of wine and dedicate our whole Saturday night to producing the look of the tango.
The wine helped to release any inhibitions we had. When we would make a mistake we
would laugh it off, and make jokes how neither of us could ever be professional dancers
My husband was more self-assured. When he was ready to move, his body weight solid
on the ground with his weight mostly on the balls of his feet, his overall silhouette was
projecting upwards with his upper torso relaxed and firmly standing tall. His right arm
firm surrounding my torso. He was certain of where he stood and where he was going.
His head was held high, he was counting the timing out loud, we were smiling and
laughing and actually enjoying the dance. When he did the basic eight his knees were
bent, he seemed to stride effortlessly across our apartment. When we did the “El corte”
move he would flip me lower down then twist my body back to the right. This move made
me laugh because it was spontaneous and I had no idea he was going to do it. He was
confident in a way that inspired my confidence and trust in him. Besides the dozens of
times we stepped on each others toes and missed beats we were essentially dancing in
unity and coherence for the first time because we both wanted to be there as participants
in that activity at that time. So evidently as the famous song says it really does “Take two
to Tango”. What makes the tango social? It’s the interaction of the participants doing the
activity.
Collaborative Communication
The problem of producing social order in the tango is the instructions have no
indication of how your body should change whilst moving your feet to the particular
timing and figures connected to one another and more importantly
how the partners communicate their intentions when no words are spoken. On the DVDs
the two dancers seemed to navigate the basic step along with its dozen variations
flawlessly, it seemed so easy. The tango is not an activity of mind reading or a
choreographed set piece, but the dance is a social object. Each variation from the basic
step comes as a lead from the man, followed by the woman. This communication was one
of the most difficult aspects of learning the tango. How was my husband as the leader
supposed to communicate to me what his intention was?. Missed beats and stepping on
toes led to frustration which led to discussions and reasoning on how we can
communicate our moves more effectively. My husband suggested using subtle signals
with his hands eyes and body. These were not random or spontaneous but were created
as a means to communicate with coherence what was next without having to speak. For
example, when we were commencing the dance he would slightly nod his head to let me
know that this was the beat to start on. I knew what beat to start on, but this
nod of the head gave me the reassurance that we were both on the same page. When we
came in to do the basic corte he would we would need to change direction he would
apply some pressure on the small of my back either on the right or left side depending on
which direction we would be going. These subtle signs from the leader to the follower are
imperative to the flow of the tango, but most texts concentrated on the footwork and
structural aspects of the dance.
The Problematic Ocho & Coordinated Balance:
Being attuned to what your partner is doing is essential in learning the tango. Mead’s
description of taking the role of the other initially gives the impression that he is
referring to role behavior. Indeed, he sometimes uses the phrase in that way: in order to
coordinate one’s actions with another, like in dancing the tango, one needs to learn not
only one’s own role, but also the role enactment of one’s partner (lecture). This is evident
when it comes to the fundamentals of balance in the tango. I was continually looking
down at my feet, concentrating on the timing and visualizing where my feet were going to
go next and consequently lost my balance against my husband. My right foot flied
immediately behind me pulling my husband with me. When I lost my balance my husband
tried moving to the left or right and adjusting his own body position to try to rebalance
me while pulling my arms in towards him. Retaining balance and equilibrium was the
most challenging when learning the ocho(fiqure of eight).The role of the follower is to
pivot and turn continuously on the balls of my toes without loosing my balance.
The instructions didn’t tell us how to position each of your bodies effectively as not to
loose your balance & equilibrium or how much weight to put on your toes as to not throw
off your partner’s balance. All of these problematic situations we as partners had to
work out ourselves through natural reasoning. We adjusted our bodies to help us with the
balance. I found if I fixated on looking at the one spot whilst pivoting and turning it
helped to maintain our balance. Not being a professionally trained ballerina, and
not used to wearing heels for dancing, I found it difficult to retain foot or toe pressure. I
naturally organized the activity of balancing on the balls of my feet, by adjusting the
range of pressure exerted when doing the pivot. I leant my lower foot down a little while
still putting pressure on my toes but placed my entire body weight on to the support leg at
the same time lifting my ribcage. This way I was able to balance and pivot more
successfully and by lifting my ribcage up I achieved the look of being on my toes without
the whole weight of my body being on my toes.
Sense of characterization:
Dancing the tango is a social object. People do things everyday that makes their actions
practically recognizable. What makes the tango, identifiably as the tango? Whenever
my husband was ready to start the dance it was practically recognizable as he would
stand facing me with his arms ready. This observable action and the positioning of his
body and his demeanor is assumption of how the dance should begin. We make the first
step so we can make the second step and do a sequence. The lived work of the tango is
full of assumptions. It’s assumed that the man is the lead and the woman takes the role of
follower .It’s assumed that we commence the dance in a closed positions facing each
other. Throughout the organization of the activity, I made assumptions that my husband
knew what foot I was on which led us to into a bit of a tango tangle. Sometimes I as the
follower adjusted my own steps to match the lead. This is where the power of
improvisation comes in handy. To be able to do so, we must be able to have the elements
and the knowledge to identify familiar body positions so we can invent on the spur of the
moment a way to move to another position without missing a beat. These orderliness of
these observable actions were produced by me & my husband, the participants in the
activity while producing the look of the tango. Dancing the tango is a social activity – we
may think we are in control, but how we move is determined by the pace and the
direction of the situation in progress.
Conclusion
Dancing the tango is, in a sense, communicating to reach the goal of producing the look
of the tango by the individuals participating in the activity. The tango cannot work when
one partner has to broadcast his moves to the other or when one partner does not want to
do the dance. Society, like the tango, requires that sense of unconscious collaborative
communication. Learning to interact with courtesy and manners, like learning to lead
and to follow, allows society to dance with unconscious coordination toward the
betterment of all of its members. Analyzing the lived work of the tango we made a few
discoveries about how we as individuals interact with each other in the production of this
activity. For us as a couple learning the tango was a great experience, we achieved
something together that we probably would of never attempted to do on our own. The
time and effort it took to learn the dance was well worth the pleasure we later received.
References
DVD – “Let’s Dance” Ballroom Dancing for Beginners
DVD – “Tango with Frederico” the Argentine Style Tango 2003
Paul Pellicoro on Tango – The Definite Guide to Argentine Tango
Barricade Books Inc, Fort Lee NJ 07024 2002
Dow ,Allen & Michaelson, Mike The Official Guide To Latin Dancing Domus Books , Northbrook Illinois 60062
Dow ,Allen & Michaelson, Mike -The Official Guide to Ballroom Dancing –
Chartwell Books Secaucus CRNJ 1980
Allen Jeff The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Ballroom Dancing – By Jeff Allen Alpha Publishing
Music CD used to dance with came with the book.
Quickstart to Tango by Jeff Allen QQS Publishing Cranston, RI
