Tango in the Desert | Bending a truer knee

1 ~ NAVIGATIONS: how a straight, standing leg is hindering us. (Observations & Course Bearings from June 2-8, 2024)

What fascinates me most about social Argentine tango is that there is no body size nor age nor gender nor anything I can see, in my experience and travels, that makes a good dancer. So what does make a good dancer? In my opinion it is someone who cares about the whole more than themselves. They care about connecting with the entire social ronda (the social gathering/the dance floor) as much as collaborating with their partners. It is the heart and the soul of the person, their willingness and ability to seek connection, which creates harmony. I am unimpressed by fancy moves and loud movements. I am only impressed by relaxed humans adapting to time and space, harmonizing quietly with everyone and everything around them… to the music. This to me is tango and the best milongas to dance in you feel like you are one harmonious flow with everyone in la ronda¹.

The word “tango” is rooted in several African words. One of my favorite etymological theories I read a while back is it meaning “a collection of harmonizing instruments” of which dancers, I believe, are also instruments of music. I am unable to find this reference to cite² it properly today. We will definitely explore the etymology of words in the future!

Some of the best and most memorable dancers I’ve met along this 19 year journey have ranged in age from 20s to mid-80s. They have been over 6ft tall (190cm) and also 4ft 9inches tall (145cm). They have been full-bodied and they have been thin. They have embodied female energy and male energy in natural ways without limiting themselves to a physical gender, as well.

There is no physical formula in tango. Only energetic.

I would love to see everyone age well into this art form, be strengthened physically and emotionally by this social outlet, this release from day-to-day stress. The goal of Tango in the Desert is to share healthier ways of moving through life and this dance.

To do so we need to begin at the very center of it all: a relaxed & ready body.

The “coffee grinding” leg

We need to trust the sole of the foot of

the leg that is grounding (or, “coffee grinding³”) us to the earth, aka the floor. It is the only sole that can tell the truth of where we are in that moment and where we can go: forward, backward or sideways… the four cardinal directions⁴, but never on a diagonal⁵ without a pivot. Only the leg that is connected to the ground with 60% of our weight should be active. The concept of 60/40⁶ we’ll dive into more in the following weeks, and in the footnotes, but it stems from all other martial arts, boxing and agile sports.   I believe tango is more art than dance.

This may sound overwhelming, but trust me it is quite attainable, fun and a whole lot easier to understand social tango movements through this tried & true method of connecting with the ground beneath us.

The wrong knees were bent | an OBSERVATION

I have been aware of this issue of the wrong leg being active for many years; however, the root of the matter came starkly into focus while dancing in and observing the June 2nd Sunday evening Old Town Albuquerque gazebo milonga. Almost every dancer was bending the wrong knee. The standing legs were the ones that were straight and rigid. It should be the reverse and for good reason because it is the leg that is active and the one that moves us. When I was dancing that evening, when inviting a musical change of weight which is nice when dancing in small spaces, my partners were making abrupt side steps because their standing legs were locked, tense and/or too straight past a point of being able to be active. There is also an issue with many people chasing their “free⁷” foot, which will definitely be in future articles… we must liberate our free legs (see 60/40 footnote, too)!

In Argentina it is more common to see dancers moving with the active leg using the floor. There is more subtlety transferred in the embrace, more relaxed movements and subtle changes of weight. I’d love to see this infuse more deeply in the Northern Americas.

Tango thrives in subtlety, much like engaging conversations.

The next day during a private lesson with a new student we set to work on this concept making sure it was the active standing leg that was absorbing our weight without the other knee (the free knee) being too actively bent, as well, which is a whole other problem in the realm of Futuring⁸. She made a remark that was quite enlightening: 

“Well, when I am standing my leg is always locked… don’t you stand like this?” 

It was the perfect sentence & moment to bring clarity to the issue.  

“Yes, but we are not standing, we are dancing…. moving, always, in tango… especially in the pauses… but that is a really good point!” I replied. We then set to work on untangling the knees so that one is passive (the free leg) and one is active (the grounding leg).

“This will be a paradigm shift!” She had the right attitude with a light-hearted laugh at the challenge.

Why do we stand with locked knees? 

It will be a challenge, but if you think on it there is nothing healthy about standing with locked knees. From that moment in the private lesson I thought over what words would better deliver this concept to help keep dancers actively in the present.

The power of words: “The Active Grounding Leg”

This is the new phrase we use in the studio... more often it comes out as “the active coffee grinding leg” which helps the situation. I love coffee and I love natural movements and the two are quite infused in social tango, at least how I experienced it in Buenos Aires.

In the next post (~2) we’ll share more about our finds as we gather our COURSE BEARINGS to navigate these weekly OBSERVATIONS. We’ll dive into more on how the phrase “standing leg” has hindered connections and movement, and what we have been working on at the studio to find a new path as we continue to decipher ourselves, understand others and navigate this art of a dance. 

Video Accompaniments: there will be a couple of videos to see what we are talking about above. They’re not instructional videos of “how to dance tango,” but rather videos sharing how I practice tango and what movements work more logically for me today that didn’t in the past. Hopefully they’ll be available later today. Or, come experience what we are doing at Puerta al Tango some day soon!

FOOTNOTES! Please check out the Footnotes below this section, if you haven’t already, for more insight into the simplistic complexity of social Argentine tango!

