One of the most common frustrations I hear from dancers of all levels is the relationship between movement and music.
Why so many dancers struggle with Tango musicality
Tango Argentino beginners are already busy and challenged by coordinating their own body and moving together with another person, trying to keep the social navigation on the dance floor, learning a totally new language for them (yes, if you’re starting, I feel you. Know that you’re doing great by handling so much at once, even if from outside the basic moves seem “simple” – they’re not).
Beginners with some experience and intermediate level dancers might feel comfortable already moving together with a dance partner and doing the figures they’ve learnt, and still get lost when having to pay attention to something specific like navigation, posture, or certain new moves / finding each other when dancing with unfamiliar partners, yet ignoring the music completely or finding difficult to connect their movements with it.
Advanced dancers often get frustrated when dancing with someone who doesn’t hear (and interpret) the music – and if you thought that it’s only the leader’s responsibility to bring the music into the couple’s movements, know that this applies to both roles.
Going a step further, there’s a deeper frustration that usually stays secret: even the average advanced dancer struggles to dance to music they aren’t familiar with.
Most times, at tango socials (be it Milongas or Prácticas) we listen and dance to the same set of orchestras and songs.
Of course it isn’t the exact same playlist every time and everywhere, but it became more or less standardized which orchestras a TDJ* is expected to play and which are the famous songs every dancer in the scene will know and want to dance.
While this is seen as a sign of good DJing (the logic says there’re higher chances that people jump onto the dance floor for every Tanda* if they know the songs), it also reveals a deeper issue: dancers that don’t trust their dance enough to try a song or orchestra they aren’t familiar with. Which unleashes a chain of connected issues: Tango communities that don’t know there are new (and very good!) artists and compositions (beyond what’s known from the Tango Electrónico scene) and avoid being introduced to anything out of their comfort zone, that struggle to include new members in the community (the same fear prevents them from dancing with people they don’t know), and that ultimately ends up stagnating the local scene.
This reveals that musicality in Tango Argentino goes beyond technical skills. It also needs a mindset training if we want our tango communities to stay alive and thrive.
Tango musicality is not a talent
The good news is: all those are skills. And, as such, they all can be trained.
Moving with the music in Tango Argentino isn’t about “being musical” in the abstract or an innate talent that some have and others don’t. It’s about perception, timing and choice. Building embodiment over theory. Which is something we all can learn and keep stretching also when we think we’re already advanced dancers (the sooner the better! If you’re new to Tango Argentino, building musical awareness before habits harden saves you a lot of time and headaches. If you’ve been dancing for a while, there’s always room to improve your tango by continuously training your musicality skills).
Why musicality can develop faster in immersive training
If you now find yourself thinking “Jessica, it’s just too much to pay attention to at the same time to dance Tango Argentino. Learning how to dance tango to the music while keeping an eye on all the rest is too hard!”, I feel you.
Multitasking isn’t what our mind and nervous system love (despite how much we’ve been sold this idea). Nevertheless, the path doesn’t need to be as overwhelming, and confusion isn’t a problem in learning Tango.
When given enough time for focused attention and a supportive environment of guided exploration, continuity and room for integration, we all can learn the skills to become a Tango Argentino dancer at our own pace and with no pressure.
That’s the foundation of the Tango Immersion Program. A monthly module-based journey that helps you go deeper than in average weekly classes, while allowing time to process and self-regulate your learning pace. And of course it includes a module dedicated to musicality.
A Tango Immersion Weekend of Musicality in Practice
If you now realized that you never pay attention to that noise in the background, if you’ve ever felt you hear the music but your body doesn’t know what to do with it, if you can walk and lead/follow figures but it all feels flat, rushed, or not fully connected yet to the music, the next Tango Immersion Weekend on musicality is for you. We’ll focus on foundations to translate the music we hear into the movements we dance, in a practical, embodied way.
Genres vs Styles: What most Tango dancers aren’t taught
Our starting point will be a not so typical one (usually tango dancers are first exposed to the genres you hear in a Milonga: Argentine Tango, Vals and Milonga). What’s often missing is guidance through the different styles within Tango itself, and how each one invites a different quality of movement, timing and presence: the same music genre gives room for very different types of dances. That’s why we don’t dance to different orchestras the same way even if they’re all playing Tango, and why just copying steps doesn’t work.
Across the Tango Immersion Weekend dedicated to musicality we’ll work through:
our Tango Essentials Lab to ground perception, timing, weight transfers and presence, since musicality depends on fundamentals and relies on embodiment (well… what doesn’t?),
4 workshops that combine individual and partner technique to explore different styles and how to show them up in our body,
a Focused Práctica to integrate what you discover and receive feedback,
and our welcoming Milonga Itinerante (now longer!), to have fun while anchoring learning where it really matters: the social dance.
If you’ve been waiting for your Tango to feel less like counting steps and more like conversation with the music, this is the right moment!
Join us at the Tango Immersion Program to learn how to listen, choose and respond to different impulses (this time the music), so your dance becomes adaptable and playful instead of just mechanical.
*TDJ = Tango DJ
Tanda = in this context is each set of songs we dance at a tango gathering. At Milongas, the end of a Tanda is usually signaled by a short fraction of a song from a genre that’s clearly not tango, vals or milonga. This is called Cortina and when it plays dancers clear the dance floor and take the chance for a small break, socializing, getting a drink, etc, and deciding if and whom to invite to dance the next Tanda.
How can I help you?
Jessica Gerdel
Certified Tango Argentino-Yoga teacher and somatic movement facilitator.
Guiding dancers toward embodied awareness, connection, and freedom on and off the dance floor.
contact@jessicagerdel.com
+43 681 10323630
