Learning tango

Historically, if you were a leader your elder brother taught you to follow so he'd have someone to practice his leading with, or your mum taught you a few moves in the kitchen and you went out and practised with your mates. & you watched dancers in social dances, and tried to work out and copy what they were doing. The incentive: being a good dancer boosted your social life. Men never danced together, but they practised with each other: Sally Potter makes a point of showing Pablo, Gustavo, and Fabian leading and following each other in The Tango Lesson.

These days we go to classes. In Buenos Aires, there seems to be a consensus in the teaching of 'milonguero' tango. All the classes I went to started with a gentle warm up that explored awareness of balance, progressed to leading or following walking in parallel and in close hold, in single and double time, and then focused on one of the many variations of the ocho cortado. A close hold, walking with the music and good posture, are insisted on. At one class I went to, I found myself in the change of partners with a very young woman – probably no older than 16 – who was clearly uncomfortable at dancing so closely with a stranger, a much older man. Of course I didn't insist, but the teacher, Susana Miller, saw us dancing somewhat apart, and gently but quite firmly pushed us into a close hold, which my partner then accepted.

The teachers in all the classes I went to gave everyone a lot of attention in matters of posture and musicality. This wasn't a problem because the basic material they were working with, walking and ocho cortados, didn't take a lot of time to demonstrate. That is, they concentrated on getting us to do simple things well and clearly.

The same pattern was followed by the late Ricardo Vidort in a class at the Dome in London 3½ years ago. He didn't push anyone into close hold: he just joked about it. “Boys and girls, hold your partner close. It is not for life! It is just for one dance!”: everyone laughed and adopted a close hold. Lovely guy. & he taught the ocho cortado.

Why so much ocho cortado? You notice it is used a lot in social dancing in Buenos Aires, partly I assume because it takes up little room on a crowded floor, it's what you do when a couple steps in front of you, it can be led from a walk in parallel, and of course it feels good when it's done well. In the context of a class it teaches leading and following from the torso, as both partners need to turn a lot from the waist to do a good ocho cortado in close hold. It also involves the use of double time, and like any tango move there are many possible variations. I expect there are other beginners' classes with different emphases, but I think it's safe to assume that most dancers in Buenos Aires begin in classes like these: close hold, musicality, posture, the ocho cortado.

It occurs to me that 'classes', which suggests a progression of learning, isn't quite the right word. 'Workshops' might be more apt, occasions when you do some work on a topic.

London is quite different. So far as I know, close hold is never insisted on in beginners classes, I don't remember musicality being emphasised so much at the start and, unless things have changed in four years, the eight-step salida is taught instead of the ocho cortado: not quite sure why it has such a hold on British tango. But I think the central difference is that there is no consensus here that a firm basis in close hold, walking to the music, and the ocho cortado is the best foundation. If you were taught this basis repeatedly you could go to another class and learn something different. You might think you were progressing fast because you might get a lot more varied and apparently quite complex material. But would you be able to go to a milonga and dance all that stuff with someone who hadn't been in the class with you? If not, you were being conned – unless, that is, you don't want to do anything else except go to classes where your partner knows her part, and you can imagine you are dancing on stage together, which suits some people.

Conned? Well, not intentionally. But I think that although teachers are well aware that a firm basis in simple things is necessary, they are also aware that if they don't seem to teach complex material their students won't feel they are doing well, and might take their class fees elsewhere. Another problem is that many London teachers have a stage background, and at heart perhaps rather less sympathy for, or experience of social dancing. & we don't live in a culture in which the milonga is central to the dance: generally speaking, stage and ballroom tango are more familiar than social tango. Perhaps as a result of this orientation of London dance, teachers of 'milonguero' tango don't get invited here: they go everywhere except the UK, all over Europe and the USA, because it's not what people want here, and they don't want it here because it's not the kind of tango they've been taught. In a way there's too much on offer, and too little consensus.

The result can be confusing. Am I an inferior leader because I can't lead back saccadas, or ganchos, with the kind of ease that makes them look natural, and should I stand in a milonga trying to wrestle my partner into a gancho? Am I a hopeless follower because I can't wave my legs around four times to each beat with unexpected decorations that risk of tripping myself and the leader? These crises of confidence might keep teachers in business, but they shouldn't arise. As a basis we need to be able to stand upright, walk in time to the music and dance a few variations of the ocho cortado, and I think we should be aware that there's nothing wrong with enjoying whole evenings of dance, leading clearly and following the music, with little more than that. That seems a reference point for tango in Buenos Aires, it's what most people do when they go out dancing, it's a necessary foundation on which a lot can be built, but it seems it's a reference point we aren't close to enjoying in London.