Written by Luis Monasterios, www.tangoyvida.com

Translated from Spanish by Rachael Glaser www.libertango.co.za

The original article in Spanish can be found at http://www.tangoyvida.com/el-baile-de-tango-y-la-confianza/#.VcHHLPknLRo

Thank you to Luis Monasterios for allowing my to publish his article here. This article provides valuable insights into how trust and mindfulness are an integral part of the Argentine tango.

In the tango and in the life of a couple trust is one of the most important and delicate issues. When we dance tango we generate a close relationship of confidence and intimacy which, based on trust, can lead to an unforgettable and distinct experience in every dance, within every couple.

Trust within the tango dance and in life is constructed and nurtured with every detail. To dance tango the leader must trust his own abilities and in the dance of the follower. The follower must  in turn trust in the direction and movements that the leader indicates. Frequently, when the leader leads movements that risk the security of other dancers on the dance floor, or leads the follower like bumper cars at the fair, bumping and stumbling into every dancer like an obstacle on the dance floor, the dance is dramatically affected and slowly the follower loses trust in the leader and stops following his lead.

With the understanding that within the tango as in life the roles of leader and follower are dynamic, both members of the couple are responsible in generating trust within the dance. Often in attempting to take the leading role,  the person who is normally following makes adornments and figures that are dangerous for the rest of the dancers and dance partner, affecting his physical and emotional balance.

How to I create and maintain trust in my partner in tango and in life?

In order to understand the means to construct, generate and maintain trust, firstly I will explain what I consider types of behaviours relating to trust.

Trusting Behaviour: The type of behavior of that allows you to give all your trust when you get to know someone - within which it is necessary to offer a person opportunities which demonstrate their goodwill and good intentions . In one’s actions and heart, one offers complete trust from the beginning. At the same time, one also generates expectations about the person that you are getting to know so there is a tendency to be very demanding.

Progressively Trusting Behaviour: One offers a certain amount of trust in the beginning with the hope that the rest will develop during the experience. This type of behaviour is less demanding than the “trusting behaviour” considering the demands and expectations are small from the beginning and grow with the course of time.

Behaviour of Progressive Distrust: If you have at times offered a percentage of trust from the beginning but seem to be always expecting a mistake, you will be familiar with this type of behavior. It is difficult to explain but there are people who are always waiting for a mistake, never trust completely and are always on the defensive, waiting for a mistake to continue to lose trust.

Untrusting Behaviour: You simply don’t trust. Even though you try to trust, your previous experiences, traumas and fears make it impossible for you to trust.

It is noteworthy to point out that in every relationship, each one of us develops some type of behaiour relating to trust. This means, for example, that with some people we are “trusting” while with others we may be “progressively untrusting”. These types of behavior relate to the perceptions and image we have of other people and that we give to ourselves. It also has much to do with the experience that we offer to every person that we relate to. In the same way it is useful to recognize those types of behaviours of people that we relate to, to understand their expectations and manage these relationships in the most effective way.

The great secret to generate trust is to work with yourself, with your self-image, with your emotional balance, your behaviours, your manners and the experience you give those who relate to you. Trust is a natural consequence of personal growth and self-improvement.

Trust (confidence) to Dance Tango

We already know that the secret of trust in life is personal growth. In tango and in life my proposal is to always look inside yourself and seek personal growth.

In the tango the embrace is one of the principal tools for transmitting trust. Being embraced, without taking a step, you are already generating a vision of yourself in the other person, who you are as a dancer and as a person. In any moment you may generate an expectation or disappoint. In the tango, the embrace is the tool that influences your dance partner’s behavior in relation to trust. To improve your embrace you have to improve yourself. You need firstly to have trust (confidence) in yourself to have a an embrace that is at once firm, gentle and precise.

