This is the wisdom I have gathered in my many tango festivals and lessons I have taken from many different teachers. I am not an expert on tango, but I have observed that whenever I learnt one of these tips, my dancing improved quite a lot. And women enjoyed dancing with more. And I felt much better and got less tired dancing. Some of them are hard to explain just using words, so I will try to find some pictures or videos to put here, but for the time being here goes:
Tango Tip No. 1: Do not look down: By this, I mean do not look at your feet. You will see experienced dancers looking at the floor. But they are not looking at their feet. They are looking at the spot that they are going to lead their followers to. In the beginning, it’s just better if you don’t look down at all. I have a bunch of techniques for avoiding looking down. I will write another post about that. But the important things is, this is not just an aesthetics issue, although it does look pretty lame and awkward if you are constantly looking at your feet. If you don’t look at your feet, it automatically forces you to talk and listen through your body. It forces you to be constantly aware fo where your partner’s body is, where her axis is, and where her weight is. Three things that are absolutely instrumental in improving your lead.
Tango Tip No. 2: Wait for the follower - This is a mistake that even some intermediate dancers do. In tango, a lead is an invitation, not an order. See if she got your lead and wait for her to finish her part: let her collect her feet, or finish her turn. If you are leading ochos for example, you should consider it as a three part action: pivoting her to turn, making her step and letting her collect her feet, before pivoting her for the next turn again, and you should lead her and wait for her to do each of these. She might do it on her own, once she knows you want her to do ochos, but this habit of waiting for her and separating the “pivot”, “step” and “collect” actions will become even more important while leading molinetes.
Tango Tip No. 3: Maintain your frame: Support the follower during pivots and turns: Many people do the mistake of leading too much using hands. It’s much easier and much more elegant to lead using your frame. It is also much more pleasant for the lady. For this reason, many instructors insist on close embrace to force their students to use the frame rather than the hands. The way to lead using your frame is to create space for the follower to move into if you want to make her move and obstruct the follower’s space to make her stop. This is a bit hard to explain with just words but for example, if you want to lead the follower into a right turn, start turning your chest and torso clockwise, maintaining your frame, so that space is created on your right for her to move in, while the space on your left is obstructed by your other hand, so she has only one place to go… This also gives her support while she pivots. It’s like supplying her with a pole to pivot around, so that she feels secure while she is turning on one leg. She will trust you more if you do this well, and you will be able to lead much more easily because she will not doubt your lead and will be listening to it more attentively, now that she is less worried about her balance. Through all this, keep your shoulders relaxed.
Tango Tip No. 4: Maintain your axis: Keep it parallel to the follower’s axis: This is more of a balance technique. As one of my instructors Robin Thomas always explains this: Imagine that there is a tight rope stretching straight from the ground through your head towards the ceiling. And always try to keep it vertical. Whenever you turn, step, or pivot, try to keep it straight so that you are not putting unnecessary weight on your partner.
Tango Tip No. 5: You decide where the follower’s axis needs to be next: This is also a balancing technique and somewhat related to the previous point. If you have experienced your partner leaning to much on your while you pivot her, this is what you are doing wrong. When you make the follower step and then pivot, you have to make her step at the exact point where you want her to pivot. You should imagine her turning in the next step, and lead her so that her axis is exactly where she needed to turn round, when you imagined her in your head. I don’t know if this is clear, but ask me in the comments if you need more explanation of this point.
Tango Tip No. 6: Do not manhandle the follower: This is more of a “tango etiquette” type of tip. But it’s really important. This is one of the pet peeves of all the women I have talked to about dancing in the milonga. No grabbing her with your hands. Women hate that. Lead using your body and creating space for her to move in, rather than pushing/pulling her. Believe it or not, your chest really compactly touching her breasts feels perfectly fine, as compared to your hand rubbing against her back - which feels creepy.
Tango Tip No. 7: your weight should be always on one foot: This is such a basic and subtle point that I almost skipped it. But this is absolutely essential. It might look like you are standing on two feet, but the weight should be always completely on on foot or the other.
Tango Tip No. 8: try to move with the music - this helps the leading, if the follower has a decent sense o music too: she expects to move to the beat. If you cultivate the habit of listening to the music from the beginning, you will find it much easier to dance with “musicality”. The important thing is, you don’t have to step on every beat. But when ever you do move, try to move on a beat.
Tango Tip No. 9: Practice without a follower in front of a mirror: This achieves a bunch of things: First of all, it makes sure that your posture is correct, and your frame is well formed, IRRESPECTIVE of the follower. Also, it makes sure that you are not leaning on your follower for support. It also helps you to not look at your feet.
Tango Tip No. 10: keep your legs together - keep your weight in the inner side of the balls of your feet. This helps you with balance and pivoting and all sorts of other things. The farther you are from your axis, the harder it becomes to maintain balance. Also, always collect your feet when you step, unless you are doing some embellishments. This makes the dance look much more streamlined and also helps a lot in not using your partner for balance. Also, it makes your partner much more aware of where your weight is. It is important that when you collect, you do not change weight. Keep the foot off the ground. Do not use it to balance yourself. Balance should come from maintaining your axis and keeping your weight no the inside of of your other foot.
I hope these tips help you improve your tango dancing a lot and you enjoy your milongas and practicas more than before. If you have any questions, suggestions, disagreements about these tips, please feel free to leave a comment.
