? All bunched up!” or “How is that pleasurable?”. What’s the ‘that’ ? Dancing In A Small Space!
What is a ‘Dancing In A Small Space’ ? There are two parts to the answer to this question:
Before we answer that question, there is a misperception that ‘Dancing In A Small Space‘ is strictly “Milonguero” Style of dancing. This is not the case at all. Whether you believe it or not, this is not necessarily a ‘style’ of dance. It’s a marketing term to address a series of ideas that fit under the umbrella of “Salon” dancing. Salon Dancing is vast umbrella that includes most of the styles of Argentine Tango that we’re most familiar with. Dancing In A Small Space is a practical concept that borrows heavily from all of those forms, not just one style. Whatever embrace you use or are comfortable with the ideas contained in this video series can be exceptionally helpful to you.
First, in it’s simplest form, it’s all about the vocabulary and engaging Five pieces of Tango vocabulary. The Five Pieces? 1.) 5 of the 6 Ways of Walking. 2.) Milonguero Ochos (sometimes referred to as ‘Lazy’ Ochos). 3.) Milonguero Turns (not the Follower’s Molinete). 4.) Back and Forward Crosses (not the Argentine Cross, there’s no space!). And 5.) Linear (and Circular) Ocho Cortados. This is all done in Close Embrace. Note that there are no Sacadas, Colgadas, Volcadas, Ganchos, Boloeos, or Death Drops and/or Drags. None. Not in typical sense. However it should be noted that the Social Vocabulary ideas can be interjected here: The Social Turns, The Single-Axis Turn, The Close Embrace Sacadas, etc. However, there are a whole bunch more pieces of Tango vocabulary that almost never get talked about, or thought of here, that can also be applied, such as Calesitas, Paradas (Step Over), Pasadas (Drags & Sweeps), ’Patter’ (sometimes referred to as ‘Pitter-Patter’), The Incrementals (see Golden Nugget Extensions), just to name a few.
Secondly, there’s the actual ‘Dancing’ part of the statement which is more about movement more than anything else. Said movement is done in a very confined space, no bigger than one-meter square, if that. The people that practice this way of dancing, are consciously aware of not taking any more space than is absolutely needed. This is dancing in very crowded milonga environment really, where the distance between couples, on all sides, is no more than about the length of one hand (about 17 centimeters, if that). So from the perspective of the Small Space Dancer, there is seemingly (operative word) precious little space to ‘do’ anything due to the conditions of the ronda, so as a result of this seeming confinement, the dancing part is really about the minimal. Everything is done either around the lead, or the space that the couple currently occupies and does not extend beyond that space. Quite factually, one would take up no more space than the space that one’s feet occupy at that moment in time, and no more than that, but without moving from that spot!
The Biggest Problem! Is perception. How’s that ? A frequent problem that crops up for a lot of people is that they think or believe that the only way to make this stuff work is by pulling their partner into them with their arms, and to go one step further by holding their partner very still, trying to steady their partner, and compressing even more. There’s lots of tension, pressure, and compression.
This is not true. You do not need to hold on tight to your partner in order to make this stuff work. Truth be told the solution to making Dancing In A Small Space function is actually all about body placement and in specific foot placement and weight distribution. Place these things in the right position and you’re good to go. Put them in less than optimal positions and you’re quite literally screwed and end up squeezing the living daylights out of your partners!
Let’s Talk About Fear. The other side of the perception problem is the reality that Dancing In A Small Space is going to freak you out! You’re going to be afraid of X, whatever X may be. Mostly because it’s unfamiliar to you. Most leads lose their collective minds when they have to navigate at a crowded Milonga. They’d rather sit than have to step all over someone’s feet or stumbling and bumbling here and there and apologizing everywhere. So rather than dance to their favorite Di Sarli or De Caro, they’ll sit out and wait for the floor to clear a bit. Followers have a slightly different bend on fear, it’s the fear of stepping on someone’s feet, and not necessarily their partners. It’s OTHER people’s feet. Why ? Because they know they’re in 3 in heels and those things are like lethal weapons on their own. One good ‘stomp’ and that’s someone’s night right there at a hospital emergency room!
Confusion & Consternation. In one respect YouTube has been the biggest boon to Argentine Tango in the last 50 years since Petroleo came along. And that’s because of the proliferation of everyone’s sharing of their ideas of the form, there are way too many notable examples of Tango on youtube to name here. However, the less than desirable is that when you see dancing on YouTube, it is very infrequently actual social dancing. It’s a performance. So the belief or idea in your head when you watch X, Y, and Z performance is that what you’re seeing should be doable on a social dance floor. The reality is that most of that stuff is a.) under certain conditions. and b.) if and only if you drop the egregiousness of the movements themselves. Further still is that fact that what you’re seeing IS A PERFORMANCE, not actual social dancing. Whether you realize it or not, you’re being fooled into seeing that things work on a social dance floor. Yes they work when there’s lots of space, however…when there’s loads of people on the floor and you have no more than a few centimeters between yourself and the next couple ? Not so much with that! Which is to say that, more than likely the performance-y side of what you’re seeing does not work on a crowded dance floor because there’s no space for that stuff. Not now, not ever.