After the embrace, in the development of the dance one needs to continue with an active consciousness in the present moment. This means, to dance tango the mind must be muted and one only needs to feel. When you guide, or allow yourself to be guided, the active state of consciousness in the present means that one should not be distracted by ones surroundings. On the contrary, when the consciousness is active in the present moment and you are able to feel and not think, automatically all of your senses are alert to the surroundings and for this reason you are able to concentrate more on what is happening around you. Imagine your body in a situation of extreme danger: what happens in this moment is that the mind disconnects from the body and feelings start to govern your actions. It is for this reason that under situations of real threat, a persona may achieve incredible things and be very alert to what is happening in his surroundings. I propose for you to achieve something similar but in a conscious manner so that your senses govern your dance and you may transmit this security to your partner.

How many times have you danced with a person when you find yourself thinking of other activities? Thinking of your activities for the morning, the way in which other people are watching the dancing, the next figure you are planning, in the new figure you learned in class, that you are dancing with one person but you prefer someone else, in the shoes, in the outfits, the comments, the miradas (gazes), who is arriving, who is leaving? All of these thoughts are some of the natural sabotages that the mind has to ruin a moment. Active conscience in the present means forgetting all these thoughts and dedicating oneself to enjoy the tango that one is dancing with the partner that you have chosen to dance with (without worrying about the level at which they dance).

But if the other person does not inspire trust, how can I enjoy the dance? How will I have active consciousness in the present if I don’t trust? The answer to these questions is very simple. You cannot control what others are doing. You can only control what depends on you. You cannot avoid feeling what you feel but you can decide what attitude you take before you feel. Now you know, every time you feel mistrust you need to decide on your attitude in this situation and what the ingredients are to improve it. My suggestion, as a chef of relationships is to always choose the best ingredients. Everything I have said here is valid for not only tango, but in day to day relationships.

Improve your embrace and your dance from a technical and personal development perspective, grow your confidence, dance in a state of active consciousness in the present and nurture those ingredients that contribute to your relationships and your dance. With these, you will be able to engender trust in almost everyone who dances with you and in general, in almost every person you relate to. But above all, in addition to generating trust, honor and stay true to this trust that others have put in you. Don’t deceive yourself or others because in life, as in the tango, trust is always based on meeting the expectations that you generate.

Until the next tanda!

- Luis Monasterios

Hi Tangueros.
 
I am always talking about tango walking and how important it is in the dance. If you can walk in tango, you  can dance. Here is a wonderful video showing Adrian and Amanda Costa only walking.... but they are dancing!!  it is spectacular. In this video you see the Argentine tango in its essence. Of course, in the milonga, we don’t have the space to only walk but there are certainly times when there is enough space. This dance is in the closed embrace. For people who are dancing in the open embrace, the same principles apply.
 
Here are some things to look out for in the musicality:

1. How the leader is using the phrasing of the music which consists of 8 beats
2. How he sometimes emphasizes a strong beat
3. How he sometimes used a syncopated rhythm (half beats)
4. How he sometimes slows down his steps to walk one step over two beats

Leaders technique:

1. His feet stay on the floor when he walks
2. His trailing leg is relaxed
3. His knees are relaxed
4. He hesitates while passing through the axis, slowing down slightly
5. The position of his left elbow is in front of his chest and hip and stays constant throughout the dance.
6. He is pushing off on his back foot to send him forward
7. He is walking with a heel-toe connection, rather than projecting his toes forward (I prefer this one because it is easier to master than sliding your foot forward)
8. He is holding her in front of him, not to his side.

Followers technique:

1. Her feet are turned slightly outwards. When she steps backwards she makes contact with the floor through the inner ball of her foot.
2. Her upper body stays stable in contact with her partner
3. Her hips are back in relation to her chest
4. Her knees are relaxed but not very bent
5. She passes through the centre for each step
6.. Her steps are the same size as her partner's
7. She is connected to her partner at the chest but she is in her own axis.



 

Hi Tangueros. At the moment we are working on different alternatives in the cross system. I thought this would be a good opportunity to revise our learning from class. As the cross system is one of the most fundamental concepts in Argentine tango, it is worthwhile spending some time getting your head around it.

