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Body Movement – Part II: The Upper Body

A “yummy embrace” is practically synonymous with a desirable tango dancer. But when it comes to understanding how the embrace works, we are at a loss for words. Maybe this is because of the words we use. We tell dancers to “connect with your chest,” “relax your shoulders,” “disassociate,” and all manner of other cues, often without them having a clear idea of what these cues mean. A lack of clarity in communication leads to a lack of clarity in understanding, and the embrace stays a mystery. Let’s see if we can shine some light on the topic in the next few pages.

The upper body has a lot going on, and there is no way to cover it all in a few pages. Luckily, we are allowed some simplifications, and a little knowledge goes a long way for our purposes. The upper body can be broken into three components: the spine, the shoulder complex, and the arm. The spine includes the lower back (lumbar), upper back (thoracic), and the neck (cervical).[1] Because the ribs and breastbone (sternum) move with the spine, they can be thought of as part of the upper back. The shoulder complex consists of the shoulder blade (scapula) and collar bone (clavicle), which form the shoulder joint. The upper arm (humerus) and lower arm are joined by the elbow, and the two bones of the lower arm (ulna and radius) form the wrist.

The spine can bend forward (flexion), backwards (extension), sideways (lateral flexion), and can rotate. Social tango primarily utilizes spinal rotation, though corrections often are for other spinal movements. For example, the feedback to “stand up straight”, often means you currently have too much flexion in the upper back.[2] The neck can rotate more than 80 degrees, and a flexible upper back can rotate around 30 to 40 degrees as well. The lower back is not really designed for rotation, and too much rotation in the lower back can throw off our posture and lead to lower back pain. When rotating with the spine, we want to find the movement in our upper back and in our neck, not in the lower back. A rule that applies to spinal movement in general is to strive for more movement in the upper back and more support in the lower back.

How to Rotate

Tango dancers are told to “lead with your chest,” and “keep your chest facing your partner.” But the breastbone is limited in how much it can rotate. You cannot reach a position of hips perpendicular to your partner’s with spinal rotation alone, much less the rotation required for movements such as back sacadas. While some dancers solve this problem by simply forgoing movements that require much

rotation, a fuller understanding of body mechanics allows us to both stay connected to our partner and have freedom of movement. 

Our shoulder blades can raise and lower (elevate and depress), can spread apart and pinch together (abduct and adduct), and can rotate outwards and inwards. Try each of these movements to get acquainted with how your shoulder blades move (tip: scapular rotation occurs whenever you raise your arm overhead).

Sliding our shoulder blades on our back changes the position of our shoulder, which in turn changes the position of our embrace. We can rotate our embrace by spreading one shoulder blade and pinching the other. To create more rotation, use your shoulder blades. Control of your shoulder blades gives you both freedom of movement and quality of connection.

Maintaining contact with your partner does not mean you need to be breastbone to breastbone. Our bodies are three dimensional, and we can connect with the sides of our body just as well as the front. In fact, the contact point should slide for many movements and indicates properly working shoulder blade mechanics. Also, while a close embrace is beautiful, don’t confuse contact with connection.[3] Open up a little if need be. You can be connected in an open embrace and can be chest to chest but totally disconnected from your partner.

We can move the arm within the shoulder joint and can move the whole shoulder, and we use both at different moments in the dance. Phrases such as “disassociate” can be useful shorthand once we understand the correct mechanics but are insufficient for describing the complex relation between spine, shoulder, and arm. Understanding when to create space by rotating the spine, by moving the shoulder blade, and by moving the arm in the shoulder joint goes a long way to achieving the nice embrace we are all seeking.

Embrace Mechanics

The arm can swing forwards (flexion), backwards (extension), sideways (abduction), and across our body (adduction). It can also rotate in the shoulder joint (internal and external rotation). Move your arms out to the side and bend the elbow so that the palm is facing the floor and the elbow and hand are both parallel to the floor. External rotation causes your hands to be higher than your elbows (so your arms and head make a W position), and internal rotation causes your hands to be lower than your elbows. The elbow can bend (flex) and straighten (extend), and the wrist can flex, extend, and bend sideways (radial and ulnar deviation). The wrist can also rotate with the thumbs turning inwards (pronation) and outwards (supination. Remember, the way you rotate your wrist when eating soup is soup-ination 😉 ). 

