TANGO ARTICLES
Follower's Defaults
Argentine tango improvisation can be an elusive animal to understand and master, so subtle and fine are the details which lead us down the path of learning, sometimes to success and sometimes to frustration. One of the reasons that Argentine tango is considered the most difficult of partner dances is that the learning curve is multi-faceted. Not only do we learn tango technique, but also tango connection, tango musicality, and tango mechanics (in no particular order). Of these four, I see mechanics too often overlooked, or replaced with other, less efficient substitutes.
For example, much emphasis is placed on the tango embrace, or connection, how we hold other another and communicate non-verbally. I, too, spend a lot of time describing the embrace, how to find the perfect connection which floats mysteriously among physical pressure, energetic vibration, and mental telepathy. However, the tango connection is a partner-specific phenomenon, based partly on our level of sensitivity and training, and partly on our personality and cultural upbringing. Each couple's connection is unique, the way a handshake is unique. On the other hand, the mechanics of the tango, which I also sometimes call its foundational structure, are the same no matter what the quality of the embrace. It is structure which allows strangers from opposite sides of the earth to dance together without a word, which evolved organically during those magical decades in Buenos Aires between the late 19th century and the early 20th. And it is structure which has endured for nearly 100 years, through dozens and dozens of individual interpretations and styles of tango.
We are now in the great Tango Renaissance of the late 20th century and early 21st, and some of us are forgetting this underlying structure. Since I've touched on connection, I'll just briefly mention the other two equally important areas of tango study. By "technique," I refer to the way the student learns to hold and move his or her own body for tango dance. This includes a specific posture, balancing on one leg while moving the other, the manner of extending the legs in walking, pivoting with the legs and feet together, and coordinating the upper and lower bodies in twists and spirals, to name a few. The fourth area, "musicality," is perhaps more self-evident, a synchronizing of movement to the music we hear which involves, often, constant change in the timing and energy of our dance. Tango musicality offers a multitude of creative choices within an ever-expanding lexicon of tango vocabulary. This versatility helps to create the diversity of style we have on the dance floor.
Ideally, the student is exposed to all four areas in a blended manner. If not all four in every class, then at least two or three incorporated in a balanced way will allow the student to progress in a holistic way along the path of the tango. If any one is missing from this education, however, there is a large gap, and the growth of the dancer is stunted. Since I notice in recent years a gradual exclusion of the mechanics portion, IÕm going to concentrate on that in this article. Some may argue that the structure of tango is outdated, but I believe that without it, like the grammar of a language, tango dancing becomes at worst confusing and frustrating, or at best, inefficient. We can't appreciate stylistic differences like a charming accent, or a tone of voice, if we don't know how to speak first!
Let's give this basic tango structure a more practical name: "the follower's defaults." These are steps that are programmed into the follower, so to speak, at the earliest stage of her tango life, and which she will dance in time with the music as her partner guides her around the dance floor, unless told otherwise. But let's remember that we also have a man in this dance! The followerÕs defaults, then, also refer specifically to the steps he leads for his partner (not dances himself) when not dancing any other element. That is, the defaults fill in the majority of social dancing, especially at the beginning. While she dances these default steps, he will first learn to take simple walking steps forward or in place, then later build his vocabulary to accompany her in more and more complex ways. So, what are follower's defaults? The inventor of this English-speaker's term is Daniel Trenner, an influential North American teacher of tango who came upon Argentine social dance by chance in Buenos Aires in the late 1980s, the earliest days of the Tango Renaissance. His "follower's defaults" refer to the grapevine turn pattern (front, side, back, side, and so on), forward and backward ochos, and the walk to the cross, together forming the backbone of tango improvisation.
Now, lest you think Daniel is crazy, I'll mention another great teacher, this one from Buenos Aires, who emerged around the same time with a strikingly similar way of analyzing tango. Gustavo Naveira, too, identified a built in structure of giros (grapevines) and salidas (walks to the cross) as a defining component of tango education, and invented a geometric vocabulary (cruce adelante, cruce atras, apertura) to explain how every other element in the tango is mechanically based upon it. In a recent workshop in Germany, a student asked how to lead the infamous cuarta sacada. His reply was, "Because she is familiar with the sequence of the turn, she will step backward here when I move around her there." Moving from Gustavo's stylistic world of "tango nuevo" into the very different "Villa Urquiza" style of tango, we find an urban legend that echoes the same message. It is said of the great Geraldine Rojas that when she was 12 years old, all that she needed was to be taught the follower's cross, and she was perfect. There are other systems of organizing tango, of course, but this one has been most significant by far in shaping modern tango teaching around the world over the past twenty years. The countless nuances of style and musicality found in tango dancing make much more sense when layered on top of this structure.