What is the difference between the parallel and cross systems?

In the parallel system we dance as if in a "mirror image" i.e when my left foot goes forward, my follower's right foot goes back. This is the most simple form of walking in the tango

In the cross system, my partner's weight is not the mirror image of mine e.g. if the leader has his weight on his left foot, the follower has her weight on her left foot We can draw a diagonal line between our left feet which each have weight

How can I change from the parallel system into the cross system?

The simplest way to do this is to start off with a normal side step (apertura) in the parallel system to leader's left.
Then leader changes his weight to his right leg WITHOUT changing the weight of the follower (do this by maintaining the embrace constant)
The leader is now free to walk forward with his left foot.

How can I start walking in the cross system?

Following the last point..... the leader starts to walk forward on his left foot, with the left foot tracing the left side of the follower's hipline. The follower will also start to walk on her left.

Hey, does this sound familiar? Yes, it is. It is similar to how you might initiate back ochos but it doesn't have any pivoting. At this stage we are just walking straight. BTW Ochos are a form of walking in the cross system.

You can walk merrily along in the cross system, with your left leg on the left side of your follower and your right leg moving directly in front of your follower. This is called the left lane of the cross system. Take care to dissociate your upper body towards your partner so that you don't lose the connection

What's next? Back ochos

The cool thing about walking in the cross system is that it enables you to initiate new moves very easily and with fluidity.

From walking on the left side of the follower, it is possible to lead into back ochos.

All you need to do it this: While you are walking, as you step with your left leg, initiate a pivot to the left. Voila!! You are leading a back ocho, Cool! So lead a pivot to the right and you have led a back ocho to your right.

You can lead back ochos that are long and "walk" like or back ochos that have a lot of pivot side to side.

The back ochos are the middle lane of the cross system

The right lane

Once you have effortlessly crossed from the left lane to the middle lane (ochos) , you might like to move to the right lane.....This is the trickiest lane in the cross system.....

After you have transferred weight for the right ocho, straighten your partner out and step in front of her with your left foot. She will be stepping back with her left foot. You will need to dissociate your upper body towards her to maintain the connection. You will feel that you have moved to the right side of her (from leader's perspective).

After transferring your weight with your left foot, pivot your hip so that you are perpendicular to her and do a side step to your right. The follower will continue to walk backwards. At this point it is very important that the position of your right arm remains the same to the follower, If you allow your right arm to rotate with your hip, she will no longer continue to walk backwards.. It is also important to step as close to her back foot as possible in the side step.

From this point you can continue with ochos (middle lane) or continue walking in the left lane as before!!

Here is an image of dancers in the cross system.

Hi Tangueros.

I thought I would just give you a written summary of the tango musicality I was talking about last night, with reference to the valz.

1.       Tango valz  is made up of chunks with a beat 1-2-3.  You can recognize a valz because the 1 is stronger than 2 and 3. In fact 2 and 3 may not be so audible. The music is usually very fast and difficult to catch 2 and 3 but if you listen carefully you should be able to find the strong 1.

1 – 2 –3 /1-2-3/ 1-2 -3/ 1-2-3 ….. etc

2.       The simplest way to dance to dance to tango valz is to look for the strong beat and step on this beat. Often the valz is too fast so you don’t have to step on every 1. You can slow down as much as you want and only step on alternate 1’s if you want.

3.       Last night I asked you to look for the rhythmic structure 1  _3/1    where we were marking 1 and 3 but not 2. Therefore there is a slight pause (which is actually 2 which we leave out) after a strong 1. Following the pause, we mark 3 and 1 immediately after that. In time it looks like this:

strong    absent    weak    strong

1                (2)            3               1

Note: This type if musical variation adds colour to the dance. You don’t have to use it all the time, on every opportunity but if you find places to insert it into your valz it will be EVER so much more fun.