There is a list of 5 things to consider when positioning the arm: (1) side extension, (2) forward extension, (3) elbow bend, (4) shoulder rotation, (5) wrist rotation.

As seen in the photo of Magdalena and German,[4] the following joint positions constitute the mechanics of the open side of the embrace.

1. Extend arm sideways (abduct)

2. Bend elbow

3. Externally rotate arm

4. Rotate wrist

We do not need forward extension in the arm of the open side of the embrace, though some dancers may find a bit of forward extension more comfortable.

For the closed side of the embrace, the leader extends the arm forwards, bends the elbow, and rotates the wrist to face the partner’s back. It is also common to rotate slightly internally, so that the hand is either parallel to the elbow or slightly below the elbow. The arm can be directly forwards (elbow in same line as shoulder) or can be a bit to the side (elbow outside of shoulder) depending on the embrace and the needs of the movement.[5]  

The closed side of the embrace for the follower can be a bit more complicated because the follower’s arm is on top of the leader’s, so the specific joint mechanics will depend on the relative heights of the partner. The followers embrace can also change depending on close embrace versus open embrace. Unfortunately, I am not a sufficiently knowledgeable follower to know all the variations, but the five choices of amount of side extension, forward extension, elbow bend, shoulder rotation, and wrist rotation still apply.

Troubleshooting

The embrace can be particularly challenging to troubleshoot. Here are a few tips to help.

Start low and work upwards, start inwards and work out. The spine affects our shoulder blade, our shoulder blade affects our arm, our arm affects our hand, and our hand affects our partner. If we have a slouched posture and bad shoulder position, then putting the arm in the proper position relative to our body will feel incorrect relative to our partner. First start with the joints lower and towards our midline, then work upwards and outwards.

One joint at a time. Trying to fix too much at once will lead you to tense up. Instead, gain control and understanding of one joint. Once you have found control and found the correct position, then you can move on to the next joint.

Rotate the shoulder blades around, not up. A common embrace mistake is to elevate the shoulder blade, while another common mistake is to not let it slide around our back. We want movement, just movement in the way we want.

Externally rotate the open side arm. If your arm comes forwards and your partner corrects you by moving your arm back, it is very likely that you forgot to externally rotate. Try moving your arm back to the same position, but with external rotation, and see if it feels better to your partner.

[1] While the sacrum and coccyx are part of the anatomical spine, from the dance perspective it is best to include them with the pelvis.

[2] Avoid over-extending the lower back in an attempt to “stand up straight”. A good cue is that if the bottom of the ribcage is opening, then you have over-extended the lower back.  

[3] This advice, passed along to me at a workshop, has always stuck with me, though I unfortunately cannot remember who the instructor was and so cannot give proper credit.

[4] Image adapted from https://www.genovatoday.it/eventi/workshop-lezioni-show-tango.html

[5] The arm can also come across the body (adduct) when your partner is on the left side of your body.

By sericson0, ago

Body Movement – Part I

Our body is our instrument, and our movements its song. Musicians have the language of notes and scales, but what language should we use as dancers? Improvement requires a target to aim for and a precise description of what we are trying to do. The ways to describe tango technique are as varied as the dancers themselves. “Be light but grounded,” “engage your core,” “use your lats,” “soften your knees,” and “just relax” are all common cues given to tangueros. All cues can be useful, but the tango student is inundated with a barrage of differing and sometimes conflicting feedback. We need a clear framework to understand and describe movements.

I have found it transformational in my understanding and teaching to analyze movement by what the joints of the body are doing. Using joints as the basis of analysis offers several benefits. First, it is concise. While there are hundreds of muscles, there are only a few key joints. Second, it is universal. The understanding of “be light but grounded” varies by person, but “point your foot” always describes the same movement. Finally, joint movements are externally visible. We may not know what a performer is thinking or feeling, but we can see their joints move. This essay provides a framework for the lower body and how it moves, while a follow-on essay describes the upper body.

I make several simplifications, such as omitting some joints and defaulting to layman’s terms instead of using technical terms (I include the technical terms in parentheses for those interested). I also use dance terminology, which has some differences from anatomical terminology.[1] At the same time, I will do my best to provide information that is clear, concise, and correct.

