[Tango-L] Structure of Tango (Was: Four Layers of Tango Learning)

[Stephen.P.Brown@dal.frb.org]

I think many of us who have been dancing for a while write and talk about 
the structure of tango without really defining what we mean.  I'm 
expanding on my previous post.

If we think of tango as being made up of individual movements and 
sequences of movements (step patterns), the structure of tango is the 
fabric from which these movements are drawn.  Elements of the 
structure of tango were discovered and systemized by two different groups 
of dancers/instructors.

One such approach emerged from a group of dancers led by Petroleo (Carlos 
Estevez) and Salvador Sciana during the golden age of tango.  The group 
explored and developed turns.  Mingo Pugliese was one of the youngest 
members of the group, and he is credited for distilling the group's 
thinking into a systematic approach to teaching turns (giros) as 
generalized eight-count right and left turns.  The system serves as a 
frame of reference for creating all turning steps including giros, 
molinettes, enrosques and ganchos.

Another approach emerged from a group of dancers led by by Gustavo Naveira 
and has included such other dancers/teachers as Fabian Salas, Chicho 
Frumboli, and (possibly) Pablo Veron.  With 
contributions from his then partner, Olga Besio, and some of his 
compatriots, Naveira developed a systematic way for looking at all the 
movement possibilities in tango.  Some of the concepts included parallel 
and crossed systems of walking, ochos as part of the system of turns, 
boleos as an interuption of turns, and the equivalence between cross 
walking and back ochos.  Naveira's system serves as a frame of reference 
for creating all tango steps.  In addition, the system help bring into 
visibility some step patterns such as overturn ochos and a change of 
direction in turns that were not previously used with much frequency.

These underlying structures can provide a frame of reference and an 
encyclopedia of tango movement.  Mastery of these structures can greatly 
increase the fluidity of a tango dancer's improvisational skills.  (What 
is required for such mastery, I will leave for further discussion, but it 
takes much more than 6 weeks.)

Some of the structural elements of tango are:

     Walks (Caminatas)
           parallel foot, in line
           parallel foot, outside right
           parallel foot, outside left
           cross foot, in line
           cross foot, outside right
           cross foot, outside left
           arrastres or barridas (drags or sweeps)
     Turns (Giros)
           forward ocho
           backward ocho
           giro
           giro with sacadas
           boleo/amague
           molinete (with lapiz)
           enrosque
           forward enrosque
           arrastres or barridas (drags or sweeps)
           planeo
           change of axis steps
           change of direction steps
     Sandwiches (Mordidas)
     Embellishments (Adornos, Firuletes)
     Structural Connections
           basic step as a hallway
           basic step as a turn
           parallel and cross foot walking
           interchangability between back ochos and cross-foot walking
           lapiz-enrosque

For further reading,  I recommend reading Brian Dunn's interview with 
Gustavo Naveira:
http://pythia.uoregon.edu/~llynch/Tango-L/2006/msg04984.html
http://pythia.uoregon.edu/~llynch/Tango-L/2006/msg05040.html

For a visual representation I recommend the videos by Gustavo Naveira and 
Olga Besio and those by Daniel Trenner.
See: http://www.tejastango.com/video_resources.html#Structure

The Pugliese videos might also be helpful, but I find those videos are bit 
less direct about the fact they are teaching from a structural system.
See http://www.tejastango.com/bridge_tango.html#Pugliese

Even better attend the Gustavo Naveira workshops that are upcoming

With best regards,
Steve