New Dynamics in Argentine Tango

From an individual method to a global

methodology
by Alexandru Eugen Cristea
Bucharest Social Dance

After more than a century of dance evolution, its high time we

considered some of the changes in the peoples perception systems.
Because we all dance tango, and many of us have been teaching it, for so
many years, and we all have some kind of a personal methodology.
There is a lot of information available, from the old-fashioned books
and DVDs to the up-to-date online training programs like those of Mauricio
Castro, Sebastian Arce and Sebastian Achaval, all teaching us their
methodology.
But what is the essence of all these teaching methods? Is there
something that belongs to all of them without being owned by anyone in
particular? As the years have passed, I have identified some new reference
points in order to better understand the structure of the dance and its
organic pattern of movement. In the material that follows, I will present to
you one of these fundamental concepts that help us identify the new
dynamics in Argentine Tango. As always, a new understanding comes from a
new way of using our mind, making connections that were unavailable in the
past. And from these new connections, comes a new way of dancing, hence,
new dynamics.
The concept I want to discuss is that of directions. We are all familiar
with this, but only in one plane, mostly in the horizontal plane. We can do the
caminar going forward most of the times backwards sometimes, and we

can also step to the side. Sometimes we can go diagonally and even use
circularity.
But all these are on a horizontal plane. What I want to address in this
article is about the other plane, the vertical one: the manner in which we can
perceive the projection of the Leader to the Follower on the vertical plane
and its results. This is best understood by examples.
If the Leader projects his energy his marca on the horizontal plane,
moving, what we get is the usual caminar. Both partners are walking
together; this is the horizontal plane, from this we build up and down our
organic structure of the dance.
If we walk together and at some point the Leader projects his impulse
marca a little downwards on the vertical plane of movement the
Follower will naturally stop with her feet apart and straight knees. It is just
like in a balanceo. Many tango moves use this projection downwards, and
depending on how much down the impulse of the Leader is projected,
different results can be achieved.
When the Leader will project his energy downwards a little more than
in the previous, the Follower will bend the knee of the leg that has weight on
it. A lot of movements such as lapiz, planeo, corte, use this type of bending
the knee, this downwards projection of the Leaders impulse. If you want a
balanceo, a cunita, an ocho cortado or a sandwicitto, you will need to project
you impulse, as a Leader, downwards.
If we take the projection a little up while the Follower has her feet
collected, this will generate a change of weight cadencia or traspie. This
will be just a little upwards. If you want a calesita, a sostenida, a high boleo,
the Leader will project his impulse upwards. For other type of figures, the
Leader will have to project his impulse still higher. Like for example the kick
type of boleos, the piernazzo, etc.
As we can see, all the movements in Argentine Tango can be explained
and led in more detail with the concept of directions, on the horizontal plane,
but also on the vertical plane.
You will be able to change the way you dance, the quality of the
movement and through this your dynamics, if you will start to apply this
understanding to you dance structure and moving patterns. You will also find
it easier to communicate to the Follower and to others and also to

understand a lot of tango step patterns and discover, by yourself, a new way
of deconstructing and of course, composing the dance.
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