Tango of Zero
8th February 2009
(More Next Steps articles.)
"It can be a lot, it can be a little, it can be nothing, it can be everything. What it does determines what it is" ~ Bob Orlando
Compartments
It's tempting to compartmentalize tango. This is a boleo. This is a gancho. It's like Pokemon, "Gotta catch 'em all!". And it's a useful way to learn and practice the principles.
But beyond that tango, starts to merge.
Most basic classes teach the following
- Basic 8
- Cross
- Ochos
- Giro
And we learn them and then go on to other things.
Breaking it down
But what is a giro? Look closely and you can see that it contains the possibilities for all the other tango "moves". What happens if you change the relative positions? What if you add pauses, blocks? Different speeds, heights? It's easy to think of a giro as going round in a circle.
Look closely at sacadas, ganchos, boleos, poses and you'll see they have their basis in the giro
So I went a step further, what are the above made up of?
At first I though it was steps and pivots. But then I realised there are no perfectly straight lines in tango. Everything is curved. Everything you lead is basically a curved step. All that changes is the arc. It might be heading off to the horizon like a normal step, it might be infinitely small in a pivot. Or somewhere in-between.
But ultimately you're just leading one thing.
Sparklers
It reminds me of sparklers.
The illusion of "lines" in the picture come about through motion, and if you look closely you'll see they're all curves. Also you'll notice there aren't any breaks, it's one continuous line of motion. What about pauses? Well there aren't really pauses in tango per se. Something is always moving, even if it just a foot making adornments - again with the circles, curved lines. There aren't any moves in tango. A tango dance is just a single curving line of motion.
But exactly what kind of motion you do is up to you. Obviously there are things that work and ways to do them. But instead of doing a boleo, you can just interrupt / change direction. Once you pass a certain point of understanding you start viewing dancing tango from the opposite direction. No longer "What it is determines what it does", but now "What it does determines what it is".
- Christopher O'Shea, 8th February 2009