Learning Tango in Buenos Aires, Argentina

I’ve read that dance is a conversation between body and soul. Sometimes that conversation comes in whispers, other times in shouts. Tango is like those passionate cries that make the neighbors blush. Tango is very much a conversation… and a sexy one, at that. The entire conversation takes place strictly with body language.

These two dancers were performing in the middle of a sidewalk cafe in Plaza Dorrego, a town square in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Because life in Buenos Aires is just that good.

Tango in Plaza Dorrego

What better place to take tango lessons than in the country that invented tango: Argentina. Lucky for me, my tango instructor is also something of a tango historian and even did her Master’s thesis on the history of tango.

In the latter part of the 19th century, Argentina wanted to grow. So it issued an open worldwide invitation to would-be immigrants. And it worked; they came by the boatload.

This helps to explain why Buenos Aires is such a European city. The architecture, the food, the mannerisms, even parts of the language have more in common with Europe than with the rest of Latin America.

Predictably, many who came were very poor. So they often lived in very tiny, close quarters with their neighbors. At times, they didn’t even share a language in common with many of these neighbors. So they all found nonverbal means of communicating and getting along.

It also happens that everyone seeks recreation and for poor people in the 19th century, one of the most accessible forms of recreation was music and dance. Facing those same language barriers, tango was born.

Broadly speaking, tango is not a dance with prescribed steps. In fact, at its most rudimentary level, a couple could do little more than some stylized walking around in circles on the dance floor and it would still be tango.

What really characterizes tango is that the dancers are in constant communication and yet they never speak a word while on the dance floor. All the communication is 100% body language. (I even saw many women who danced with their eyes closed!)

The man leads his partner around the dance floor and “tells” her how and where they are going to move next. His most important job is to ensure that he doesn’t lead her to bump into anyone or anything. At basic levels, the woman is often a passive follower and simply lets the man lead. At more advanced levels (which I obviously didn’t reach after only one night of lessons), a more two-way nonverbal dialogue evolves.

The early part of my tango lesson focused very heavily on this communication aspect of tango. We had to learn posture. A dancer who slouches or is limp will be hard to read. The same is true of one who is too stiff and rigid. Posture is important for both partners as the man also has to “read” the woman.

Eye movement and slight squeezes or tugs with the hands can and does play a role in the nonverbal communication of tango but much of it comes from the chest. It takes practice but surely you can easily see how such close and intimate communication would be extremely sexy. And that sexiness reveals itself in the dance.

Foot movement is also important. Neither partner ever looks down at their feet. Being so close together, and the entire dance being improvised, means they both have to step from the same side at the same time. This, so as he’s moving his foot into her space, she’s moving hers out of it and toward the direction of their next step.

Milongas (restaurants, bars and other public spaces by day, tango dance halls by night) have a few basic rules. These are mostly geared around traffic management. One of the most important is that all movement around the dance floor goes in only one direction. After all, the woman is always moving backwards. She never looks behind her and neither partner ever looks at their feet. So they have to be able to predict the movements of other dancers on the floor.

19th century Argentine society found tango to be vulgar because of its overtly sexy nature. It wasn’t until it became extremely popular in Paris that tango was embraced by Argentina’s upper-crust.

Knowing all of this… tango, anyone?