This move is part of our Popular Steps for the Social Dance Floor series.

The interesting thing about this step is that while walking (caminata) the followers keep switching sides and switching systems (parallel vs cross) during the step. They start out on the leader's right side, switches to the left and then back to the right. So, this requires a flexibility or elasticity in the embrace to allow her to travel within my embrace.

The second thing is that we have the followers take two steps to our one step twice in the move. We like to call this “dancing the woman” or “the invisible lead,” when I ask her to take steps that I am not doing myself.

Step Breakdown (the numbers below correlate to the numbers in the slow-motion part of the video):

1. We start by leading her to a Salida Americana. The leaders take weight on their right leg and as she takes weight on her left leg she comes back to neutral in front of us. At this point we are in parallel system. Now the leader stays on his right leg, while leaving his left behind, and leads her to take a side step with her right leg. Now we are in cross system and she is on our left side. We must relax our embrace during this move to allow her to travel to our left side, if we hold her too tightly then she will either not go or will pull us off balance.
2. Now we step forward with our left and she steps back with her left. We stay on our left, leaving our right behind, as we lead her to take a back cross step across our path to our right side. We are back in parallel system.
3. We collect and step forward (outside partner) with our right. She steps back with her left.
4. We step back in front of her with our left as she steps back with her right and we are done.

At parts 1 and 2 above we take one step while leading her to take two steps. This takes us from parallel sytem, into cross system and then back into parallel system. We can maintain a close embrace during this whole step, but must relax the embrace enough to allow her to move slightly in the embrace.

Additons to the move:

• At 1.26 in the video, we look at an alternative entrance to the step. Instead of starting with a Salida Americana we simply started by walking outside partner and then leading her to a side step.
• At the beginning of step 2, when the leader steps forward with his left, he could perform a forward sacada to her left as she steps back with her right.
• Also, at step 2, we could lead her back cross with or without pivoting her first and then changes the feeling of the move.

Video demonstration:

This series of classes focuses on popular steps for use on the social dance floor. We have compiled a list of popular moves that we have seen used by some of the very best Argentine Tango Dancers. If you travel to Argentina and visit some of the milongas, you will see these moves being used by the Milongueros. Here are some of the criteria we used for putting together these steps:

• They keep you moving in the line of dance without disrupting others.
• They are musical and express the rhythm of Argentine Tango.
• They are full of expression without being flashy or dangerous to others.
• They feel great to the leaders and the followers.

While these moves are great for tight spaces and crowded dance floors, they also require a high degree of skill, balance and communication between partners.

Wonderful video with Sharna Fabiano and her partner Isaac Oboka about the roles of leading and following. I really dislike the terms leader and follower, but agree very much with everything that they say in the video.

My feeling is that the term follower is much to passive. Tango should be a conversation with two voices not just one person 'telling' the other person what to do. Women need to be active in the dance. Of course, there are limits where she can become too active and starts to interfere with the dance. As with everything in Tango, there is a delicate balance to be found.

To be clear, I am not saying that the word follower is a negative word.. we all lead and follow in life.. we can't all be leading all the time... I would agree that the man is leading in Tango... I just feel that the woman is doing something slightly different than just following.. it is more active than that.

I prefer the terms Man and Woman, because I think that a unique attribute of Tango is that it allows a Man to be a Man and a Woman to be a Woman on equal terms. I feel the term leader makes it sound like I am making her do something and as I often say in class, "In Tango, just as in real life, we can't MAKE women do anything.. we invite them and see what the response is and go from there."

The Structure of Tango
Part I: Cross Steps and Open Steps

Click Here to Download PDF of Full Class Notes

Introduction: At the end of this class, you will find that no matter which foot you are on or what system (Parallel or Cross) you are in that you will always have at least  8 steps that you can execute.

In Tango classes, teachers often teach figures or patterns. These can be fun and give students something to do when dancing. I think of figures as words or sentences and all the figures that we do during a song as paragraphs or chapters. In this class, we are taking a step back and looking at the alphabet or ABCs of Tango. Our goal is to look at the technique of every step and to make every step that we take in tango count.

In this class we look at the 5 basic steps of tango: Forward Open Step, Side Open Step, Back Open Step, Forward Cross Step and Back Cross Step.

See the table below for the 6 steps used in this class. The man and the woman both  have 3 possible steps a Forward Cross, an Open Step (forward, side or back) or a Back Cross. When you combine these possibilities in both Parallel and Cross Systems you end up with 38 possible steps.

I think it can be very beneficial for leaders to learn to follow and followers to learn how to lead. Exposure to the other role is good for learning what the other person might expect from you. I think both come away with more of a respect for the other role. I don't think one role is necessarily easier or harder.. they both have unique challenges to them.

Alternative Tanda of the Week 2012-05-14

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