TANGO VOCABULARY

One can hear a milonguero talking about his

not-enough "Tango Vocabulary", or about him
wishing to have a larger and more versatile
"Tango Vocabulary", and so on...
This milonguero is usually referring to a
vocabulary of Tango figures, that are Tango
sentences.
Now lets talk a minute about a writer or a poet.
When he is referring to his vocabulary, he is
NOT referring to a vocabulary of SENTENCES.
He is referring to his vocabulary of WORDS.
Back to Tango. In my opinion, likewise, "Tango
Vocabulary" is the vocabulary of Tango steps,
and NOT Tango figures.
Instead of learning lots of Tango figures
(sentences), a milonguero/a needs to know how
to lead/perform well the Tango steps (words),
and the "grammar" of combining Tango steps to

figures. Just as a writer knows the correct use

and spelling of words, and the grammar of
combining words to interesting sentences.
The whole vocabulary of Tango steps is really
very small, and here it is: