Hello tango dancers!

Struggling with Tango’s Close Embrace? Feeling that it is too intimate or too challenging?

We love the Close Embrace, and make it easy so that our students can be more creative and elegant!

A lot of the students who come to our classes do so because here at Tango Space we have a commitment to teach in Close Embrace from the get go.

We know it is much more challenging at first (but our students are awesome, & determined, & always up for a challenge!) but it pays tenfolds in creativity, posture, elegance and connection later on.

==> Read below to understand why you should learn how to dance tango in Close Embrace as soon as you can! <==

1. It is more challenging….. at first only!

Yes, it is more challenging to learn dancing in Close Embrace than in Open Embrace: you need to be much more precise and much more attuned to your partner than in an Open Embrace.

But the thing is, once you know how to dance in Close Embrace, then opening the embrace in the dance becomes VERY easy.

On the contrary, when you first learn how to dance in Open Embrace, it becomes much more difficult to dance in Close Embrace: you are likely to have taken bad posture habits in Open Embrace… which you can’t afford to have on Close Embrace!

So, you need to work twice harder to learn from Open Embrace to Close Embrace, than from Close Embrace to Open embrace.

2. Dancing in Close Embrace makes you much more elegant… on and off the dancefloor!

Compared with Open Embrace, dancing in Close Embrace is so precise that it forces you to be very aware of your posture.

You need to find the balance between leaning towards your partner and staying straight so that you are still looking elegant and not falling on them.

Because of that, working in Close Embrace is incredibly effective in developing body awareness and improving the precision with which we move (on and off the dance-floor) and communicate with our partner.

In Open Embrace, as you are not in close contact with your partner, it is much easier to have a bad posture. The control you have over your balance is less precise….

And control and precision are what we want so we can play and be free when dancing!

3. Close Embrace helps for you to have a good embrace in the future & avoid Bad habits later on

Dancing in Close Embrace makes you learn from the get go to lead and follow with the chest, not the arms or shoulders.

That makes a massive difference in your dancing: it feels much better for your partners.

Picking up bad habits when you are learning tango dancing is easy, and getting rid of them is hard…. which unfortunately happens a lot with Open Embrace.

When you dance Close Embrace from the get go you learn to develop an embrace that is both relaxed and warm but also firm.

And you can’t dance Tango well, and convey great feelings to your partner without that.

4. It gives you more elements for creative expression

Once you know how to dance in Close Embrace, it becomes easy to play with a flexible embrace when you are dancing. Depending on the music, the space around you, your partner, and how you feel, you can dance all of your movements in the embrace that feels best for you right now: Close, or Released.

True, some movements are much harder to do in Close than in Open Embrace (actually, most of them).

But the freedom and playfulness you get in your dancing make it worth it.

5. You can dance easily with more partners

Ever been to a milonga, invited by someone whom you’ve been dying to dance with for so long, and felt that you simply could NOT connect?

That might be because you are not used to the embrace they are offering.

I remember the beginning of my tango journey: I would go to milongas and feel very uncomfortable dancing with guys whom I knew were very good dancers. I did not understand why.

Now I know it was simply because they were inviting me to dance in Close Embrace: I could only dance in Open Embrace, so I was basically ‘resisting’ them throughout the whole tanda (and for the poor guys, these dances must have felt very, very long….)

When you know how to dance in Close and Open Embrace, you can adapt to all of the dancers you want to dance with.

(Bonus: most experienced dancers dance in Close Embrace, so hey! if you can dance that way you’re more likely to dance with them!)

6. You feel more connected, more intimate with your partner

The great thing about Close Embrace is that you get to really connect with your partner.

We know, the very first times you come into Close Embrace are a bit scary: we are not used to hugging strangers, let alone hugging & dancing with them!

But when you get used to it, it is an incredible feeling. In Close Embrace, we feel ‘everything that our partner feels’. And when they feel wonderful, playful, and happy to be in a tango hug with you, then you feel exactly the same.

That’s why we leave the dance floor with a smile.

So, there you have it! The reasons why we want to make sure our students can dance in Close Embrace from the very beginning.

We know… it is more challenging.

But the people learning with us are up for a challenge, have high standards, and always committed to improving. Once they master the Close Embrace, they become super elegant, free and creative in their dancing.

So no more dabbling….

Come to the Close side of the Embrace!!

Abrazos,

Pablo & Anne

Are you ready to take your tango to the next level?

TANGO CORE

Improve the quality of your dancing with our online tango course:

5 weeks to find power and elegance in the embrace

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