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| Don't know these folks, but a hell of a pic! |
When I started dancing, my motivations were Tango (American tango, that is - hey, "Scent of a Woman" was an amazing movie...), and Waltz (actually, Viennese waltz). Tango seemed so passionate and dramatic and sexy, and Waltz so flowing and graceful. Plus I'm a sucker for a waltz, musically. Those of you who have danced a bit will realize that both of these these are difficult dances. You don't generally even start learning Viennese waltz until your slow waltz is pretty decent, and Tango is called "The dancers' dance". So my first problem is two difficult dances tied for "most favorite".
My next problem was that my second favorite dance was "everything". Rumba is so intimate and sexy. Swing is so much peppy fun. Cha cha is a blast and there's so much great cha cha music. Salsa is so spicy and sexy and social. So I spent a lot of time jumping around, which is not the most efficient way for me to learn, personally....
The dance I learned quickest, and that seemed most natural to me was swing - starting at jitterbug, and then moving on to East Coast. Now I know what you're thinking - what does this all have to do with Tango? Well, as it turns out my introduction to Argentine tango wasn't through American tango as you'd expect, it was via East Coast Swing. Strange but true.
After I'd been dancing about a year, I decided to do a showcase performance at my studio, mostly to overcome my shyness. My East Coast Swing seemed like it was coming along pretty well and there was a song I liked that would work, so I asked a fellow student to prepare and perform with me. We had about four months to get ready, and it turned out well, but the whole time we were working on the routine, my partner was going on and on about Tango. Argentine Tango, which apparently was different than "Tango" I was learning. My partner was a trouper and put in a lot of extra time and work, so I definitely owed her.
Once the performance was in the bag, I finally had no excuse to keep her focused on East Coast Swing, and it was finally time to see what this Argentine Tango thing was all about. Man was I in for a shock.
First we went to a Milonga, which I still think of as the Spanish word for "sock hop", mostly because it amuses me. But initially it was more confusing than amusing. The prevalent style of Argentine Tango at this event involved dancing in a very close embrace. I was way, way too shy for that. Secondly, I could tell that the relationship between the beat and the steps was way, way looser in Argentine than in any other partner dance I'd seen. I could see that the dancers' movement was informed by the music, but not in a "one, two, cha cha cha" sort of way. Both of these were way outside my comfort zone.
Next we went to a class. We had to go to a different, funky little studio because the one we were studying at was focused on mainstream ballroom and didn't do much Argentine Tango. So we head over to the new studio and were watching the previous class that was just finishing up. I was relieved to learn that I didn't HAVE to dance in close embrace, there's an open embrace alternative.
But when we started learning the basic figure "La Salida", it started with the leader's right foot - which is to say, the wrong foot from a ballroom perspective. Every ballroom dance in the world starts with the leader's left foot, the ladies right ("Ladies are always right, Men are left."). Worse, it didn't always start with that foot. In fact, Argentine tango is so improvisational that every step is a whole new world, anything can happen at any time. There are figures, both for the purpose of categorization and teaching, and just because certain sequences make beautiful dance phrases, but nothing is set in stone - you can improvise anything at any time. Which means, if you're a leader, that you HAVE TO improvise things all the time.
Another consequence of the fact that Argentine tango is so improvisational and unpredictable, and can start on any foot at any time, is that the leader has to either know what foot the lady is on, or be able to lead her onto the other foot (often without taking a step), or both. This really blew my mind, I could barely ensure that I was on the right foot, now I'm supposed to keep track of what foot she's on? Inconceivable! There was also a lot of attention paid to whether you collected your feet, or collected your feet and changed weight to the other foot. No other dance does this as early and as much as Argentine Tango (well, the last step in the American tango's "Tango close" does it, because, of course, it was stolen from Argentine. But other than that...) There was also a lot of stepping outside partner, which I had basically never done in other dances at the time. And, just in case there was a corner of my mind unblown, my partner helpfully added another detail as we were practicing:
Her: "Actually, you're supposed to touch my foot with yours right there..."
Me: "Wait, what???"
Her: "Touch the side of my foot with the side of yours"
Me: "Are you kidding? I'm supposed to look down, find your foot and touch it with mine? We'll run into the other dancers!"
Her: "No, without looking down"
Me: "Well, then you're going to lose some toes....."
So let's see what's on the scorecard so far:
1. Likely to involve an intimidatingly close embrace
2. Starts on the wrong foot. Often.
3. Doesn't ALWAYS start on the wrong foot.
4. Closing feet often DOESN'T include changing weight
5. I've got to lead a totally improvisational dance
6. I have to step outside partner. A lot. But not always...
7. I've got to know what foot she's on
8. I've got to know where her feet are at all times because
9. I have to be able to touch her foot with mine without looking. And without maiming her
All this while leading, navigating the line of dance (which, fortunately, was the same direction I was used to), and avoiding other dancers doing unpredictable, improvisational things, sometimes on purpose. And not falling over, getting my own frame, steps, spacing right, etc, etc. The usual.
Another factor that I haven't mentioned yet is that it's quite common in Argentine tango to cross your ankles as a step - way more common than it is in other dances, and this may or may not involve a weight change (of course). Fortunately for me, this is much more prevalent for the ladies than the men, especially at the introductory levels. There are other difficulties that fall more heavily or uniquely on the women, like being prepared to FOLLOW a totally improvisational dance, but at the time I had my hands full dealing with my own problems.
There were more challenges to come, but at the time, the list above was plenty.
Initially I planned to go just a few times to humor my partner (she really had been a trouper) and then fade on back into my comfort zone, but it didn't work out that way. The funky little studio offered a discount for pre-purchasing 10 classes so I did that. By the time I'd done 10 classes, I was adapting to most of the challenges, and it was starting to be fun. I was starting to correctly guess which foot she was on at least 50% of the time (Yes, it seems like you'd do that well by purely random chance, but believe me, it's easy to do much, much worse than random, particularly at the beginning). I was starting to get the hang of controlling my weight changes, starting to learn the basic figures, and the infinite variations on them, and kind of enjoying the freedom and creativity involved in that level of improvisation. And it didn't hurt that one of my favorite and deepest practice partners was simply obsessed with Argentine tango. So I ended up going more than I thought I would.
So that's how I got started. Soon I'll talk about why I kept going back, and what it taught me that I didn't know I needed, and how that helped me in all my other dancing.
