About 2 weeks ago I went to Dallas for back-to-back milongas. Nice to dance with different people.
A different environment can facilitate thoughts. While I was there, I was thinking what makes Argentine Tango dancers look good, and how we can break down the factors so that we can teach it if we want to.
Of course, people who do not want to learn are unteachable. And, although I do a lot of dance diagnostics while I dance and watch, I usually do not give unsolicited advice (saves a lot of trouble).
That said, here is a thought on the factors that make Argentine Tango dancers look good.
Partner dances including Argentine Tango come with two layers; (1) what an individual dancer can do with his/her body's ability and techniques, and (2) how he/she interacts to create a good partner dance as a couple (i.e., partner skills).
I'll start from the individual aspect.
For example, critical factors Ballet students should develop are turnout, alignment, and extension. With the concepts, they build their body.
For Argentine Tango dancers, important factors that you can work on your presentation of your body are (i) Axis (plural Axes), (ii) Line(s), (iii) alignment(s), and (iv) extension.
Now, you can check these four factors for your own presentation.
(i) Are your axes straight and stable, so you can use for pivoting gracefully?
(ii) Are your lines straight and balanced?
(iii) Are your lines well-aligned?
(iv) Are your axis and lines well-extended when you move?
In addition, there are aesthetically-pleasing ways of dancing Tango. Think the "sandwich and walk over" move. The move is done in a particular sequence with a particular stylized body usage.
Learning the particulars is what I call "tea ceremony approach". The knowledge makes a huge difference in the dance appearance.
When I was at the afternoon milonga in Dallas, I saw two followers doing the "tea ceremony", out of 20 followers. Although these two were not exactly advanced dancers, they naturally stood out by showing "they know what they are doing".
There are "veteran beginner" dancers whose dances do not look trained, even after many years of dancing. The main causes are the lack of (a) body usage (for Tango, demonstrate skillful uses of axes, lines, alignments and extension) and (b) demonstration of knowledge.
Judging from watching many dancers, few people want to work on these "basics". Most want to "improve" by accumulating patterns. From the standpoint of an instructor, it is an easy way to have classes with happy students.
Although patterns are important part of your dance knowledge, if you want to stand out, you need to work on the "basics".
I am kind of a fundamentalist about that.
[Japanese tea ceremony "The hostess fills the bowl with green tea powder and then pours hot water into it and stirs with a bamboo whisk." (Wikipedia image)]
