“I prefer to teach techniques and resources, rather than set figures, and encourage students to discover their own tango vocabulary.”

In my teaching, I emphasise connection, and groundedness, and natural, relaxed, fluid movements. I prefer to teach techniques and resources, rather than set figures, and encourage students to discover their own tango vocabulary. I begin by teaching walking, showing techniques for forward, backward and sideways walking, then asking them to lead and follow, without an embrace at first and later in embrace. I then work on the five different ways of walking: in parallel towards the woman, outside or inside, in cross system outside or inside the woman and how to lead cross, as well as a simple floreo step to allow leaders to change direction and negotiate corners easily. I then go on to more complex elements such as ochos, giros and sacadas, showing how all the more complex movements function as developments of the simpler ones and asking students to improvise by exploring the possibilities of movement which arise in each spatial relationship of the couple's bodies. I advocate a flexible, mobile embrace as close as possible to a real-life embrace, rather than a stiff, prescribed set arm position and a posture and walk as natural and unaffected as possible. I focus on the quality of each dancer's movement and the maintenance of connection within the couple at all times.

 

From the beginning, I also emphasise musicality, getting students to recognise how to step on the beat, in double time and in half time and to hear where musical phrases begin and end. I also work on differentiating the quality of movement and choice of steps according to the type of music - more rhythmic, more staccato, more legato - and the differences between individual phrases within a tango. I encourage students to think of dance as a way of physically expressing what they hear in the music and to find ways of communicating their perception of the rhythm, mode and tone of the music to their partner.