Notation: There is another version of this topic that’s in your archive. Now you have a second one that’s a bit more comprehensive and detailed. One is not more important than the other. They both serve as tools for both roles!
Every social dance has a variation of a very old idea known as a “Grape Vine Turn”, which is generally 3 steps in either a circular or linear pattern. Argentine Tango is no exception to this. Truthfully Tango has spawned and borrowed and given 8 types of turns. The Eight functional types of turns of Tango are: 1.) The Milonguero Turn. 2.) The Walking Turn, 3.) The Rock Step. 4.) The Ocho Cortado (Linear & Circular). 5.) The Media Luna. 6.) The Argentine Calesita. 7.) The Colgada Turn (including The Single Axis). And #8, the topic of Today’s Tango Topic: The Follower’s Molinete/The Lead’s Giro.
Just as a side note, up until about 1980, oddly enough, The Follower’s Molinete/Lead’s Giro was NOT the predominant turn. That honor goes to first turn on our list above, the Milonguero Turn. So what happened ? Why was the turn supplanted ? You can thank Gustavo Naveira and Fabian Salas for that. If for no other reason these two men aren’t considered the father’s of Modern Argentine Tango than it should be their introduction of the Follower’s Molinete to the world. Which, strangely enough, had been around in various forms for almost 50 years before they came along and … ahem … ‘discovered’ the Molinete.
The turn itself is taught to every beginner dancer, and every dancer uses this very functional and foundational turn. As this is the case, the turn is so predominant that it is the default motion for every Follower/every Lead whether they realize it or not. The moment that a Lead starts to rotate their body, the Follower will default to the Follower’s Molinete. It should be noted that the Follower’s Molinete doesn’t happen in a vacuum. It happens due to the other side of the equation: The Lead’s Giro. The Lead’s Giro and the Follower’s Molinete co-combine to create the standard turn in Argentine Tango when we talk about turns. So without more yapping, let’s dive into Today’s Tango Topic: The Molinete Giro Structure.
There are obviously two parts of this conversation that need to get talked about independently of each other. However, at the same time, one can not talk about one and NOT talk about the other. First let’s dive in the Follower’s Molinete and then the Lead’s Giro component.
What is the Follower’s Molinete ? The term “Molinete” means Wind Mill in English when translated from the Spanish. And as it relates to Argentine Tango this is a Grape Vine Turn with 3 steps. Forward, Side, and Back that executed by the Follower. Which is the reason for the distinction in the moniker, calling it The Follower’s Molinete. So that would lead one to believe, and rightfully so, that there is a Lead’s Molinete. And there is. But that’s a topic for a different Tango Topic. There are two primary versions of the Follower’s Molinete. And the primary distinction is whether or not The Follower’s Molinete is done in Close Embrace or Open Embrace. While the two turns themselves are functionally the same, there are some very nuanced differences between the two. However, at the 50,000 ft level, the turns consist of the 3 steps: Forward, Side, and Back. When you stop and you think about it though, there are actually 4 steps, not three. Even though we would like to use only 3 and it can be done quite easily with practice. There is a fourth step, and it’s a second side step after either the forward or back step. The Follower’s Molinete can start with either the Follower’s Forward step or the Follower’s Backstep. Both will lead to slightly different outcomes. However, the setup for both turns is usually the same: Traveling Ochos! In either case, both the Forward Step, and the Back Step are Applied Disassociative motions which are mostly, and erroneously, thought of as ‘pivots’, which lead to the Follower then extending into a rotating Side Step. It should be noted that of all the foundational moves that the Follower must master, that this is the hardest thing, physiologically speaking that they’ll ever have to do. Ever. It takes considerable time, patience, practice, and did we mention ‘practice’, solo, with a partner, in private instruction to make the Follower’s Molinete fluid. This is not watching a 9 minute video and bam, you have got it down. No. This is going to take a while. A long while. A very LOOOOOONG while. Years. However, having adequate reference material is absolutely key to that process.
