First and foremost, we have to define a few terms before we get to the bulk of this topic.
1.) The Molinete is, according to the Tango Topics Lexicon, one of 8 types of Turns that are used in Argentine Tango. The Molinete is the Follower’s side of the turn, which consists of 3 steps > Forward, Side, or Back.
2.) The Giro, again according to the Lexicon, is the Lead’s side of the Molinete/Giro structure. Which can consist of a no step, 1, 2, or 3 steps in any number of combinations. However, typically it is the NO STEP variety.
Typically this is the turn that is taught to every dancer since Gustavo Naivera re-discovered it back in the 1980’s. Although to hear him tell the story, you’d think that it was all his idea. Which is not the case but that’s a horse of a different color for another time. At the time there was a predominant turn in Argentine Tango, and that was what now call “The Milonguero Turn”. Although at the time, it wasn’t called that. .It was simply referred to as “the turn”. Naivera came along and changed all that, all at the same time. Literally with a singular performance. The next day after the performance, the ‘turn’ was no more and relegated to tango history. What took its place was the Follower’s Molinete to the Lead’s Giro or what we call on this site, a Type 1 Turn (See > The Notation System ) or what you now call a ‘Turn’.
Because this turn is used so often and with such ubiquity, and always done exactly the same way (Lead: No Step to Follower: BSF), it stands to reason that someone would have thought of that there are other ways to engage a Giro-Molinete structure. And as it turns out, there are. Quite a few. But I’m getting ahead of myself.
That said…
What is a Molinete-Giro Variation ?
In simple parlance it uses the typical 3 step pattern of the Follower’s steps, and varies them. Hahahaha.
Not.
It would be nice if it were that simple and you could go back to your life. No, the Molinete/Giro Variations are, on the surface > Mind Boggling as you’ll soon see. As you dig deeper, you begin to see that you’ve literally been robbing yourself of options and opportunities left, right, and center!
Simply put, the MGV (as we’ll refer to them from now on) takes the Follower’s steps (or the Lead’s – that’s a hint by the way), breaks them down to their component elements, then goes 1 step (no pun intended) further by using them OUT OF THEIR NORMAL ORDER in any number of different ways.
The easiest way the we can talk about this stuff (aside from watching the video) is to make a few qualifications so that it becomes simpler to conceptualize what I’m on about. Without further ado.
There are 3 steps of the Follower’s Molinete. Those three steps are usually represented as ‘Back’, ‘Side’, and ‘Forward’. However, to save a bit of space and time, we’ll simply refer to those 3 steps as ‘B’, ’S’, and ‘F’ or B-S-F from now on. As you’ll soon see, there’s a need to do this. Oh and we’ll get to the Lead’s Giro in a bit. Not to worry.
In the MGV we see the 3 common steps for the Follower, are ‘B-S-F.’ However, those 3 steps can be each themselves be any of the 3 TYPES of steps. So instead of B-S-F. The first ‘B’ can be an ’S’ or and ‘F’. The ’S’ can be an ‘F’ or a ‘B’. And the ‘F’ can be an ’S’ or a ‘B’. As a result, if you zoom out a bit, there are not just the 3 possible steps but in fact 27 POSSIBILITIES like so:
B-B-B F-F-F S-S-S
B-B-F F-F-B S-B-S
B-B-S F-B-B S-F-F
B-F-B F-B-S S-F-S
B-F-F F-B-F S-B-B
B-F-S F-F-S S-S-B
B-S-B F-S-F S-S-F
B-S-S F-S-B* S-B-F*
B-S-F* F-S-S S-F-B*
*= Common Structures.
NGL that structure above is DIZZYING. Most people cannot see this stuff at all. They think or believe, erroneously so, that the simple B-S-F structure works just fine and has worked just fine. And they’d be right … for a hot 10 seconds. That is until 1 of 4 things occurs:
1.) The Molinete/Giro repetition goes ON and ON and ON and ON…
2.) The Follower starts to rebel and does something else, anything else to break up the effing monotony.
3.) The music changes to indicate that there NEEDS to be a change.
Or 4.) There’s an impact with a couple ahead of, behind, or next to which would change the structure entirely.
With that in mind, let’s suppose an idea for a moment. A situation that EVERYONE finds themselves in.
Example: You’re on the floor with your partner, and the floor slowly but certainly gets crowded and you have less and less space to dance in. Most Leads start to get nervous about this because they erroneously believe that their options of vocabulary become limited. Or at least that’s how a lot of beginner and intermediate dancers see things. The more experienced dancer sees this situation as an opportunity. Unfortunately they don’t maximize that opportunity. But I’m getting ahead of myself.
As the floor becomes more crowded the Lead will begin to repeat themselves over and over again for a wide variety of reasons. Most notably because it’s familiar territory and they believe that they have to keep the Follower moving so that they don’t get bored. What they don’t realize is that the Follower isn’t thinking about that. They’re thinking if they did X the right way, and how did it look ? Did they do what was asked of them, did they miss anything ? Are they hanging, pulling, pushing, compressing, etc. Are they with their Lead ? Are they in tune, in communion, and/or physical clarity with their Lead ? Did they do what that last private lesson talked about ? Are they doing it at all ? That’s what they’re thinking about.
