Technique is overrated. I often say this when I want to illustrate how little tango dancers pay attention on the cultivation of the emotional side of their dance. The secret of tango is not in the motion: it is in the emotion.
In this article I will try to identify some of the key differences between motion and emotion in tango. I will also try to give you some entry level advice on how to cultivate the emotion in your dance.
“I saw you dancing with her. You finally succeed! No more chasing her, we can go home now”, my friend said with a smile after I joined him on our table.
“Meh!”
“What? You didn’t like her dancing? C’mon, she is a famous star and Argentinian teacher – you should respect that!”, he insisted.
“I do respect that. She has a perfect technique, but something is missing. I have danced with beginners and felt better than that”.
I actually had similar conversations a couple of times after dances with Argentinian celebrities or teachers. To be honest, I had some magical moments dancing with Argentinian maestros, but I also had a few that were quite disappointing. They were too focused on what they do – on the motion. The emotional part was completely missing.
[Tweet “Technique is overrated – the pleasure is in the emotion”]
So, how can you tell the difference between motion and emotion? Here I will examine three key points that, in my opinion, can completely transform your dancing.
1. Motion vs. emotion – Motion is masculine; emotion is feminine flavor of tango. What does it mean? Let’s start by examining the roots of those words. Here is how Wikionary describes the etymology of the English word emotion:
From French émotion, from émouvoir (“excite”) based on Latin ēmōtus, past participle of ēmoveō (“to move out, move away, remove, stir up, agitate”), from ē- (“out”) (variant of ex-), and moveō (“move”).
What is the meaning of this for our dance? Since the man is the one that creates (and improvises) the choreography, the one that proposes the movements and leads his partner – he is the one who creates the motion, he is the one who “agitates” or “excites”, the one where motion starts and the one who uses the motion to create emotion in his partner.
On the other hand, the woman in tango is the one who receives the lead, the one who is being moved, the one who gets “agitated” or “excited” – her heart is the place where the motion is being transformed into emotion.
Is this the complete picture? Is the woman in tango just a passive recipient? Of course not.
To complete this picture, I must mention here the role female dancers have in inspiring their partners. Every male dancer knows that some women know how to inspire, irrespective of the level of their dance or their beauty. It comes from their heart and their ability to read and transmit their energy to their partners.
This is why even beginners often dance more than some experienced dancers. It goes beyond tango – it is a social superpower some people have (and I believe it can be learned like any other skill).
2. The big mistake – How people learn to dance tango? They learn sequences of movements, they practice and practice, and they then use them in milongas. All attention is focused on polishing the motion part and very little is done in the cultivation of the emotion. Very little thought is being given in the connection between motion and emotion – how they are connected and how they influence one another.
And, what is the result? People enjoying only in the movements and never discovering the true potential of tango. When some of them intuitively feel that there is much more to tango than the steps, they often lack the techniques and skills to bridge the motional and the emotional part.
This situation gets even worse because most of the dancers watch too much show dancing – which is basically performance and posing. Performance is primarily connected to motion. If you can find some emotions in the performance it is in most cases a part of the act and superficial.
3. How can you learn to express emotion? – Learning this is actually a process which takes effort and time as much as learning all of those ochos, giros, ganchos, enrosques… A good teacher will also pay attention to expressing the emotion with your movements, because at the end – your dancing level will be measured by how you make your partners feel, not by the acrobatic abilities you show.
Your focus should not be in what you do, but in what your partner does. If you are a male dancer this is even more important – you have to be able to dance with her body, not with yours. The dance doesn’t happen in your feet or in your heart, it is just where it starts. The dance actually happens in her heart and in her feet.
If you are a female dancer you should not try to connect with the music itself, but in how your partner connects with the music. His ears should be your ears. Your movements are not the right ones if they do not start in his heart.
The form you have selected does not exist.
I strongly believe that our tango journey finds its meaning in discovering the emotional flavor of this equation. What is your take on this question?
If you liked this article, help me spread the word by sharing it with your tango community on Facebook, email or other places.
I must object; emotion does not start with the follower. It can start in leader and follower. It is actually part of the lead: I do not only lead steps, I (try to) lead also the emotion I hear in the music. But when I do so, it is in my body already. So in the end it is not in hear body…it is in both our bodies. But I am fully with you, that something is missing when the response is only motion. Horatio was even more blunt on it: “don’t waste 12min of my life, by only following motion and not participating fully”.
I also miss, what Veronica put in one of her tango Essays: you need a foundation of technique to be able to put emotion in your dance. Yes it is like a language: some can make a fun conversation while only knowing 50 words, where others fluently native speaking can only orate. But when someone combines both, skillful using a language, the conversation can go to a completely different level. Practicing pays off!