A joint is where two bones connect. There are four joints in the lower body for us tango dancers to consider: the metatarsophalangeal (MTP) joint connects the toes and foot, the ankle connects the foot and lower leg (tibia and fibula), the knee connects the lower leg and upper leg (femur), and the hip connects the upper leg and and pelvis. A Free leg means it is not weight bearing and a standing leg means is bearing weight. We describe movement at the ankle or MTP joint by the bone directly below it, so pointing the foot is movement at the ankle joint and flexing the toes is movement at the MTP joint.

The toes point and flex; the foot points, flexes, sickles (inverts), and bevels (everts); the knee bends (flexes) and straightens (extends); and the hip can flex, extend, turn in (internally rotate), turn out (externally rotate), and can project the leg side (abduction) and cross the leg (adduction). This list contains the lower body movements we need to know as tango dancers, and the table below shows each movement and gives its technical term in parentheses.

*Footnotes (pun intended). Beveling the foot is also referred to as winging. Neutral toes are when the toes continue the line from the ankle to the MTP. A neutral foot is when the second toe is in line with the shin. A neutral hip (for turn out) is when the knee and the pelvis face the same direction.

The value of this framework comes from being able to identify and describe movements, so it is worth taking some time to solidify your understanding. I suggest you try the following exercises:

  1. Isolate each of the joint movements in your own body. I.e., move one joint at a time.
  2. Slow down[2] and watch https://youtu.be/ujs4hFT2Kz0?t=23 from 23-40 seconds. Pick one dancer and describe their sequence of joint movements in as much detail as possible.

Applications to Tango

Now that we have developed a common framework of communication, we can discuss technical points with more clarity.

In tango, a beveled free foot is often considered desirable, and sickling is something to avoid. For stability, and to avoid an ankle injury, we keep the ankle of the standing leg neutral. Hence, a simple rule to follow for prettier tango feet is to bevel the free foot and maintain a neutral standing foot.

We get thrown off balance when the free hip hikes up, which can occur when our body tries to make room for the free leg to pass underneath us. If you are struggling with balance on a move, a simple cue is to flex the free hip and knee to fold your leg underneath yourself. This allows space for your leg to collect while maintaining a level pelvis, leading to better balance.

Working on walking backwards? Try the cues of triple extension and triple flexion. On the back projection, extend your free hip, knee, and foot (triple extension) to create a nice line and space for your partner. Then, on the transfer of weight, flex your hip, knee, and foot (triple flexion) to control the landing.

Turning in or out at the standing hip causes us to lose stability[3], whereas turning in or out in the free hip allows for freedom of movement. A simple rule that is helpful for more complex movements such as gonchos is: stability in the standing hip, mobility in the free hip.

Having control over our movements is critical to effectively using our instrument. Of course, knowing is not the same as doing, and we must practice to learn new concepts. But a clear and precise language leads to clear and precise understanding. It gives us a clear target to aim for.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________

  1. Anatomical terminology describes movements based on moving towards and away from the fetal position. Dance terminology instead uses words that attempt to convey an image of the desired movement. For example, pointing toes in dance actually refers to toe flexion in anatomical terms. ↑
  2. You can slow a YouTube video by clicking the gear icon in the lower-right corner and selecting playback speed. ↑
  3. Having some turn out at the standing hip can be desirable, we just don’t want to change the hip position after we shift weight onto the leg (we want to maintain whatever turnout we start with). ↑
By sericson0, ago

Prepare your Tango Kitchen

The recipe for a good meal: (1) shop for ingredients, (2) cook the food, (3) eat and enjoy. The process is not complicated, but each step must be followed. Shopping ensures you have the ingredients for a flavorful meal. Skip shopping and your meal will be bland and incomplete. Cooking transforms the raw ingredients into actual food. Skip cooking and your fresh ingredients inevitably spoil. Eating gives the whole process pleasure and meaning. Skip eating and you starve.

The same process of shop, cook, eat produces progress in tango. Shopping is where you gather information; where you obtain the recipes and ingredients to grow as a dancer. Classes, workshops, and private lessons, studying tango videos, analyzing tango music, and learning from partners and colleagues all go into the shop category. Cooking is where you prepare yourself and your dance. Solo practice, partner practice, group practice, and conditioning[1] go into the cook category. Eating is where we get to appreciate and enjoy being a dancer. Milongas, house parties, tango marathons and  festivals, watching performances or performing yourself, and tango concerts all go into the eat category.

