The Biggest Baddest Myths about Tango

Tango. What it Is and What it Isn't.

The photo above is tango choreography for the stage which has nearly nothing in common with the social tango we learn in classes to enjoy at the tango social called a milonga.

Here are the biggest misconceptions about tango and dancing it!

Largely the images we have of tango come from movies and shows where the performers naturally need to show something to viewers, but tango is propbably the last dance that should be performed on stage. It is really a conversation between two bodies, and the sentiments expressed are understood and enjoyed by the dancers themselves. There's not a whole lot there going on for an audience. Tango might be the most subtle dance there is, yet all of this is lost when it is forced into the light and onto the stage, and the dance must become something else, a spectacle.

There's a lot of marching.

Tango dancers use the beat in the music as one communication tool, but there's no rule about stepping on every beat, and the melody and interpretation of sentiment in the music is a larger part of the dance. See an example here. https://youtu.be/wcNX-snsGAk

It's too intimate and sensual.

Tango is not erotically sensual. This is a major misunderstanding of the dance. It is literally sensual in that you have to feel the energy you are sharing in order to communicate. In concentrating on this energy, we must focus, and this is what gives tango it's intensity. Combine this with getting lost in creative expression and musicality, tango looks passionate, but if you ask any tango dancer what they felt for their partner while they danced, they will likely tell you they don't remember who their partner was. You can see here, even though Carlitos and Noelia share a connection, they are into the music and lost in creative expression. https://youtu.be/UCwpwFYT9S0

There's choreography.

On stage there must be choreography because the movements are huge and risky, they must be calculated and practiced and memorized. However, in social dance, the whole point of tango is improvisation. Think of it as conversation. If you were to learn a new language, and only memorize dialogue, how much would you be able to interact with people? How much would you be able to learn about them? How many friends could you make? How much fun would you have? What if someone said something outside of your memorized script? It doesn't make sense that you memorize anything in terms of socializing and having fun. The joy in tango is to see how subtle, how playful, how expressive we can be, just like with language. Unfortunately these subtleties don't look like anything at all on a stage, so the image the public get of tango is one that is a polar opposite of the essence of the dance. Here are some maestros performing in a group and switching partners randomly throughout the dance. The playful communication is obvious! https://youtu.be/kDA9XnadPRs

Instead of the marchy, aggressive, choreographed shitshow we see on the big screen, the tango you can expect in a class will be subtle, improvised, delicate, melodic, expressive, creative communication between you and your partner. There's nothing here to see folks, carry on!