Two Steps Forward

Guadalupe tries to improve Sam's posture. Since this picture was taken with a camera on a tripod with a self-timer my pose is rushed and my posture even worse than usual

“Can’t act. Can’t sing. Balding. Can dance a little.”

–Notes from Fred Astaire’s First Screen Test

BUENOS AIRES, March 28

At least I’m not balding.

I know Fred Astaire. I’ve seen him dance. Sir, I am no Fred Astaire.

Forgive me, my children. My writing may be as clumsy as my dance steps. Certainly, there is much in this post that some of my Tango internet friends who have been following me will criticize. One looked at the video that is in this post and said “I’m not going to say anything unless you ask me.” So I didn’t ask her.

People who become involved in Tango are very passionate people and they hold passionate opinions. While in Virginia, I attempted to keep in practice by attending an afternoon lesson and milonga (dance) in Richmond. My partner had never danced Tango before and I am not past the advanced beginner level so I didn’t lead her well. I was telling my partner that as people advance they ultimately move from an open embrace to a closed one and that the dancers lean against one another, become a single unit, and that the communication between the dancers becomes the dance.

An older woman heard my talk, which had been discussed in several dozen lessons and started scolding me: “Don’t ever use the word lean. You don’t lean. That’s not the way.”

I don’t like confrontations and I simply told her that “lean” was the word my Tango teacher in Buenos Aires used and that perhaps it was a language difference. A quick Google search turns up an entire thesis on leaning in Tango as a style called “apilado.” The partners form a triangle and balance their weight against each other using their torsos. Sometimes the best way to win an argument is to walk away. This infuriates some people even more, but I am not particularly clever with the cutting comeback and so I have stopped trying.

The video that I have included was taken on the same small camera I use for all my still shots. That is why the video quality is not up to the standards I like, but it will do for this post. Guada and I are practicing each one of the steps that we learned in February. We set the camera on a tripod and then I edited the clips so that you didn’t see all the walking back and forth to start and stop the camera. Spielberg has nothing to fear.

Sam’s Tango Practice, February 12

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The steps that we are practicing are the basic 8- count step in which woman does a cruzado, a cross, in step five. We practice the ocho cortado in which we begin the basic step and rather than continue to the cross we step backwards and can do a couple of variations. Either I can lead her to a cross and then we finish the step or I lead her to a gancho, or hook. This is the showy step that observers believe will cause the man to be in danger of losing his manhood. The position of the thigh permits the woman to kick the back of the man’s upper thigh, so this is not as dangerous as it looks. I also perform the giro in which I create a spinning motion for myself  doing sacadas or stepping between my partners feet while leading her in ochos or figure eights. Another sacada ends with a lapiz, a half-circle that blocks my partner’s forward movement and allows her to make an embellishment called a parada in which she gently kicks my leg and then steps over it to complete the step.

Guadalupe and I pose for my camera. She makes me look like a milonguero. Maybe one day I'll really look like one. (tripod photo)

My instructor tells me that “people think of Tango as something rigid, but it is much more like elastic.” There are moments when the partners are close, moments when there is space for the various steps. It is not a rigid pattern of steps, but a communication between the partners that is mutual and understood through the energy between them.

All this takes a lot of time to learn and even more to master. It is the man’s responsibility to lead the dance and because of this I have yet to go to a milonga (dance club) and ruin someone’s evening by showing my incompetence. My first lesson upon my return was three days ago and I was confused and clumsy at first but some of it came back to me towards the end of the lesson. As Guadalupe said, “the man invites the woman but then must give her direction.” A central dictum in Tango is that if something goes wrong it is the man’s fault. That, of course, only increases the tension for slightly shy guys like me.

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