Inside the Embrace 2006 Archive

Commentaries on Argentine Tango and Life

by Stephen and Susan Brown

On Differing Styles and Overtraining
17 November 2006 — Stephen Brown

On Tango-L, Meredith Klein writes about her recent observations in Buenos Aires:
"[I]n the [traditional] milongas (Club Gricel, Nino Bien, Salon Canning, Confiteria Ideal) ..., it's not appropriate to dance in open embrace or to throw ganchos or boleos. In these milongas, people dance in close embrace, use fairly simple steps, and prioritize the flow of the entire dance floor. ... However, there is another set of milongas and practicas in Buenos Aires where different rules apply. At Villa Malcolm, Practica X, Soho Tango, La Viruta, La Marshall, and many more, the dancers are younger (mostly between 18 and 40) and get bored if they have to dance in close embrace all night, doing simple steps. They are always pushing themselves and both competing and collaborating with each other to find new possibilities in tango. This includes creating new kinds of movements, finding new ways to put familiar movements together, and exploring new ways to interpret traditional tango music (usually at least 80% of the music played in these milongas is golden age, just like at the traditional milongas)."

For more information about the latter scene, see Andrés Amarilla's The Guide: Nuevo Tango in BA.

What happens when the young dancers change venues?

Meredith continues:
"Argentines and foreigners who know the milonga scene in Buenos Aires are very sensitive to and respectful of the rules that apply in each venue. On Monday nights, the practica at Villa Malcolm ends earlier than on other nights, so afterwards dozens of dancers head over to Salon Canning several blocks away. When they arrive, you wouldn't know that they were the same dancers. The women who were wearing dance sneakers at Malcolm are now in Comme Il Fauts, and perhaps they even put on makeup and changed their clothes to better fit into the milonga environment. People who were practicing jumps, 360-degree underarm turns and colgadas at Malcolm are now sedately and happily executing their ocho cortados. Perhaps at 5:30 am, they'll start tearing up the floor again, but by then pretty much everyone has gone home and no one cares."

On Tango-L, the always insightful Brian Dunn adds a wonderful dimension to Meredith's observations:
"Last night, I was watching the 'midnight transition' between El Motivo/Villa Malcolm and Canning that you describe here, and another thought struck me. These young dancers dance the small compact 'Nino Bien' stuff exquisitely! Superb musicality, delicate intricate footwork, tiny tiny little flicks of heel, toe and ankle, just a delight to watch."

"Then I realized that by pushing themselves and each other in friendly competition at high-energy go-for-broke practicas, they are also 'overtraining' their navigation and musicality skills under these high-energy conditions, which tends to make them very expressive and solid partners when crowded floors require them to reduce the scale of their movements.

"This overtraining principle is exploited in many kinds of sports and performance training settings. ... By pushing their edge in the 'tango workout' practicas, the low-stress 'Nino Bien dancing' of these young dancers is well within their 'performance envelope,' rather than being closer to the maximum they are used to. This leaves a lot more available brain power (and heart power) for musicality and connection.

"To achieve the same end, regardless of one's stylistic preferences in social tango, any tango dancer who values floorcraft, connection and musicality in milonga settings (as I do) might want to consider overtraining their floorcraft and movement dynamics with higher-energy "big tango" practica work."