Elegance
The message of elegance is exclusive, repetitive, and actually not that interesting. People who have musicality, emotion, and improvisational intelligence to share with us, but who may not see themselves in suits, heels, or extreme postures are driven away by these cliché images which indeed are only one of many facets of Argentine Tango.
Conformity and power
When I started dancing tango I thought “finally, a place to wear fabulous clothes and shoes!” I dressed like a doll, and wore the most fabulous shoes I could find, 15cm heels with 3cm platforms covered in glitter. Everybody knew me for my shoes. I could hear the word “shoes” whispered as I went around […]
I don’t think that’s style…
Here we go again. My third post on style. The first one is here, it’s meant to calm new people. The second one is here, it’s a bit of a vent. I’m not being difficult. I really don’t get it. People in Australia are constantly saying to me “Eventually I want to learn all the styles, but for […]
Making tango your own
You are investing time, power, and heart into this dance. It may sound obvious, but it’s crucial to remind yourself that you’re doing all this for your own pleasure. Tango is a space of self-expression, elation, and emotional intensity that are very personal. It’s also an authoritarian, righteous, rules-centered, judgmental world. Perhaps too easily, we […]
Tango bigotry
Why are some of us so intent on putting down others’ way of dancing? While encouraging entrants to celebrate their love of tango and have fun, the upcoming Australian Tango Dance Challenge “forbids” ganchos and lifting the legs (they must have meant to say feet) “above the knees.” Why would a tango competition forbid moves […]
88 keys…
I made a rough estimate of the number of discrete tango moves. There are 25 movements in the tango lexicon, each with various numbers of variations (there are 48 sacadas, and far more ganchos).
Different dynamics of motion would correspond to the chords.
What’s in a style?
People talk A LOT about different styles of Argentine Tango. They talk about what looks good, what’s “authentic“, which moves shouldn’t be done while dancing socially… I’ve written before that I think style is something you create on an individual level, from your choice in shoes to the sassy way you tilt your head when […]
Vio’s weird shoes
The most common thing for someone to say to me at a milonga is “you can’t dance in those shoes”. About 5 minutes later, they realize they’re wrong. When I started dancing, one of the main attractions was the chance to dress up often, including high heels. Since I was about 14 I’ve had more […]
