What I would like to pass on to the next generation (Part I)

What I would like to pass on to the next generation

Part I: What is important when learning tango

The future of tango doesn’t belong to me. The future belongs to the youth. That’s why young dancers are very close to my heart.

Of course you can learn from your own mistakes, but it’s much smarter to learn from the mistakes of others. That’s why I’d like to share a few (in my opinion) “mistakes” here and give a few “tips” to the next generation.

It is difficult to get a clear message across that is not misunderstood. If you state things clearly but can’t immediately cite a (pseudo)scientific study as proof, then you are quickly seen as arrogant or a know-it-all. I don’t claim to know the only true way to go from being a good tango dancer to a professional. Nevertheless, I want to be clear on the basis of my experience and not relativize everything.
I would like to say something about the following points:

Part I: What is important when learning tango
Part II: What to avoid
Part III: Who to learn from and how best to learn

Yağmur wrote the final part of this article (Part III) – I wanted to let the youngsters have their say!

Part I: What is important when learning tango

If you want to dance tango properly and not just a bit for leisure, then the following points are important in my opinion:

a) Learn to shape your body into a tango body

I realized this for the first time when I gave a tango seminar over several days in which couples of dance teachers took part. Apart from one or two couples, the teacher couples taught all kinds of dances. They were all quite musical, relatively young and very motivated. And yet they had enormous difficulties in implementing the simplest things. Even a slight upper body turn was a real challenge for many of them because their upper body was fixed and always stretched upwards. Many also had their pelvis turned to the right and tilted forwards. For a few women who came from salsa, their hips were extremely flexible and swung with every little movement. Others had the habit of performing the steps in a bouncing manner. With some couples, I could also see that although everyone danced their part of the steps, they were not really connected as a couple.

I have learned the following lesson for myself: without a tango body, it will be very difficult to achieve certain elements in tango. I’ll have to explain exactly what I mean by a tango body in a kind of “special edition” of this blog, but here are just a few pointers: I don’t mean a specific anatomy or a particularly athletic body. A tango body is a malleable body. To make your body elastic, you need to understand what you can do with your body and in which situations you can deform your body and how. You need to shape your body into a tango body, learn to use your joints and be flexible. (Not to be confused with a “pudding body” or a constant hip swing).

The tango body adapts depending on what you want to dance. Your body needs to know how to stay in balance. What position your feet, pelvis, head and arms need to take in a certain situation so that you are in balance, don’t bring your partner down and the aesthetics come across.
Even today, I still see established tango teachers who don’t have this body. Then the simple embrace in salon or milonguero style becomes a test for the back, so that some get back problems. Then people look elsewhere for the explanation and cling to outdated concepts. In my opinion, this is precisely due to the lack of a tango body!

There are now teachers and dancers in many cities in Germany who have a tango body and use it in this way. It is important to have role models that you often see in front of you. You need to learn from such teachers and watch them regularly in the milonga. It is not enough for someone to explain something to you “well”. If someone explains something to you, they have to be able to demonstrate it in all possible variations and dynamics, they have to live it. Because what you see influences the way you dance. This also works unconsciously, some believe it is due to so-called mirror neurons.

A very famous phrase among dancers is: “Learn to steal with your eye!” That’s why it’s important to have very good dancers as teachers or role models!

b) Learn to dance musically

In tango, two bodies move to the music. The simplest way to dance to the music is to listen to the pulse, i.e. a step is taken to each beat of the music, for example. But to become a really good dancer, you have to reproduce the music, not just the beat. Change the speed, listen to different instruments and dance to them, sometimes emphasize the melody, sometimes the rhythm, and so on. You learn to set accents or to dance softly and fluently, sometimes to depict the playful, sometimes the emotional and you learn how to build up tension.

c) Not all tango is the same

If you have mastered different elements, have shaped your tango body, if you can improvise and depict the music, then you have already understood a lot. Another stage is multidimensional reception when dancing. You need all your senses to dance. When you take a step, you don’t just take one step. You are aware of your surroundings, you are sensitive to your partner, you take in the music, the smells, the environment with all your senses – this changes the way you take a step.

d) Keep your finger on the pulse!

The tango is constantly evolving. If you trace the history of the boleo, for example, this becomes very clear. The woman’s boleo has constantly evolved. Nowadays, there are many different types of boleos: The boleo was initially a pure-simple movement, either horizontal or low to the ground. Nowadays, there are also rotating, linear and high boleos, boleos off-axis and boleos as combined multi-dimensional movements, e.g. boleos in turns and changes of direction. Much has also changed in the milonguero style and nuevo and many new insights have been gained. In the milonguero style, these new insights relate not only to the step technique, but also to the embrace, connection and communication in the couple, body dynamics and musicality, especially in the woman and the following.

A really good dancer is not only always up to date, but also contributes to their own development!

For reasons of simplification, the masculine form (e.g. dancer, teacher, student) is used in the above text. Of course, the female form is also always meant.