Fundamentals

If you are new to Argentine Tango and interested in having a bit of fun with a connection based approach to the dance, attending the Fundamentals portion of Tango Dojo is a great place to start.

Fundamentals are fundamental because they are an integral element of every other technique. They need to be consistently practiced and refined in order to progress. Usually when more "advanced" techniques aren't working or don't feel good, it's because some aspect of a fundamental needs to be improved. An hour of every Dojo is devoted to fundamentals.

In my pedagogy for Argentine Tango, I identify four areas which are fundamental and strongly influence the ability to develop a danceable vocabulary. The first four are Awareness, Posture, Balance, and Connection. Awareness includes awareness of yourself, your partner, the floor around you, and the music. Posture is, well, your posture. Awareness of yourself is a prerequisite for self correction of your posture. It is much easier to maintain balance when posture is aligned. And finally, the physical and energetic connections you have with yourself, partner, music and floor are much easier to establish and maintain when you stay in balance by maintaining the appropriate posture through awareness..

The fundamental vocabulary I use as teaching tools for Awareness, Posture, Balance and Connection include Weight Changes, Projections, Side Steps, and Walking. The fundamental class goes over some or all of this material every week, depending on the experience of the individuals present.

One of the main goals of practicing these techniques on a weekly basis is to continually refine our awarenesses so that less and less energy (effort) is required to communicate. As an example of what is possible with these techniques, I once saw an instructor lead his partner to take a side step ... at a distance of six feet ... while they were both looking away from each other. They repeated this communication a couple times as a demonstration. The point of this story is it is possible to refine your awareness and subsequent connection to a high degree.