But I love you emphasis on what I think is one of the most difficult aspects of following: tango is so complex that you can choose which aspect of the song you are dancing to. To make it worse, the melody and the beat can be time-shifted. So if a follower only hears the beat, but the leader tries to dance the melody, the follower thinks the leader is out of sync with the music. But to fully connect to the leader, this means that the follower must know both and even feel to which part the leader is listening. And to make that worse: a leader can shift up and down between all those aspects. Or he cannot dance to the music at all. I guess knowing what really goes on must be very hard for the followers. But I love a follower that is with me on all.
A tip for leaders: try to open yourself for the emotion a follower can put into a song. It is like you are leading the aspects of position, movement, floor-crafting, etc, but you let her guide you the emotion of the step. You basically let the follower lead you the motion of the step. Then enjoy the ride…..
One last point: if you go into this, dancing the emotion, the risk of getting oxytocin instead of dopamin, is quite high. Enjoy it, but be aware you will fall in love, with your dance partner: the tango-love. Just enjoy it but don’t confuse it with real love.
Ivica, that’s a good way to explain it. Most times when dancing in close embrace the connection is fixed, or doesn’t change thru the whole Tanda. But in some cases there are subtle indications from the partner, that she is enjoying the dance. I have had women breath heavily, others might sing, some will snuggle closer, and yet others might press me tighter. The greatest impact I’ve had from partners was the weaving or twisting of their torsos. The latter doesn’t happen often unfortunately, like 1 in 50-100 partners, and is usually with the same women. I would call ALL those emotions, the icing on the cake !!
“Motion is masculine; emotion is feminine flavor” – sorry, this is complete bullshit. If fi you rely belive this stupid stereotype you loose all my respect.
Ok, then instead of rebuttal, offer your point of view. How would you explain this “special” connection ??
Hi tangueros y tangueras!
I agree 100% that “technique is overrated and the pleasure is in the emotion”. BUT (and I believe I can say this as a tango teacher with over 15 years of teaching experience ): if for example you want to have a dialog (which maybe even touches the heart’s and provokes emotions…) in a foreign language with a stranger… you will first have to learn some (at least basic!) vocabulary and some basic grammar … ! Same with tango dancing: first learn about posture, steps and sequences… Lots of emotions and very poor technique will not bring you joy either. You need both!
I think the emotions during a tango dance depend on many factors: 1.how you respond to the music, 2. how you feel about yourself (in general and specificly in that moment ! ), 3.how you feel about your partner and 4.-how you absorb your partners energy and even 5.-how you feel about the other people (or the crowd) around you = the “atmosphere” in the Milonga.
All of this matters and influences the energy and emotions during a tanda…!! That is why experienced dancers sometimes don’t dance very often: they are aware of all the above mentioned factors and therefor prefere to wait until at least some of the factors “match”… which usually doesn’t happen very often….! BUT: when it happens…it’s tuely magic! 🙂
Tango is easy until the Tanguero learns the Basic 8 Step Sequence. It then goes downhill via sequence-based classes.
Hi. I’m a beginner and so far it seems like the best thing for me is to learn all the steps just so I can stop thinking about them and go back to focusing on being in sync with my dance partner. I want my walking to be intentional, not because I don’t know what else to do.
This is most important tango lesson! Thanks for pointing out the most crutial yet neglected aspects of tango.
Excellent article! Finally an article on this subject! I strongly agree that tango instruction focused on technique and steps produces people who just move by rote. Would you agree that this loop of action- emotion starts with the music produciing feelings in the leader which he transforms into action? So the action in the man that you describe has been inspired by feelings elicited by the music?
The man also listens to the technical aspect of the music such as the rhythm and melody in each phrase. Some men learn and lead this part, but miss the feeling part.
Thank you for bringing this subject to light!
Thanks for commenting Patricia.
To answer your question, no, I don’t think that the emotion is inspired by the music – it is inspired by the partner. Tango is personal and I believe that the inspiration should come from the partner. When it is inspired by the music we have situation when dancer forgets the partner and connects only to the music.
“inspiration should come from the partner”
But if I am uninspired by the music I’ll be at the bar or checking my emails or leaving the milonga.
For me the music comes first. If it is really inspiring then I’ll search eagerly for a matching partner for a truly emotional dance – e.g. Salamanca-Guerrico, Biagi-Duval, Troilo-Rufino, D’Arienzo-Valdez, Sassone, Basso.
If the music is “meh” I might skip the first song and then dance with anyone still sitting. Usually without much emotion.
I completely agree with you.