One of my first-year students presents me with interesting questions every week. He's an energetic fellow with a passionate thirst for knowledge. It's clear that he spends a lot of time thinking about tango and its creative possibilities. - A man after my own heart!
Recently, this gentleman asked me to show him how to lead the follower to do two forward crosses in a row. The first cross might come from simple walking or from a sequence such as the basic eight-count salida. The second cross would follow immediately.
Let's Give It A Go!
I asked one of the followers in the class to assist me. We had never performed this movement together, but I was confident that we could make it happen.
Without any preparation or discussion, I led the lady to the point of the cross in the eight-count basic salida. And then I led her to a series of six or seven more crosses in a rapid succession. We ended the figure by walking in parallel system.
The gentleman asked for a variation; he wanted me to do back crosses while the follower did her forward crosses. (Now that I think of it, he probably saw this on YouTube!). We were able to demonstrate the modified figure without further preparation and executed some of the crosses in double time.
Give Credit Where It's Due
The follower who demo'd the step with me deserves a lot of credit. I hadn't given her any instructions beforehand. We joined in the embrace, I led the movements as I had imagined them from the fellow's description, and she followed what I was leading without hesitation.
The leader deserves credit as well. Within a few minutes, and with minimal explanation, he was able to lead every follower in the room to perform the sequence which, until a moment ago, had been no more than an idea in his imagination.
Method Over Madness
In my opinion, however, the real credit belongs to our teaching philosophy. We don't teach the cross as a component of a pre-scripted sequence. We teach it as series of movements that are led and followed, clearly and naturally. When the leader and follower do certain things with their bodies, the follower's forward cross is the natural outcome.
We'll cover the eight-count basic and the cross system basic in our classes, as well. These are part of the Argentine tango lexicon, and everyone needs to know how to execute them properly. But until the mechanics of leading and following the cross are well understood, figures containing the cross are avoided.
The followers in this class were well-prepared to execute a sequence of successive crosses, even though they had never seen such a figure. The leaders were prepared to lead the figure with a minimum of guidance and encouragement.
We spent no more than ten minutes on this topic, and everyone was able to execute the figure that we devised on the fly. The fundamental movements required by the figure were already conditioned into their minds and their muscle memory.
Complimentary Philosophies
As I have said on many occasions, Argentine tango is not standardized. There is no common syllabus that describes how steps should be executed and how they should be taught. There are many valid approaches to teaching and learning the tango.
The lack of standardization is not a negative. It keeps the dance vibrant and growing. Argentine tango is a living, developing art form.
One of the complimentary approaches is to teach followers to execute the cross as a certain point within the basic salida whether or not they receive a signal to cross from the leader. I have seen wonderful dancers and teachers teach in this way. I respect their methods and their reasons for preferring to do things in this manner.
If they had wanted to do the step that I had improvised with my student, it would have required some discussion and clarification in advance - do this while making her do that, etc. This would not have required a great deal of time, but one cannot stop to explain sequences while dancing at the milonga. That is never acceptable.
Empowerment
Nor is it necessary. I could have improvised this figure at a milonga with any followers from the class. No verbal explanation would have been required. These are first-year students, and some have taken classes for only a couple of months.
My preferred approach to teaching tango focuses on fundamentals and a clear understanding of how to lead and follow the basic components of the dance.
This approach is amazingly effective, because it empowers dancers to do not only what they are taught but what they can imagine. It opens up limitless improvisational possibilities for leaders and followers alike. They are never constrained to a series of pre-scripted movements. The leaders can experiment with ideas and possibilities in real time, and the followers can dance effectively with any leader who invites them onto the floor.
Tango is an expressive and dynamic art form. It's brilliance unfolds before us in real time. Confining the dance to pre-scripted movements robs it of its expressive and creative potential. Tango should evolve and flow in the moment as a natural consequence of the communication, sensitivity, and mutual understanding between leader and follower.
¡Buena suerte amigos, y muchas gracias!
Daniel
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