A healthy balance between time spent shopping, cooking, and eating supports joy and progress in tango.[2] An imbalance between these components can lead to the pain and struggle that so many tango dancers experience. While the perfect balance for you depends on your preferences and experience, a near or complete lack of any one of the components will always lead to problems. Take a moment to write your response to the following:

  1. How are you currently feeling about your tango and your tango progress?
  2. How much of your tango time do you spend in the shop category, the cook category, and the eat category? You don’t have to be super accurate, general fractions will do.

If you answered question one negatively (you struggle with your tango progress) then look to question two. There is a good chance that not enough time in one of the categories is at the root of your symptoms. If you answered one positively, then still take note of your time allocation as a sign of a healthy balance (unless one component is missing, in which case this may be a bellwether of future challenges).

Here is another test to diagnose potential imbalances. Think of something you learned in the last month. Maybe a new step, technique, or musical idea. If you struggle to come up with one, then you are probably lacking in the shop category. Are you better at the concept now than when you first learned it? Can you do the step you learned in class better now than at the end of class? If you answer no, then you are likely lacking in the cook category. Some information must be cooked quickly or spoil, while other information needs to ripen and be prepared slowly, but most information needs to be cooked before digested. Finally, when in the last month did you set aside time to just enjoy dancing? If you struggle to remember a time, then you probably are not eating enough.

There are many tango food deserts that struggle to shop for quality, fresh information. Professional dancers often struggle to find time to eat. But what is by far most commonly missing is cooking. Think of what occurs at a festival. We pack class after class until our head explodes. We then feast, dancing the whole night away. But at no point do we stop and go over what we just learned. We don’t talk with our classmates about the moves, we don’t analyze and practice with each other. Maybe we try out what we learned at the milonga, but it often doesn’t work. After a few weeks it is as if we never took the classes to begin with. I believe the lack of cooking is partly due to the current tango culture, partly due to a lack of space, and partly due to economics.

Classes and milongas are social scenes, while practices are often a solitary or partner endeavor. It doesn’t have to be this way, and I would argue that deep friendships result from collaborative practice spaces. But the fact remains that until we create more collaborative practice spaces, then practice comes at the expense of social interactions. A lack of practice space also leads to a lack of practice. You can’t cook without a kitchen. Let us not kid ourselves about most practicas, where often very little practice occurs.[3] A good tango kitchen should be noisy, busy, and have lots of chopping up of movements and sequences to prepare them. If you find yourself at a practica dancing whole tandas without stopping and analyzing, then you are at the dining table, not in the kitchen.  

There is a clear business model for classes and milongas, but not as much for practice spaces. Practice often works best with a smaller number of people than a milonga, and practice requires a different hierarchy structure than classes. In a class, the teacher has the information, and you pay them to give it to you. In a practice, you, your partner, and your fellow colleagues all have information to share so no money is exchanged. There are also many dancers who are not interested in improving. This is understandable, there are many priorities we need to balance in life, and practice is by no means a requirement to be part of the tango community. But this does mean that only a subset of dancers who will show up to the milonga would also show up to a practice space, further reducing the profitability of such a space. The economics dictate that we can rely on professionals to sell us ingredients, and organizers to provide spaces to eat, but it is up to the individual and community to create kitchens to cook in.

Those of us lucky enough to have our partners and our own tango kitchens go away on our own time and practice what we learn. We find the space to transform learning into doing and then can go out and enjoy. We progress faster, but of course we do; we had the space to. This same progress can happen for everyone, we just need to provide the space and intention for it. There is no reason we can’t have more practice and collaboration. There is no reason we can’t create in the community and at the festival a space for all of us to share and practice and improve our dance together. If we put more intention in cooking together, then we will all have better food to enjoy together.

[1] For many sports and arts, conditioning should probably get its own fourth category. I include it here in cooking in part to maintain a cleaner structure, and in part due to tango being primarily a social dance with relatively less physical requirements. While still important, the physical requirements of a high-level social tango dancer are less than say the physical requirements of a high level gymnast, boxer, rock climber, or ballet dancer. If you are interested in the performative side of tango, it may be useful to place a greater emphasis on conditioning to ensure you are preparing your body to accept the movements you want it to do. 

[2] The quality of time spent is of course a critical component, but we will set that aside for the moment.

[3] There are of course exceptions to this statement. If you say “but our practica is different” then it probably is, but that is also probably because the organizer and participants are spending a lot of time and care in ensuring the space is conducive to practice. 