Follower’s Perspective. Because the Molinete and its benefits have been discussed to death, all this section is really going to touch on are some very simple ideas that you may have forgotten about, but are relevant here for a variety of reasons not the least of which is that it opens other options for us, as leads, to play with. When we’re doing fiddling the options, we’re then going to answer one singular question. But before we get to that stuff, let’s do a bit of history. You probably learned the Follower’s Molinete and understand what you have to do in order to generate one. However, more than likely you never actually did the job yourself. A great man once said, “Never ask a man to a job for you, unless you’ve done that job yourself!”, the “walk a mile in someone’s shoes” methodology. Practicing this methodology gives you great perspective, and not to mention but we will anyway, appreciation for the amount of work, care, and detail that goes into that specific thing, or in this case a Molinete. With that thought in mind, it’s probably an eye-opening experience for you to do this amount of work just once, not the millions of times you’ve led this on a Follower and thought to yourself all the things that they should be doing but aren’t, thereby blaming the Follower for their lack of execution. And now that execution is on you IF and ONLY IF you want to execute a nice Follower’s Molinete!
It’s 3 steps really. It doesn’t get any more complicated than that. Back. Side. Forward. And in those 3 steps you have any one of 27 possible combinations to play with, if we start with particular or dominant step first, which would be:
[Back Step First] BSF, BFS, BSS, BFF, BBB, BBF, BBS, BSB, BFB.
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The reason we’re discussing possibilities here is that, frequently, we only see one possibility over and over again, the BSF option. There are 26 other possibilities for us to engage in. Exploring these possibilities adds not only spice but variation to our repertoire. However, more than likely you’re still thinking like a Lead and not like a Follower here, in that YOU want to lead YOURSELF to do these, not the Follower. This is just a reminder that there are other options besides BSF out there. That’s all. See ? Simple reminder.
However, let’s be clear about something, 9 times out of 10, you will NEVER engage in any of those 26 other possibilities nor will you be able to do what you like to accent those ideas, because there’s no space for you to do that. Mostly because your Lead isn’t creating space for you to do that. There are some things you can do to mitigate that prospect but they all rely on choosing a partner who creates space for you to engage ideas. Without that, none of those other 26 variations are possible!
Follower’s Awareness: Stepping around the…
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The Follower’s Practical Reality. You have to understand something about your Molinete. At this point in the life of Tango, this move has become standard behavior, expected. Which is to say that the moment that your Lead starts to rotate, you immediately default to a Molinete, even when that may not be what’s asked of you! What I tell my follower students is that unless there is disassociation, in that rotation, your default behavior SHOULD BE a Milonguero Turn and NOT a Molinete. Most Leads are looking for the Molinete, however that view is changing, so having both in your arsenal is helpful. So it’s important to learn to hear the difference in the type of request that you’ll get. To be clear >
IF THERE IS NO DISASSOCIATION coming from the Lead > MILONGUERO TURN.
IF THERE IS DISASSOCIATION coming from the Lead > MOLINETE.
Are we clear ?
Moving on from there, now we address 2 issues that are implied in the video but not specifically stated:
1.) Everything is around your lead in 3 steps, not 4.
Everything Is Around Your Lead. This means that all 3 steps, BSF/FSB/FFF/BBB/SSS and all the common variations of that idea, are steps that go around your lead > NOT AWAY FROM THEM. This means NO LOOKING DOWN at your FEET on your forward step. This also means being as close to your Lead as is humanly possible. This also means that every step you take is step up for the next step. I have a whole video series on just this topic in the Follower’s Technique section of the library.
2.) MOVE YOUR ASS!
MOVE YOUR ASS. Means that you need to be aware that you have mass, and that the turn itself can lag. You can not. In other words, be quick, be expeditious, and be precise in your execution of the move!
3.) There is Disassociation for a reason!
