Ballroom Tango

Ballroom Dance

Ballroom Tango

Ballroom Tango dance

“The Tango is the easiest dance. If you make a mistake and get tangled up, you just Tango on…..” – Al Pacino in “The Scent of a Woman” Tango is one of the most ‘dramatic’ and ‘classy’ dance of all the Ballroom Dances and creates great leaders and followers in Ballroom Dancing due to the use of different timings at different stages. Generally, The Tango is believed to have originated in Argentina and especially Buenos Aires in the early years of the 20th century. But now, Tango exists in two forms, the “Argentine Tango” and the “Modern Ballroom Tango”. At Ballatino Dance Studios, we teach you the Modern Ballroom Tango. The Ballroom Tango is unique as compared to other Ballroom Dances since Tango is not a dance with a flow of body movement. The power and impetus here come more from the legs rather than from the body swing and there is no rise and fall or lilt but it is danced flat and into the floor with forward steps taken, as in walking, on the heel first. This actually makes it easier to learn for first-time dancers. It should have a sultry feeling that some dancers lose if they become too aggressive. Three basic characteristics of Tango are:

The hold in Tango is much more compact
The feet are picked up and placed into position rather than skimming the floor.
The pattern of walking steps follow a slight curve to the left so that when the man steps forward with his left foot, the step is taken slightly across the body.

Tango is mainly characterized with its sharp staccato movement and dramatic pauses. The various Sharp turns, dips, head snaps, twisting movements, lunges, quick steps and dramatic movements punctuate this dance and make everyone feel like a stylish dancer.

Music Pattern

Tango music is normally written in 4/4 and is commonly counted in sets of 8 beats. It also commonly sounds like marches. Tango music is like a story. It contains paragraphs, sentences and the period at the end of the sentence is the “Tango close”.