In 2011 one of my students confronted me about using animal metaphors. She said “Vio, I don’t know what it would be like to have a tail.”
I stopped cold and realized I didn’t either.
I decided that day to stop using metaphors and study anatomy so I could explain tango technique in objective terms.
Although these terms may be unfamiliar at first, students can utilize yoga tachers, gym trainers, physiotherapists, and youtube to learn about them, rather than trying to hallucinate some tango esoterica.
I started learning which muscles did what and how to correctly describe muscle actions.
In 2014 I realized that I could write the specifications for any tango movement simply by describe what the joints were doing. Every joint in the body has several directions of motion.
The great thing about describing joint motion is that students can easily verify if they or their partner is doing it. Unlike muscles, we can SEE joint motion.
We still need to learn about the tango muscles, and how to use them to stabilize the joints.