By sericson0, ago

Dial up your Tango Dance: How to Progressively Grow Your Dancing Skills

To get strong, you start with light weights slowly increase to heavier weight. To become a better runner, you progressively increase the speed or distance. To learn a musical instrument, you start with simple scales and songs and progress to more challenging pieces and concepts. In all cases, we learn by progressively increasing difficulty such that the task stays challenging but not too challenging. We build a staircase where each new step is a little bit higher than the next. The same principle applies to learning Tango.

Beginner dancers often feel overwhelmed and lost, and most dancers struggle to integrate moves they learn in class into their dance in the milonga—both symptoms of the difficulty being set too high. At the same time, dancers who have been at it for a few years tend to plateau, reaching what psychology professor Anders Ericsson calls “that level of ‘acceptable’ performance and automaticity [where] the additional years of ‘practice’ don’t lead to improvement.”[1] This stagnation is a symptom of the difficulty being set too low.

The gym has nicely labeled weights that we can add, and we can change variables such as reps, sets, exercises, and recovery time to increase difficulty as we get stronger. But how do we vary the challenge of Tango? What are the variables that we can use to dial up or down the difficulty of the dance?

There are six variables that determine the difficulty of a move, sequence, concept, or really any part of the dance. I’ll call them familiarity, complexity, accuracy, timing, partnering, and navigating. A new movement is more difficult than a familiar movement. A complex pattern is more difficult than a simple pattern. Execution with precision and accuracy is more difficult than ‘just doing the step’. Specific timing and musicality is more difficult than doing a step to the beat or without music. Leading or following a step with a new partner is more difficult than with your regular partner. And finally, navigating a crowded milonga is more difficult than when no one else is around.

Familiarity, complexity, and accuracy are internal variables while timing, partnering, and navigating are external variables.[2] Internal variables are based on our own knowledge and actions—our familiarity with a concept, our choice of movement complexity, and our accuracy as a dancer. External variables depend on the external environment—who asks us to dance, what music is playing, and the amount of space.

Learning depends on being able to progressively vary the difficulty, so learning Tango depends on our ability to vary the difficulty of these six variables. Few if any dancers can accurately execute a new, complex move musically with a new partner in a crowded milonga. Something must give. The challenge is that in the milonga the external variables are not set by us.[3] The milonga dials up the external variables, increasing total difficulty, which often leads to sacrificing the development of internal variables to meet these difficulties. We all know dancers who pull out every complicated move, but without accuracy or grace. We also know dancers who may be musical and have a yummy embrace but just repeat the same few simple steps over and over at every marathon they attend. So many late-night Tango conversations revolve around the merits of fancy moves versus elegant posture versus connections versus musicality. But the truth is we can have it all. We can learn new concepts and dance complicated sequences musically and with connection in a crowded space. We just need to turn down the external dials for a bit.

For many of us, we go straight from learning a new step in a class to trying it out at the milonga. It ends up not working so we go back to our tried and true dance. But of course it doesn’t work. at the milonga all the difficulty dials are all turned up to 11. It’s a recipe for disaster. Instead of trying our new step at the milonga, first go to a quiet space. No music, no navigation, no need to perform, no distractions. Turn all the dials way down and then build back up. Start with getting familiar with the concept. Then break the movement into small components to reduce complexity. Drill each component and film ourselves to work on accuracy. Then start combining and adding back in the external variables. Play with different variations to work the lead and follow. Practice to different music to work on musicality. Start controlling the spacing, see how big and how small you can make the same movement. Ask for help and feedback along the way. Finally, test it out at a milonga. Soon enough you will have a new move to play with, dance and enjoy. By controlling your dials instead of being controlled by them, you build your staircase to become a more expressive and enjoyable dancer.

[1] Anders Ericsson spent much of his career studying what makes experts experts. I highly recommend checking out his research and writings. Quote comes from the book Peak: Secrets from the new Science of Expertise

[2] With a little word smithing, I was able to get the internal variables to end with ‘y’ and the external variables to end with ‘ing’, which can be helpful for identifying each.

[3] Granted, we can choose who we dance with and the songs we dance to. But the fact remains that it is generally frowned upon in the milonga to do things like trying the same move several times in a row paying no attention to the music or space. 

By sericson0, ago