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How Do You Dance In A Small Space ? Carefully. Which is easier written/said, than actually done.
To be clear this is not an easy practice to learn. There are precious few teachers or dancers that talk about this stuff. Occasionally you’ll find a random class on the subject, at a workshop weekend, or a tango festival but for the most part the people that dance the principles of Dancing In A Small Space, divided up into it’s component elemental vocabulary. It is only during those vocabulary sessions that the thought of how to make things smaller, tighter, much more confined is left up to the instructor to ‘mention’, and that’s assuming that they mention this stuff at all. Usually, they don’t. And so that we’re clear here, this statement or descriptive is not to disparage anyone’s teaching or a specific teacher in any way, shape, or form. Some teachers have a full load and a lot on their minds and this stuff is way down on their list of things to remind you about. Hence this video series. Further down the rabbit hole of ‘Carefully’, while there are very few teachers that talk about this stuff, there are even fewer resources that can be used to practice this stuff. You would think that practicing this stuff in the line of dance would be a good place. And it is to a degree, however, a Milonga is not practice, that’s what a ‘Practica’ is for. A Milonga can be a good experience, but it’s no substitute for actual practicing of the guiding principles of Dancing In A Small Space.
The How Part:
1.) Smaller. You would think that just making things smaller would help. It does to a degree. Yes, learning to confine and control one’s body in the execution of X, Y, and/or Z is absolutely crucial. Truthfully the thing that makes this stuff work, is not necessarily about the vocabulary used, but rather about the length of the steps taken, and just how judicious one can be with not only one’s feet, but rather one’s legs!
2.) Economy. Honestly this is about an economy of motion. Typically on a social dance floor you have the freedom to move and do whatever you want, and take up oodles of space to do it. However, when under the conditions of Dancing In A Small Space, you must look for other ways to do exactly the same thing, but without taking up space to do it. Enter – The Economy of Motion. Why take 5 steps when 1 will do ? Why move forward when there’s no reason to do so, especially when there’s no space to move forward ? Under these conditions one must learn to utilize the space that one has, and work in the minimal. Exceptionally minimal.
3.) Solo Practice. The reality of Dancing In A Small Space is that it doesn’t just ‘happen’. Not by a long shot. This stuff takes time and patience to get, and so that we’re clear about this one, not at a Milonga! Practice in this case is actually spent in private practice working by one’s self, on one’s execution of one’s technique. This is really about conditioning one’s body to respond in a very specific way, on command. And like it or not there’s only one way to do that: Solo Practice.
4.) Private Practicewith Tools. You’re going to ask yourself, once you feel like you’ve done the Solo practice execution thing to death, what and how do you actually practice with another person in the embrace ? There are a few exercises that one can train one’s self to do be able to respond to Dancing In A Small Space. There are several ideas laid out in the video above, so you’ll have to see the video to get an idea of what’s there in terms of ideas. But one simple idea is working on making things economical and small, without sacrificing the quality of motion, or form, or speed of what you would normally do. However, this is about conditioning so there are limits that must be place on the dancer so that they learn to mitigate these things, without sacrificing anything. That’s the trick right there.
About The Video. This video comes in at two parts: Section 1 on the Vocabulary of Small Space Dancing is 22m:46s in length in 11 Sub-Sections. Section 2 is on the How Part of Small Space Dancing and is 13m:49s in 2 Sections. Lead and Follower is combined and commingled, in both videos. This is NOT a technique video. For the technique on each of these topics, please see their respective areas linked in the text below.
