Tango seems unique in that many newcomers think that following a few lessons, either in a group or privately, is enough to get into social dancing.
The standard approach for beginning tango students is usually to attend classes for an arbitrary period, after which they jump straight into attending milongas.
It is not a surprise, then, that their typical first experience of social tango dancing is frustrating.
The length of such periods varies. Regardless, the result is often the same. Nothing seems to work; students can’t remember what they did in the classes, and nobody wants to dance with them.
Practice in tango is as important as in other disciplines, and has existed since its inception
Tango requires a certain amount of deliberate practice, like many other physical disciplines. People intuitively know that to learn a musical instrument, taking classes is not enough. They are also required to practice what they learn separately.
Learning tango is not as hard as learning to play an instrument. It is more akin to learning martial arts. It is also not as hard as dance disciplines like ballet, even though it has a steeper learning curve than other social dances like salsa.
However, the fact remains that the frustration of beginner and even more experienced tango dancers stems from a lack of practice.
Tango movement requires a certain amount of drilling repetition before it can be performed on the dance floor. The legend says that, originally, men practiced together to avoid embarrassment on the dance floor.
In our classes, students practice the syllabus appropriate to their level. However, students can greatly benefit from practicing outside of classes, especially if they want their tango to progress faster.
You can and should practice most of your tango skills alone
A common complaint is that it’s hard to find a partner with whom to practice. However, any student can achieve significant results practicing alone, even though tango is a partner dance.
Many highly proficient tango dancers can testify that they acquired much of their dancing skill through individual practice. The best teachers often provide targeted exercises, especially to students who hit a plateau.
Tango, like other disciplines, relies mainly on individual movement and technique. These must be consciously drilled into your body before you can tap into them unconsciously when dancing.
If you can’t perform a movement correctly when alone in the calm of your practice environment, you definitely won’t be able to perform it with a partner, following the music, on an ever-changing, crowded dance floor.
Powering through the embarrassment of a social setting and trying things you don’t yet know straight on the dance floor of a milonga will eventually teach you some of the skills you are missing. However, it is also a pretty miserable and inefficient way to improve.
To practice correctly you need targeted exercises and the feedback of a teacher
Once it is established that you can and should practice, the question becomes what and how you should practice.
First of all, you need a teacher’s guidance. An unfortunate habit of many is to practice by just dancing what they already know. Thus, without correction, they keep drilling incorrect movements into their body, reinforcing their bad habits.
Taking classes is then a requirement. Our classes are specifically designed to provide students with the exercises and the steps they require at their level. But any weekly group classes with a teacher can provide a plethora of material and feedback, even if they are not designed to.
Below is a list of practice exercises you can perform alone or with a partner, even if they share the same role as you.
These exercises do not all need to be completed in the same practice session. Even 10 minutes of practice per day can greatly improve your dancing.
Static technique exercises teach your body which specific muscles to use in dancing
The first element of tango is practicing static technique exercises that teach your body which muscles to engage.
Despite the claim that the tango walk is the same as walking on the street, the reality is that dancing requires using muscles that you usually do not use.
Static technique exercises give you awareness of the appropriate muscles to engage, which you likely never do in everyday life. Only after learning can you activate them while dancing without a significant mental effort.
Such exercises include, but are not limited to:
- Ankle articulation;
- Walk coordination;
- Body spirals;
- Pivots.
Static-technique exercises are the hardest and most annoying kind of exercise, since kinetic energy makes movement easier. This makes them also the ones with the best return on time investment.
If you have a partner, you can perform these toghether to improve your coordination.
Dynamic exercises teach you how to coordinate your muscles in a continuous movement
Once you understand which muscles need to be coordinated, dynamic exercises take what you learn from static technique exercises and apply it to continuous movement.
Dynamic exercises need to be simple enough to let your mind focus on muscle coordination without requiring you to remember complex choreography.
Examples include:
- Walking forward and backward;
- Simple rectangles adding side or diagonal steps;
- Cross-steps forward and backward;
- Ochos of varying degrees;
- Turn exercises with alternate forward, back, and side-rotated steps (please don’t use a chair. Your partner is not a square).