See if you can find this rhythm in this song by Carlos di Sarli

I think this is a very interesting article by B

A Student Perspective by Batt Johnson
(Reproduced from the February 2003 issue of ReporTango magazine)

Not everyone wants to become a professional dancer or even a great social dancer. It is no secret that we all dance for different reasons. Some of us dance as a form of physical therapy from injuries, weight control, weight loss, love of music, getting married and you don't want to look like a geek for the wedding dance, saw the milonga in Central Park, just something you always wanted to do, inspiration from old Fred Astaire movies, saw Forever Tango on Broadway, nothing better to do on a Friday evening, as a way to a better social life, love life, married life, who knows why we dance?

My question is: Why do we stop dancing? No time, no baby sitter, no money, no energy, no dates, no skills, no interest, no balance, no luck, your mate won't allow you. The reasons are numerous, but I submit to you one reason that is not often discussed...Frustration!

Many students stop dancing because of frustration. Students often don't think they are good dancers, and one of the reasons is they try to go too fast, learn too much too soon. They are in a hurry to get to the advanced class or the next level up so they can dance like their favorite hero tango instructor. We have to be aware of the fact that the NAME of the class does not make you that level of dancer. Only learning technique and practicing your basics will do that. It is easy to be seduced by the ease and effortlessness with which high-level professional tango dancers walk.

Remember, this incredible dance is based on a walk, that's all. You might be saying to yourself, "A walk? I can walk, but when I walk, it doesn't look like THAT." To be able to dance tango is to be able to walk tango, and that takes time.

I once had a teacher who had us walking around the studio in line of dance for months before he started working in any "steps." Students were dropping out left and right. That is something the school owners don't want to hear.

But I must say that because of that constant walking and understanding of the technique, we were able to understand and apply more complex steps later because we had a foundation. Learning the walk is not exciting, but it is necessary. You can't do this dance without it. I know that the beginner students who are in the intermediate and above classes are not going to go back to their true level because they read this article, but they should. What good does it do to be able to say that you are in the intermediate level class if you dance like you are in the beginner class? Please don't misunderstand me. There is nothing wrong with being a beginner. That is where we all started. But, you can't fool people, they can see, or while dancing with you they can feel it. If more dance schools had a screening system for students to graduate to the next level, there would be a lot more skilled dancers at the milongas. I get the feeling that not many are teaching floor crafting, line of dance and simple dance etiquette. Last week I was at a crowded milonga and was stepped on, kicked, bumped and knocked around more times than I care to mention. Why? Is it because the leaders weren't looking where they were taking their partners, or was I just in the wrong place at the right time too many times?

This article is being written for my fellow students who are in a hurry to get to the advanced class. If you want to increase your level of stress, frustration and embarrassment, rush to the classes that are above your true level. Believe me, the advanced class is not all it's cracked up to be, but the beginner class is. How can that be? The beginner and beginner/intermediate classes are where you learn your foundation, learn to walk, the importance of your feet, your frame, your posture, your head, your shoulders, your shoulder blades, the separation of your upper body from your lower body. Without a good foundation you can grow as a dancer but you'll be a dancer with many very bad, difficult to break habits. For those of us who have attempted to break any habit of any kind, you know how difficult it is.

I was once in a class when maestro Carlos Gavito walked through on his way to another studio. My teacher stopped him and asked him in a voice loud enough for all to hear, "Carlos, what is the most important, most useful, fancy step a student could learn?" Without hesitation he said, "The basic, you have got to really learn your basics. NOTHING can work if you don't have that. Forget about dancing if you don't know the basics. Without the basics, what you are doing is not dancing."

A word to the wise: Don't throw away your money on intermediate/advanced and advanced classes that you are not ready for. The dance school you are studying in will GLADLY take your money and only teach you steps...steps, and more steps. But remember steps without foundation is bad dancing, steps without style is ugly dancing. So why do many students stop dancing? Many of them stop because they didn't learn the basics or build a foundation, got frustrated, and quit. It is not possible to write a novel before you know the alphabet. Stop throwing away your money...learn the alphabet.

Batt Johnson - Lover of Dance

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