1. Ronda | La Ronda - translate as “the round” and in Argentine Tango it is referring to the line of dance which for at least the outer to lanes they will always flow counter-clockwise. Generally, in this century, the 3rd lane will also flow counter-clockwise. Enrique Santos Discépolo, a tango poet and lyricist, has been quoted ascribing this directional flow as:

2. Citing Etymology - At a later date I look forward to more properly and preparedly exploring the etymology of some of the most important words in Tango: tango, tanda, milonga. All three are rooted in African words from several nations and then blended with European, Arabic, and undoubtedly First People words in the melting pot that was Argentina in the mid-to-late 1800s. The word “tango” is rooted in several African words blended with Portuguese and other influences after reaching the River Plate (Río de la Plata) Basin of Argentina and Uruguay. One of my favorite etymological references I recall reading, but am at a loss to find the reference to cite properly, was that it had meaning along the lines of “harmonizing instruments” of which a dancer can always be an instrument especially in ceremonial dances like candombe, which is referred to and infused into Argentine Tango (“Yira Yira” being one song in particular) and is an African dance more commonly found in regions of Brasil. This is all massively fascinating and important to me. “Tango is Also Afro” is a concise article by Unesco. I look forward to diving in deeper on this subject.

3. “Coffee grinding leg…” - in classes I am apparently incapable of saying “active grounding leg” and seem only capable of saying “the active grinding leg” which turned in the “active coffee grinding leg”. Why not… most of us love the smell of freshly ground coffee… so the shifting of weight… el cambio de peso… should be equally aromatic and pleasing.

4. Cardinal Directions - I have heard master-level teachers of social Argentine Tango agree that there are only 3 steps in tango: forwards, backwards and side (lateral). Maria Olivera adds in the pivot as the 4th, which I love and so glad I heard her say this when she was with us this past March of 2024. I’d like to add a 5th: el cambio de peso (the shifting of weight). Cardinal Directions we’ll go more in depth in a future article. I became more fascinated with navigation in tango after reading how the First Nations people of Australia had no word for left or right. They would always refer to a navigational direction, a bearing direction in order to always know where they were at all times. That was mind-blowing and massively impressive. I started to put that into practice with navigating las Rondas (the rounds) / las pistas (the dance floors). I digress. North would be forwards. East and West lateral movements (bien lateral!) South would be backwards, and try never to take more than a 1/2 step backwards in the line-of-dance!!

To travel by NW, SW, SE, NE and the clicks in between, we use the pivot until our sternum-to-belly button (which I use as my compass needle) faces that desired direction and then I walk truly forwards (legs like scissors) or backwards or cleanly in a lateral fashion.

5. Diagonals - I firmly believe and know there are never any diagonal steps in tango, meaning one leg (thighs) drift apart as one foot lands on a diagonal away from the other thigh into an almost boxer’s stance. We should always be walking en roce with inner thighs passing (brushing) past each other when we walk. The only exception is on precise lateral steps. Imagine a pair of liquid scissors (not metal because we don’t wish to walk stiffly). Whenever we are walking forwards or backwards we need our upper legs (not feet!) to pass back through center like a pair of scissors. This is what I mean about “there are no diagonal steps in tango.” We most certainly can travel on diagonals as far as navigation (NW, SW, SE, NE, etc); however, the legs still walk cleanly forwards or backwards like that pair of scissors! We arrive at this navigation by pivoting and then walking straight. To send a lateral movement, the scissors need to be in the closed position and then imagine that only in this alignment (at center) we may precisely, cleanly and clearly for our partner invite side steps (pasos laterales).

6. 60/40 - Boxers, and footballers, have been noted to be excellent tango dancers. In listening to all of the Practimilonguero interviews that Monica Paz thankfully archived a few decades ago, several of the milongueros mention boxing. The concept of 60/40 stems from keeping grounded, connected to the floor and nimble at all times. If one foot comes off the floor (excluding traveling movements) we go flat-footed and are most likely going to get knocked out or off balance. 60% of our weight is through the ball of the foot that will deliver the power and drive the relaxed motion. Same with tango. Our active grounding leg with 60% of our weight is delivering all of the energy through the floor and this motion through the floor is what moves our bodies. We need 40% in the “free” leg/sole/ball of foot to be instantly ready to receive our weight in a calm, cool and gathered fashion. If we hold our free leg we only cause negative tension and this locks up our body without any benefit, whatsoever. If we allow 40% to just “hang loose” from the ball socket in the pelvis and rest on the ground (off-duty, at rest, relaxed and ready… like the boxer in the corner between rounds) then we will have all the capability to receive, feel, transmit el cambio de peso (the/a change of weight) which is far more important than traveling steps.

7. “Free” leg/foot - Since January 12, 2023 in classes we have been talking about the standing leg being the only one that drives movement, never the “free” leg.  We are constantly fighting to liberate this “free” leg in classes. It’s become a point of comic relief as we talk of the free leg as being that idiot friend we all have who gives us well-intentioned but terrible advice all the time. The “free” foot is a fool and we are better not following its lead… think of the free leg as an unruly dog tugging excitedly and haphazardly at the leash chasing any and all smells. That is the free leg when it comes to taking us places. I am really proud and encouraged of the folk putting in the good work to free their “free” leg, it’s not easy at first! 

8. Futuring - A term I use any time a dancer is anticipating, finishing another dancer’s thought for them, or more importantly when the “free leg” is to active. Futuring is most commonly found with the “free” knee being bent ahead of the active grounding leg. If you are in a pause (a gather) and you feel tense and slightly tottering on your axis, I bet you the knee of your free leg is bent way too much and is in front of the active grounding leg’s knee. This is futuring, compromising your axis & equilibrium. Why? Because you are actively controlling that “free leg” and holding it in that position. If it was fully free, with 40% of our passive/inactive weight, that knee could not be bent that much and in front of our active knee. By freeing that knee, and not futuring, you will find yourself: taller, more relaxed with a freer neck and back, your IT bands will release tension, your hips will open more at the ready AND you’ll be able to move more quickly and adeptly in any direction PLUS be able to pivot more quickly and safely and accurately. By staying relaxed and present… all the doors will remain open.