A Type 1 Turn is one of 8 types of turns, it’s the common turn that you’re most familiar with, which is known as the Follower’s Molinete to the Lead’s Giro, which is usually mistakeningly referred to as just “The Molinete”. Which isn’t exactly correct terminology because this belays the Lead’s side of the equation. In this turn, the Follower is lead to do what is sometimes referred to as a ‘Grape Vine’ turn. This is where the Follower invokes a back step (of some sort), a side step, and then a forward step of some sort. The reason I say “…of some sort” is because in the case of the Grape Vine Turn and the Molinete-Giro structure, that ‘some sort’ is radically different, and get’s progressively more different in each of the 7 OTHER types of turns in Argentine Tango.
The thing that is so iconic about this turn is that the Follower is LED to invoke disassociation and then APPLYING that disassociation which results in the Follower’s hips rotating perpendicular to the Lead’s. It’s important to make the distinction here that the FOLLOWER IS LED to do this. They do NOT do this automatically, nor should they for a wide variety of reasons. However, this is precisely what does happen because the motion is so ingrained in the dance at this point that it has become ubiquitous. Most people don’t even think about it anymore. Which is kind of odd. And the reason it’s odd is because up until about 30 years ago, this turn was relegated to the dust heap of tango history. That is until Gustavo Naviera came along with Fabian Salas and cleaned it up a bit and modified it considerably. Until that point in time, the predominate turn in Argentine Tango was the Type 2 Turn or ‘The Milonguero Turn’. It wasn’t called that at the time, it was called ‘The Turn’. It wasn’t until the Type 1 Turn came along and became popular that people dropped it in favor of it’s sexier cousin.
What does it look like ?
There are several entries and variations here on TangoTopics in the glossary as well as throughout the site for the Molinete/Giro, including the Lead’s Molinete, as well as the 6724 Variations of the Molinete/Giro Structure itself.