No matter if you are just one of many beginners or have somewhat experience, you should not neglect what is important in your dancing. Getting back to the basics is always a good idea.
In this article I will try to summarize the four most important things you should focus on – they are derived from my own experience and from the experience of other experienced dancers.
“It was you who get me continue dancing. Without your help I could never get where I am now.”, she said after our last dance, which surprised me.
I didn’t do anything special… at least it felt this way because for me it was not an effort. But, for her, as a beginner, it was a huge support.
But what I did?
Basically I placed the things in a perspective. I explained what is important and what is not. I also told her that it takes time… and yes, I spend some time dancing with her.
I feel that this was my duty because many years ago someone also did something similar for me. She explained the process and gave me a perspective. She danced with me, patiently ignoring my mistakes and supported me when I struggled with new techniques.
I decided to share those core concepts that beginners should never forget. There are many things to be said, but I intentionally organized them in four simple points.
1. Connecting – I know, if you are a beginner most probably this is not one of the things you might consider a priority. You might still want to connect better, but there is a good chance that you consider this as one of the tools to help you do all these fancy steps.
But, you are wrong…
Learning how to connect should be your top priority. Dancing tango is like a good friendship – being connected is the goal by itself and you should be focus on this if you want to become a good dancer. Consider the steps like troubles that challenge and test your friendship.
I don’t say that steps are bad – I just say that you can never know if someone is your good friend if your friendship is not challenged. Some “friends” might leave when troubles come, others will stay with you trough good and bad times. Those are the friends you should keep.
Do you get my analogy?
The connection is tested by all those steps and if you can keep it, it means you are doing it right.
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Here is my recommendation…
Learn three or four simple steps just to have material to practice and use them to test and perfect your communication.
I am sorry to say this, but you should spend with those three basic steps at least six months. My teaching experience tells me that if you do this your dancing will soon explode – when you learn this basic skill right, the rest will come almost effortlessly.
And not only that…
You can even stop taking classes at all. Yes, you can just go and dance in milongas…. If you have a little dancing talent, in time those three steps will evolve in to a variety of different moves.
This was actually the approach of the old milongueros – I read somewhere that Ricardo Vidort, for example, taught his students just eight classes – after that he would say to them “That’s all you should learn from me, now go and dance in milongas”.
What if you are a lady? Nothing changes. Learn how to connect and the best dancers will always choose you before others who think more on how they do that ocho or voleo, than what her partners lead her.
“But if I don’t know steps no one will invite me”, you might say.
Yes, you will lose some partners, but you will get some others. I can say this from my own experience – I always prefer to dance with someone who is able to embrace with me and connect, than with someone who can do perfect ocho, but do it by herself.
Check more on how guys chose ladies
How men choose partners
2. Musicality – As I said in one of my article, woman feels like dying when you are not able to hit the beat. Musicality is also very important quality for ladies as well – when the man leads you he predicts that you will touch the floor on the beat, so he plans his moves accordingly. If your timing is off, all sorts of mistakes can occur.
I wrote an article on the four levels of musicality and, as a beginner, I thing you should focus mostly on the basic one – the rhythm.
The four levels of tango musicality
Something else…
What the wast majority of beginners do is to focus more on the melody. No wonder that among them often times the most popular songs are those of post-golden age where you have music with dramatic melody and almost no rhythm.
As one of my Argentinian friends once said “No compás, no dancing!” (“compás” is Spanish for “beat”)
3. Codigos – If you think that it’s easy to find your way in milonga you don’t know anything about how it works.
Of course, you don’t have to become expert, but you should get some basic tips on ronda, cabeceo and how tandas and cortinas system works. In time you will learn more and more, as you gather experience, but I included this as important part for every beginner because without it, you might get in to unnecessary conflict with the more experienced dancers. Sometimes some behaviors of others towards you might be confusing if you don’t know why this happens.
Internet is full with articles about codigos – you are one Google search away from learning some of the basic skills. You can also learn these over a coffee with more experienced dancer who travels to international events.
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4. Enjoy – Don’t forget that tango is a big party. Don’t get it too serious. Many beginners are so obsessed with this new world that they easily forget why we are all there – to have fun.
Of course, dedicate time and energy learning but never forget why we are all here. They get disappointed when something doesn’t work the way they expected and this can sometimes even make them quit tango completely.
And the reason for this is…
The process! You see, when we learn we first assimilate the new knowledge with our mind. It is much easier to learn what and how should we do something, but it takes time and hard work for the body to adopt the new knowledge.
It is great frustration to know mentally how should you do something, but your body just refuses to do it properly. This is why you should have fun in the process. Accept that it takes time and enjoy the ride. Think about how much you learned already and that you will eventually arrive on your desired destination.
Will this approach help you? Share your experience in a comment or send me direct message. Don’t forget to share this article with your community, so it can help others.
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