Do NOT throw one leg behind the other crossing over. This is cheating the turn structure and doesn’t actually make you look good. You want to engage the Disassociation, and you want to actually use it. Let me be clear here > There are some Leads that rush thru the turn that force you to feel rushed. Which makes employing disassociation nearly impossible. So you have to employ the sloppy method implied at the beginning of this section! So in this instance when the Lead is moving to goddamned fast, USE A MILONGUERO TURN! Got it ?
The Follower’s Fine Print: Probably the most prominent issue in the fine print is the ….
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The Primary Fact: The key to the Follower’s Molinete, is the Follower’s ability to correctly and aptly engage in Disassociation and Applied Disassociation.
That means in simple parlance, if you haven’t mastered your those skills, so that they become second nature to you, then your back step of the Molinete will fail, and you will be out of position in order to stay with your Lead.
To be fair, most Lead’s are wholly unaware that they need to stay with their Follower and instead rush ahead of them in their own Giro, thereby leaving the Follower behind and out of position. So what can you do ? Pick a better Lead next time. Seriously. In the moment, there’s not a lot you can do because that’s that Lead’s default behavior and because no one has told them to stop doing it, they’ll continue to to do so. The prevailing wisdom with that line of reasoning is that the Follower should just ‘hurry up’. This is not true.
Linear Ochos Exercise with Marion
The Fundamental Stepping Stones! The only way this stuff works is Disassociation and Applied Disassociation. That’s it. Fortunately for you, Tango Topics has an extensive video on both of these very important topics for sale, but also included in the video subscription. Follow the links included herein and educate yourself. Or Subscribe. Either way. 🙂 Of course it wouldn’t hurt for you to study the Molinete from the Follower AND Lead’s perspective, so you might need another video for that as well. Fortunately, that particular video is available immediately, just follow this link! What would be helpful here is also a study of what Tango Topics calls “Fred Torture”, as it would help you to define and clarify the Molinete structure in its base elements.
Tango Disassociation
Next we have to talk about the Lead’s side of the equation, or The Lead’s Giro.
What is the Lead’s Giro ? Put simply, and literally, it means that the Lead turns themselves. The literal part comes from the fact that the word ‘Giro’ comes from the Spanish verb ‘Girar’ which means ‘To Turn’ in English. ‘Giro’ is the first person singular of the verb, which translates to ‘I turn’. The Lead’s Giro simply means that the Lead acts as the center of the Follower’s Molinete. They’re center pole as it were. Not the center piece but the center pilar that the Follower revolves around. It’s imporant that you recognize that aspect as a Lead. Meaning that as the center pilar, if that pilar moves from it’s position, then the Follower’s Molinete will ‘wobble’, and Follower will end up having to do a BOATLOAD of extra work to stay with Lead’s Rotation! Secondly the Lead Rotates and the Follower Revolves. Typically what happens is the Lead Rotates at their own speed and the Follower has to catch up with that. Which makes the Follower feel rushed. Instead of setting up the turn so that it rotates in time to the music and doesn’t rush the Follower. In other words the Lead has to go at the speed at which the Follower is capable of moving. And sometimes that means, that the turn MAY NOT be completed in time to the music! Which means dropping a note or 3. And rushing the Follower to go any faster isn’t going to help anything. And in fact tends to make things worse in more ways than one. Lastly, speaking about music, while there are multiple ways to address the musical concerns of how the Molinete/Giro structure is applied, this article will not cover this aspect except to address this singular point > One Note = One Step.
All of that aside the Lead’s Giro consists of two parts:
1.) The ‘Foot’ Component.
And 2.) The Upper Body Rotation and Embrace component.
There are 4 ways for the Lead to turn their body with their feet:
a.) The ‘Pie Wedge’ Methodology.
b.) The ‘T’ Step Method.
c.) The ‘Paddle’ Method.
And d.) The ‘Applied Disassociative’ Method.