The Lead on the other hand is obsessing about spacing, timing, and musical issues. And now comes the fun part. The couple literally gets stopped because they can’t go any further down the line of dance. So the Lead defaults to the Follower’s Molinete to their Giro to the Lead’s Left/Follower’s Right, over and over and over and over again. They do this same turn, notated above as ‘B-S-F’ repeatedly. This goes on for what seems like forever. And the Follower does their best due diligence to stay engaged and find something, anything, to not go on autopilot. The Lead is keenly aware that they’re doing the same thing over and over again with slight musical variations here and there but it’s always > B-S-F.
Are you beginning to see the full extent of the problem yet ? There is NO VARIATION to what they’re doing. It’s the same 3 steps over and over again. Every single time! And it doesn’t matter if they’re unable to move or not. For a little variety they may change things up a bit, by going in the opposite direction > Lead Right/Follower Left, but it’s the same 3 steps in the exact same order, repeatedly!
Yawn!
So how do we solve for this problem ? To add even a small amount of variety ?
Enter The Molinete/Giro Variations!
If you only activate just 1 variation for a single measure of the music, once every few bars, you add that extra something that takes your dance from ‘meh-yawn’ to ‘that was pretty cool – what did you do there?’. And now you should start to see that the MGV adds not only value but if you zoom out even more, they have immense musical properties that you couldn’t even access before! That’s part of the reason we begin to utilize this stuff.
Now we take things to a whole other level.
In the 27 Possibilities above, there’s a few things missing. One of them is the possibility that the Follower may be led to drop a step or not step at all, which is represented as a “0”. By adding this as a possibility, we expand the possible variations from 27 to 60 like so:
1.) B-B-B F-F-F S-S-S
2.) B-B-0 F-F-0 S-S-0
3.) B-B-F F-F-S S-S-F
4.) B-B-S F-F-B S-S-B
5.) B-0-B F-0-F S-0-S
6.) B-0-0 F-0-0 S-0-0
7.) B-0-F F-0-S S-0-F
8.) B-0-S F-0-B S-0-B
9.) B-F-B F-B-F S-B-S
10.) B-F-0 F-B-0 S-B-0
11.) B-F-S F-B-S S-B-F
12.) B-F-F F-B-B S-B-B
13.) B-S-B F-S-F S-F-S
|14.) B-S-0 F-S-0 S-F-0
15.) B-S-F F-S-S S-F-B
16.) B-S-S F-S-B S-F-F
17.) 0-B-B 0-F-F 0-S-S
18.) 0-B-0 0-F-0 0-S-0
19.) 0-B-F 0-F-S 0-S-F
20.) 0-B-S 0-F-B 0-S-B
Is your head spinning yet ? Good. That’s what’s supposed to happen. By adding this possibility we begin to see that there are way more options than we were aware of. This opens up even more options and opportunities for BOTH roles.
Now let’s really pull your hair out.
There is another subset of possibilities that we haven’t mentioned but we have implied. You see we’ve been thinking about the Molinete as 3 steps. There are instances where it’s not 3 steps, but 2 for the Follower, and 1 for the Lead. It should be noted, again, that we’re only looking at the Follower’s steps, and not the lead:
1. B-B S-S F-F
2. B-S S-F F-S
3. B-F S-B F-B
4. B-0 S-0 F-0
5. 0-B 0-S 0-F
And again, a “NULL” or “0” step is a possibility in this instance.
Let that sink in for a just a moment while you consider the possibilities.
If your head hasn’t exploded yet, then this next one will really bend you into knots:
You do realize that the Lead can do what the Follower is doing, right ?
I’ll wait while you pick up your skull fragments from the walls and ceiling.
Ahem.
This is the part in the conversation where one of two things happens > 1.) I’ve lost you somewhere back in the 27 possibilities section and you’re just beginning to realize that you don’t have a head for this stuff. AND/OR 2.) The B-S-F option works just fine for you and you’ll continue to do it. Screw Miles!
If I may ? You see, there’s more than a few of you out there reading this stuff that you can’t let this one go. You’ve been appropriately ‘tweaked’. Then there’s the rest of you that dropped off about 10 paragraphs ago and are skimming thru to see if there’s anything where I don’t go on and on and on that isn’t mind numbingly boring with another series of character sequences. For all you folks, I have a little gift for you:
The sample example in the video above shows the possibility of adding a ‘Back’ or ‘Forward’ Cross to the Lead’s options. It’s not part of the equation. However, what is part of the equation, is that the Follower can be led to that while the Lead is doing one of the variations above!
This is just the tip of a very, very, very, very large iceberg.
An Iceberg with 6,724 Possibilities.
Wait! Where are the 6,724 Possibilities?
In order to see that you’re going to have to subscribe to the site. What you get with that subscription is the all important Lead, Follow, and Dancing Perspectives that are missing here but are present in the FULL article!
Oh and there’s a PDF that goes with this, that details ALL 6.724 Variations for Lead and Follow!
This video comes in at 37 minutes and 12 seconds, and there is no Lead or Follower technique contained in the video.
If you’d like to see that, and the full video. Consider subscribing.
Thanks for reading.
