Have you ever wondered why Argentinian people dance tango so well? And quickly! After just a few classes, dancing with them feels like heaven? And when you ask, they casually tell you that “No, noone dances in their family”?
Well, I’ll tell you their little secret…
It has nothing to do with blood, instinct or God-given-musicality, oh no….
They get it straight away…. simply because they have the vocabulary.
The reason why they know what a tango embrace should feel like is because they have the right word for it: Abrazo. They do not think of it as ‘The Tango Embrace’, a sacred ‘dance posture’ that has to treated with care and caution. No. They know that Abrazo simply means ‘hug’, and and so they embrace with their heart, their personality, and a bit of playfulness.
To understand tango, you’ll have to go back to the root of it. All over the world, we use translations of Argentinian words: embrace, leader/follower, the walk…. These have contributed to the creation of our tango community, which is great. But they often don’t convey the true meanings of the Argentinian words! And we end up building a tango with less heart, less warmth, and less power than what is was created to be.
So we strongly invite you to get curious and always ask for exact translations from your teachers in classes.
You’ll see, from the ocho to the abrazo to the sandwichito, and more…. all these complicated dance steps will become images that make dancing fun and simple…
Happy dancing!
Anne