I'm aware of two other teaching methods which, although they may address one or all of the other three areas, do not incorporate the mechanics of the default system, and I haven't seen either of them achieve nearly as much success in educating social dancers. The first one is the figure-based method, in which the teacher shows a sequence of 8 or 12 or 54 steps and the student simply copies it. This approach was used a lot in Buenos Aires in the 1980s when no one knew how to teach tango yet. Remember that before then, there had been no tango classes at all. If you wanted to dance, a friend or family member would drag you around the floor, and you would stumble through it intuitively, by trial and error. The figure-based method was also used, and continues to be used, by stage tango performers who have little experience or interest in improvised social dancing. The figure-based model can actually work well if the goal is simply to memorize choreography. However, since we are interested mainly in learning how to improvise, we can eliminate that approach until, perhaps, a very advanced level, when the student already understands figures and combinations in terms of the basic building blocks of the default system. At that point, he or she can appreciate the stylistic variations between skilled dancers who put together tango vocabulary differently from one another, and learn about the artistry of the tango in that way.
The second alternate method I have seen is what I would call the imbalanced model, which tends to create a lopsided partnership by under-emphasizing the following role and over-emphasizing the leading role. In the imbalanced model, we imagine the follower as a blank canvas on which the leader paints his vision. Women are instructed to wait and listen. Men are instructed to create and control every move their partners make, whether it be a weight change, a pivot, a leg in the air, a tap of the foot. I would say this is a partially accurate portrayal of improvisation, but not a completely accurate one. Good tango dancing is a 50/50 partnership, and if we take responsibility from women and give too much to men, we create an uncomfortable 20/80 partnership. As a result of this kind of teaching, many women believe that their part is the less important one, and that they do not need good technique, but only a good leader, to dance well. This is an unfortunate misunderstanding which encourages women to dance poorly and men to use excessive force. One of my Argentine colleagues likes to joke, "Ladies, don't turn the milonga into a muebleria (furniture store)!"
But rather than throw out this model completely, let's say that it can be useful, but in the same way that learning figure-based choreography is useful, only at the very advanced level, after the student is completely fluent in tango improvisation using the default system. The ability of the leader to leave the realm of known tango, introducing new shapes from his imagination, is a desired skill at the advanced level, as is the ability of the follower to temporarily suspend the flow of the dance under these circumstances. But it is the structural foundation which allows us to attain a sophisticated level of dancing in the first place. Without it, there is precious little to identify a partnered relationship as tango. There is no common language which everyone in the room, not to mention everyone in the world, can share. The promise of the imbalanced method is total freedom, no rules, no boundaries, but after watching this methodology in practice over the years, my conclusion is that this is a false promise. We shall see now that by using the defaults, we find the freedom we are looking for in the tango, and realize that it has been there all along.
Let's put those two alternate models aside for a moment, and return to the follower's defaults of the cross, ochos, and giros. Without them, technically speaking, we have no tango, since all other vocabulary (boleos, ganchos, barridas, paradas, etc.) is derived from them in some way. In this paradigm, we give the follower known structures to practice, and she becomes very good at dancing them. We ask her to step on the downbeat and to make her steps the same distance apart and at the same distance from the leader, unless otherwise specified. We ask her to follow the grapevine pattern when there is a turn, pivot by herself to arrive in each successive ocho, and to walk to the cross when the leader is on her right. Although it might seem counter-intuitive, followers who have been trained to do these things automatically are much EASIER to lead on the dance floor than those who have not. Learning to dance with the defaults gives a follower greater control over her movement, which she needs to execute the combinations that her leader spontaneously assembles, whether they be simple or highly complex.
So what, you might ask, is the leader's job then, if the follower already knows her part? Well, first, remember that we are only talking about one aspect of tango training, that is, the aspect of mechanics, or structure. Men as well as women must also incorporate the other three areas of study: technique, musicality, and connection. But getting back to mechanics, letÕs imagine a sports car on cruise control. The car goes by itself, but without steering, it will very likely crash into another vehicle, or plummet off the side of a cliff. The leader's job, of course, is to drive! Driving comes with the initial responsibility of navigating the dance floor, but once this skill is mastered, driving rises to the next level. The leader who understands that the defaults come standard with the equipment, so to speak, will not waste time re-inventing the wheel. Although a beginner might need help dancing the basics, with all other partners he will turn his attention to musical interpretation, combining the sequence and timing of the basics in different ways. As his skill increases, the leader creates complexity by manipulating the position and timing of her defaults with his own improvised steps, which begin to interlace and interrupt, compliment and contrast with hers. A back step becomes a boleo, a side step becomes a barrida, with no additional force, but rather with coordinated musical timing. The driver can switch to manual when he needs to, but I think anyone would agree that adjusting the speed of a moving vehicle is easier than stopping every time to get out and push! Cruise control simply creates a smoother ride for the majority of the journey. Voila! Argentine Tango, the most sophisticated and powerful partner dance the world has ever known.
