[Tango-L] The Basics

[Shahrukh Merchant]

Brick Robbins <brick at brickrobbins.com> wrote:

> It has been my observation that many people who dance exclusivity in a
> close embrace have issues with posture and balance, of which they are
> not aware.

That's an interesting twist ... which one could reformulate to the 
effect that, "Since dancing (well) in close embrace is harder than 
dancing in open embrace [no argument from me there], many people end up 
dancing with poor technique when the dance could be simplified for them 
to make it easier, and hence easier to dance correctly."

This theory has already been thought of and put into practice several 
decades ago, and very successfully I might add, by the Arthur Murray and 
similar schools in the 40s(?). American-style Ballroom Tango (not to be 
confused with the travesty that is the "Standard" or "International" 
Tango) was indeed a (gross) simplification of Argentine Tango for a 
casual social dancer, which removed all the difficulty of the close 
embrace, not to mention cultural "space" issues. That it became one of 
the staples of social dancing in the US in that timeframe (along with 
Waltz, Foxtrot, Cha Cha, Rumba, Swing ...) is testimony to the success 
of that approach (at least commercially and socially).

Most exponents of Argentine Tango, though, probably have decided, 
explicitly or implicitly, to sacrifice that simplicity for the added 
richness that the real thing gives.

> The ability to control one's own position and change of
> axis without the crutch of using the partner as support makes for a
> much better dancer

That is far too overstated. The implication of the above that I *would* 
agree with is that a truly *bad* dancer (i.e., not just an inexperienced 
one) will look (and feel) less bad in open embrace.

> , and the practice of dancing in an open embrace
> makes these skills more evident.

Or rather, that it makes the *lack* of these skills *less* evident.

Shahrukh