Tango Corazon: How to Dance the Argentine Tango

Introduction

Tango is Easy

The Argentine tango is the easiest of all the ballroom dances to begin dancing, and to begin dancing well. Why? Its basic rhythm is slow-slow, an easy walking pace. And its basic "step" is the walk.

Select a tango from this web page listing of some tango music, embrace your partner (real or imaginary), and walk. Congratulations! You are a tango dancer.

Tango is Stylish

Well, not quite. You, the leader, with some help from your partner, do have to interpret the music. Otherwise you are just marching along like a soldier. Happily, tango music is very expressive and inspiring and easy to interpret.

You also need to move with some style. A smooth, flowing, almost cat-like walk works with most tangos. Though band leaders do interpret tangos sometimes as (for instance) perky, solemn, sad, or happy and you need to vary your style to match.

You may also want to add some variety to your dancing as you become comfortable with the music and your partner. Tango has many adornos, adornments, you can use. All of them you learned long ago when you learned to walk.

Women add them between steps. These include toe-taps and little flirts of your foot to the side or back or (a bit trickier) in front of your other foot. When you become more expert, and when your partner encourages it and the dance floor is open enough, you can do riskier adornos. These include high kicks and carresses of his legs with your feet or legs.

Men add them to steps. These include changes in the basic slow-slow rhythm. You can speed up or slow down on any step, or even stop for a few moments. If you firm up your embrace your partner will follow along with you. If you loosen your embrace she will keep to the basic slow-slow rhythm.

Tango can be Challenging

Once you master the basics you can begin learning more challenging moves. Some of them are very challenging because they are borrowed from tango shows and are normally done by professional dancers. Created for the stage, they must be modified for the crowded floor of the milonga (tango dance party) so that they are more compact and fit in the traffic flow.

There are many videos of Argentine tango dancing on the internet. A sample of the better ones is on the page titled World of the Argentine Tango.

In the videos you will see several styles of tango. This can be confusing to stodgy people who want everything standardized. And liberating for creative people willing to borrow from all tango styles and make their own personal style.

Getting Started at Tango

The best place to start learning the tango is this book you are now reading. It was designed to quickly and easily get you on the dance floor and having fun. After the first lesson you should be able to go to a milonga and dance all night. Just be sure you tell anyone who asks you to dance that you only know caminadas (walks). After the fourth lesson tell them you only know the basics. Then any problems are their fault, not yours!

To get started becoming a tango dancer, go to the first lesson of Tango Corazon: How to Dance the Argentine Tango. As you go through it, remember the following.