As you perform these, you try to use the correct muscles in a continuous movement without pause, as it happens while dancing. Drilling these into your body allows you to perform them without constant mental effort when dancing.
If you have a partner, you can perform these toghether to improve your coordination.
Tango steps and sequences can also be practiced alone and benefit both leaders and followers
Even without a partner, it is possible and highly beneficial to rehearse the sequences you learn in class. This also applies to followers, who often actively reject learning anything practiced in tango classes.
Even without a partner, you can rehearse your role’s part in a sequence. This transforms each sequence into a dynamic exercise, presenting you with the directions and the transitions you will experience while dancing.
As much as tango is an improvised dance, it is also true that much of it works because dancers share common patterns.
Like when you learn a foreign language, you first start with common phrases, which you modify and personalize only later, when you have mastered the grammar.
While you should always strive to lead and follow every movement, letting your body remember patterns will give you an edge.
Many tango dancers learned their technique through choreographies, working in dance companies, or from old milongueros who didn’t have the tools to explain what they did.
While this is not the most efficient way to learn tango, it still has some value, and some teachers, even famous ones, still teach this way.
Another helpful aspect of practicing sequences alone is learning to visualize your partner’s movements while you perform your part.
Not only does this make you much more knowledgeable about tango, but it also makes you a much more valuable partner during classes and practices.
When you know the specifics of a sequence, you can actively help your partner with direct feedback instead of simply complaining that something does not work.
This recommendation is especially valuable for followers, since they tend to ignore most information presented in classes and rely mostly on leaders.
Milongas provide a certain amount of partner practice, but are also intimidating
It is undeniable that tango is a couple’s dance, and some skills require practice with a partner.
Dancing socially is part of that practice, provided you practice enough individually to be prepared to respond to the inevitable unpredictability of an unknown partner without panicking.
What happens on the dance floor also gives you feedback on what needs improvement. Too many leave the dance floor frustrated without taking a mental note of at least one thing that didn’t work and that they could improve.
However, jumping straight into social dancing is intimidating, so it is preferable to practice with a dedicated partner in simpler conditions, in a private setting or a tango practica.
You can practice with a partner of the same role
Many students complain that they do not have a partner of the opposite role to practice with. One simple reason is that many never ask someone to meet and practice.
Group classes, not milongas, are where you can find people who may be interested in practicing. As we have established, you need something specific to practice and the feedback of a teacher who can correct your mistakes.
Unfortunately, it is also true that not everyone is interested in practicing or is consistent enough. It is also true that classes can be unbalanced, making it harder to find a partner of the opposite role.
However, a lot can be accomplished even with a partner of the same role. Even if not ideal, if there is a will, there is a way. If you are dedicated and want to improve faster, you can make the most of non-optimal situations.
For us, tango is our conversation where leaders and followers share the same skills. The leader is the person who starts the conversation, giving the first impulse. The follower continues the conversation by actively moving in the impulse’s direction, leading the leader into the moment.
This is what allows a couple of dancers to move together and maintain the appropriate geometry at all times. Only in this way can we dance socially with partners at different skill levels.
This also implies that the skills leaders and followers need to develop are the same. As a consequence, much can be practiced with a person of the same role
- Leaders are often encouraged to lead each other. The person leading must be clearer when leading someone not specialized in the follower’s role. The person being led can, in turn, practice the following skills required for leaders, as described above.
- Followers can also practice together without having to learn the leader’s role (although it does not hurt). When followers practice together, the active person is the one performing the follower’s part of a sequence.
This way, not only can followers learn their parts better, but they also learn to actively carry their own weight without being pushed around by a leader. Moreover, they learn to lead the leader into the movement, which is required for followers, as described above.
At the same time, the supporting person improves their following skills by moving together with the active follower who performs her choreography. Knowing the leader’s part is not required (but it doesn’t hurt).
The supporting person only needs to assist the other follower in their movement. Their part can be as easy or as difficult as they like, for example, by adding pivots.