To visualize the leader/follower relationship more clearly, imagine a painter sitting in front of a blank canvas, but instead of the canvas representing the follower, let's say the canvas represents a three-minute tango. Now, we leave the painter alone with the canvas in an empty room for three minutes, and what happens? Well, if he has no materials, no brush and no colors, nothing will happen. We will return to the find the canvas still blank, and the painter frustrated. However, let's say we give the painter a brand new brush and call it "the follower." We're on the right track, but we need something more.... Ah yes, how about a fresh palette of watercolors! Or a set of bright acrylics! Now we are in business! We'll call the paints, "the follower's defaults." Now, we come back in three minutes and we have something to look at! The first few times, the painter might create something rather simple, maybe just a few lines and circles in red and blue, but as he practices and gets to know his materials more intimately, he will learn to blend the colors, to create many different kinds of brushstrokes on the canvas. Soon, he will develop his own style.
When followers focus on dancing the default movements well, and leaders shift their attention to interpreting the music with those defaults, the division of labor relaxes back toward 50/50. The trick is remembering that every complex element in tango comes from one of the defaults, much like every color in the rainbow comes from one of the three primary colors of red, yellow, and blue. In the default system, a boleo is an abrupt, well-timed interruption of a front step changed into a back step (or the reverse). The result is a swing or a flick of the leg either into the air or across the floor in an arc. The step used to create the flick has momentum because it belongs to a turning structure, and can therefore be interrupted to create the effect. Without the defaults in place, there is no momentum, and either the shape of a boleo is memorized or a great amount of physical force is used to cause the woman to kick or throw her leg into the air or across the floor. An equal amount of force is then required to bring the leg back and get the flow of the dance going again.
I have observed in my students over the years that both leader and follower become stronger and better dancers when they use the default system. In this paradigm, there is always a logical next step for the follower. She moves in a flowing sequence of steps that are always the same size, the same distance from the leader, always the same tempo of the walking beat. The leader, freed from the need to create her steps from scratch, can turn his attention to navigation and to musical interpretation, inventing variation after variation. I want to mention again that of the four aspects of tango education, mechanics is the only one that remains unchangeable across all tango styles. Even in the most subtle styles of milonguero or apilado tango, where the complex connection, technique, and musicality training might remain mysterious and even invisible to the beginner for quite some time, these defaults are at work behind the scenes. Forward ochos are morphed into the ocho cortado, which is nevertheless taught by everyone in that style, from Susana Miller to Tetˇ Rusconi, as a defining structural feature of the tango. In fact, compared to the other three areas, tango mechanics are often much more accessible to the beginner, and more readily understood. Little wonder that when they are omitted, so many students are confused.
In response to the arguments which will inevitably come, using the default system in no way limits the scope of improvisation in the tango. In fact, quite the opposite it true. One of my teachers used to say, "Freedom without discipline is chaos, and rules are made to be broken!" Many of the most brilliant inventions in tango improvisation have come from dancers breaking the rules, either accidentally or on purpose. However, if we have no rules to begin with, we have no frame of reference, no way to appreciate innovation and playfulness and surprise. Maximum potential in the tango comes not from the absence of structure, but by sharing responsibility in the 50/50 tango relationship clarified by the default system. Perhaps we could even say more accurately that it becomes a 100/100 tango relationship when both partners are able to contribute fully!
I invite you to try the defaults on for size, as a skeleton of tango improvisation. I think you'll find that your partner connection improves, and that advanced elements which were previously challenging become easier. In particular, I'd like to see how you begin, whether as leader or follower, to leave your unique stylistic imprint upon this simple structure in the way that you move through each step and in the musical choices you make on the dance floor.
© copyright Sharna Fabiano 2007
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© copyright Sharna Fabiano 2007
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Ultimate Partnering - An informed piece on the real meaning of imrpovised partnership in social dance, by Richard Powers, founder of the Stanford Tango Weeks, the very first tango festivals in North America. See also the complete list of Richard's articles.
Changing of the Codes (1998) - Observing how the roles of leader and follower have been influenced by contemporary changes in gender roles in western culture, by Daniel Trenner, one of the most important figures in the early development of tango in North America. See also the complete list of Daniel's articles.