Section 1 – The Vocabulary
Sub-Section 1 – Introduction – 00:02:14 Sub-Section 2 – The Walking Turn – 6 Ways of Walking – 00:02:00 Sub-Section 3 – The Milonguero Turn – 00:01:40 Sub-Section 4 – The Linear Ocho Cortado – 00:02:38 Sub-Section 5 – Ideas In Context (Example) – 00:00:38 Sub-Section 6 – Calesita – 00:00:30 Sub-Section 7 – Circular Patter (with Example) – 00:02:25 [seen above] Sub-Section 8 – Linear Patter (with Example) – 00:02:29 Sub-Section 9 – Ideas In Context Part 2 – 00:00:58 Sub-Section 10 – Back Crosses – 00:00:31 Sub-Section 11 – A Few Exercises – 00:05:44
Section 2 – The How Part
Sub-Section 1 – The Example Idea – 00:05:41 Sub-Section 2 – Resetting The Couple – 00:07:58
Dancing In A Small Space. Typically the idea of dancing within a confined or restricted space is a fearful one for the inexperienced Lead or Follower. Most of that fear exists in either hitting something or someone, or not being able to contain or control what one is doing. So when things in the line of dance get really confined some people get really nervous, and they can’t think outside the box that they’ve put themselves into. The idea of dancing in this environment plays it’s out in a few places, either a crowded local milonga during a special event like a live orchestra, or at a Marathon, an Encuentro (in Europe, not in the United States), or at any Milonga in Buenos Aries. Tango Topics has defined this idea before of what that means and issued two (actually 3, and now 4) videos on the subject of Dancing In A Small Space which we call “DIASS” for short. Today we further the ‘DIASS’ idea a bit by adding a few variations to a theme. The theme being the Five Common Social Figures or the 5 things that we do constantly on at Milonga within the line and lane of dance. Those Five Common Social Figures are as follows:
To be clear, as there’s a lot of room for interpretation in what those five things actually mean. So let’s clear that up right now:
1.) Walking. Means that we’re engaging only 1 (Parallel System on 2 Tracks) of the 6 Ways of Walking as a foundation of movement.
2.) Ochos. Typically the idea of Ochos engages 2 of the possible 8 types of Ochos > The ‘Lazy’ or Milonguero Ocho or the Traveling Ocho (Forward or Back).
3.) Turns. Turns in Argentine Tango refers to 2 of the possible 8 types of Turns that are commonly used in Argentine Tango. The Follower’s Molinete to the Lead’s Giro, and The Milonguero Turn.
4.) Crosses. Usually when we’re talking about Crosses, we commonly only refer to one type of cross. However, there are in fact multiple variations and several types of Crosses. In this instance we’re only referring to 1 out of 256 types of Argentine Crosses – The common or Normal Cross.
5.) Cortado. In most people’s minds there is only one type of Cortado. However, if you’ve been following this site for some time, you’ll note that’s not the case. In this instance, we’re only referring to the Linear Ocho Cortado from the Closed Side of the Embrace.
These are the Five Social Figures. For more detail on the subject, please go look at the full video in the tangotopics archive.
Using these five figures as a foundation we can create numerous variations on a theme that work with in the line and lane of dance. Those ‘variations on a theme’ are the foundation of this video which are Five Social Figures Variations that we’re exploring today in today’s Tango Topic.
First a reminder of What is “Dancing In A Small Space” (or ‘DIASS’ as Tango Topics refers to this idea) ! There are two parts to the answer to this question:
First, in it’s simplest form, it’s all about the vocabulary and engaging Five pieces of Tango vocabulary. The Five Pieces ? 1.) The 5 of the 6 Ways of Walking. 2.) Milonguero Ochos (sometimes referred to as ‘Lazy’ Ochos)3.) Milonguero Turns (not the Follower’s Molinete). 4.) Back and Forward Crosses (not the Argentine variety, there’s no space!). And 5.) Linear (and Circular) Ocho Cortados. This is all done in Close Embrace. Note that there are no Sacadas, Colgadas, Volcadas, Ganchos, Boloeos, or Death Drops and/or Drags. None. However, there are a whole bunch more pieces of Tango vocabulary that almost never get talked about, or thought of here, that can also be applied, such as Calesitas, Paradas (Step Over), Pasadas (Drags & Sweeps), ’Patter’ (sometimes referred to as ‘Pitter-Patter’), The Incrementals (see Golden Nugget Extensions), just to name a few.
Secondly, there’s the actual ‘Dancing’ part of the statement which is more about movement more than anything else. Said movement is done in a very confined space, no bigger than one meter square, if that. The people that practice this way of dancing, while they may not be conscious of it, there is a sincere desire to not to take up space, mostly because there isn’t any space to begin with. This is moving in milonga environment really, where the distance between couples, on all sides, is no more than about the length of one hand (about 17 centimeters). So from the perspective of the Small Space Dancer, there is precious little space to ‘do’ anything at all due to the conditions of the ronda, so as a result of this confinement, the dancing part is really about the minimal. Everything is done either around the lead, or the space that the couple current occupies and does not extend beyond that space. Quite factually, depending on which city we’re in when dancing this way (Buenos Aires comes to mind), one would take up no more space than the space that one’s feet occupy at that moment in time, and no more than that, but without moving from that spot!
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