All four of these methods do the job of the Lead turning the Lead’s body with their feet. This is shown in the video, so please reference it there. However, the most efficient of the methods is probably ‘d’. From a dancing perspective, the easiest one to execute is ‘c’. The simplest of the four is ‘a’ but it’s not exactly elegant but it is functional. And while ‘b’ is very functional it tends to ‘drift’ a bit. Drift in the sense that you can and will move the center point of the Follower’s Molinete if you’re not paying attention. Which, as a result, means more work for the Follower. The same is true of ‘a’ and ‘c’ to a limited degree for different reasons. Item ‘d’ does not move the Lead’s center point at all. It should be noted that in item ‘d’ that the Lead’s feet, always, always, always stay together and over one foot or the other, not both. But the heels are always kept together and do NOT split apart. Nor should there be a weight transfer in ‘c’ or ‘d’. However, there are obvious weight transfers in ‘a’, and ‘b’. Speaking of weight transfers, and in specific ‘c’, there is a push-off the from the free leg, but not a weight transfer! In other words do not wobble back and forth using ‘c’ as you push off! Oh and regarding ‘d’ and the term “Applied Disassociation”, this refers to when the upper body rotates in Disassociation but the lower body has to catch up with a slight delay (which is deliberate). That delay is the application of disassociation! You are releasing the torsion and tension built up by the disassociation, and that release is contained rotation of the legs and feet over a singular point.
The Lead’s Upper Body has two methods of motion.
a.) Rotate your …
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If all that sounds like deep technical details, that’s because it is. It’s the kind of clarity that must happen for the Lead kinesthetically everywhere. And that’s just in this move alone when it comes to what they’re doing. However, typically what happens, for most Leads is their embrace collapses, and their footwork is sloppy! They tend to use their arms, apply pressure, tension and force to ‘move’ their followers instead of applying intention to INVITE their followers. Do you see the difference. Intention is a huge component in the application of the Lead’s Giro. Without that, then you’re literally pushing and pulling your follower around. There are LOADS of Tango teachers that will tell you in no uncertain terms that you must apply tension, and force, or RESISTANCE in order to use the Molinete/Giro structure. And there is a certain amount of truth to that > IF AND ONLY IF you want to scream at your dance partner and be a lethargic weight! I can hear the commentary now, assuming you’ve gotten this far, that the you don’t do that. Trust me when I say this, you do. You just don’t know it. Nor have you had anyone, like me, point it out to you.
The Lead’s Practical Reality. The matter of the fact is that your Giro the Follower’s Molinete has become the staple of the dance. Further, there’s a reality you must understand that for the most part, the Lead’s Giro here is purely decorative and performative. Meaning that you’re not actually doing a whole lot. Nor do you need to! The fact is that the due to certain factors of the state of the dance, and because this move has become so ubiquitous, that the moment the lead starts any kind of rotation, the Follower will default to their Molinete in either BSF or FSB depending on what position they’re in. In this instance, you don’t really have to ‘lead’ per se. And as one of my early teachers put it, the Follower is the Engine of the TURN! They’re literally going to turn us! The only thing you really need to do here is guide them thru to where you want to come out of the turn facing in what direction. That’s it. That’s all. However, if you want to get fancy you can break up that turn. And in that respect you want to go look at the Molinete Giro Variations video I produced a while back. That the game changer. Aside from that, this is now a staple of the dance and you as the Lead don’t need to push, pull, compress, squeeze, or use your arms to direct your Follower! Got it ? To be fair there are some Followers that have not mastered this turn and will lag or step away slightly. And for that reason I have a whole video series on both of those things. They’re in your library, go look. However, in either case, you should not need to direct your Follower with your arms which is what a LOT of Leads do and this is NOT desirable.
The One More Thing: DO NOT
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Got it ? Good.
The Lead’s Cool Toys. 1.) Lead Adornos
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These are just some of the Lead’s choice of course, to engage them or to not engage them.
The Lead’s Fine Print.
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About The Video. This video comes in at 1 hour and 22 minutes and goes over Follower Technique in the 3 steps. Lead Technique in the 4 types of steps for their Giro. And then Applied Disassocation and what that looks like for both roles. And then presents some examples which is what the video above is all about.