How many figures do you need?

tangomaniac

tangomaniac

Well-Known Member
I enjoyed my vacation in BA. I observed that the Argentines use the following figures:

Back ocho
Low Boleo
Walking
Ocho Cortado
Giros (called molinetes north of the equator)

I've read messages on Tango A about workshops and festivals for colgaldas, valcadas, sacadas and other figures ending in "adas." It made me wonder how many figures do I need for a good dance.

What figures are missing from the above list you feel are necessary?

How frequently are you able to incorporate what you learned from festivals and workshops into your dance?

It's a slow Saturday night and I'm writing as I listen to Garrison Keillor's monologue. Unfortunately, there's no AT in Lake Wobegone, MN,.

Michael
Washington, DC
I danced Argentine Tango - - with the Argentines
 
You really don't need many figures, as long as you do them well. Every experienced dancer has their own combination of steps. It also depends at the speed at which you dance. A leader can have 7-10 figures in a dance and there are no rules about not repeating a step!
 
School figures with a figure eight as the basic

I remember watching national figure skating competitions where the compulsory figures or school figures were scrutinized on the ice rink surface by the judges. There were 12 of these figures with the figure eight as the basic.

As a teacher, I prefer to use the term "elements" relating to tango, of which the ocho is basic to walking and turning.

I would make the list even shorter than Michael did by including the walk and turns. The cross is an important element.

What was named ocho cortado by Gustavo Naveira is only a change in direction of the turn or a turn to the right by the man to see on his right (blind) side. The name has stuck, but you would be hard pressed to find a milonguero in BsAs who could tell you what it is. Gustavo was trying to figure out what the milongueros were doing, and he had to call it something. Most consider it to be done by the woman when the man turns to his right; but it is done in the other direction as well.

If all these elements come together with a firm embrace for the woman to feel protected and secure, that's all a woman wants or needs. Right ladies?
 
I would follow jantango in calling it elements. But my elements would be

-walking
-stopping
-standing
-turning
-accentuating

These element are an obligatory prerequisite for TA, to my mind. But you can realize them with different means, with different skills, or levels. f.i You can accentuate with double tempo, rebote, alteración, boleo, or or .... And even a turn can be realized with a cunita!

I would not follow the didactics of Pugliese, so I would subordinate cross and basic to the list above.
 
12 very basic figures

The most general answer: walking is the basic tango figure. All else is frosting.

My specific answer is here: ten very simple walking "figures" of two steps each, plus two of three-steps each.

http://home.att.net/~larrydla/basics_0.html

The two three-step figures (salida and the resolucion) start and end more complex patterns. Any combination of the two-step walks can be inserted between the beginning and ending. In this way many hundreds of figures can be constructed.

You can also use two-step walks as the salida (Spanish for exit, and for beginning). Ditto for the resolucion (resolution, or end).

I came up with this system to de-emphasize complicated figures which must be memorized, and then robotically performed over and over again exactly as learned. Instead the leader can create their own figures, then vary them to fit in the space available and to express the music.

Figures are a man's game. Women need something else: adornos, and how to express themselves using them between steps. So I've started a companion thread on adornos.

http://www.dance-forums.com/showthread.php?t=32490

Laer
 
I went to the link. I didn't see any figures mentioned plus I read

"The Argentine tango is the easiest of all the ballroom dances to begin dancing, and to begin dancing well."

AT is a ballroom dance, really??? Not to me.



larrynla said:
The most general answer: walking is the basic tango figure. All else is frosting.

My specific answer is here: ten very simple walking "figures" of two steps each, plus two of three-steps each.

http://home.att.net/~larrydla/basics_0.html



Laer
Click to expand...
 
When the Walking is done in style and with good musicality (i.e. moving to the song rather than against it) then that is all that a leader really needs.
 
tangomaniac said:
I enjoyed my vacation in BA. I observed that [/FONT]the Argentines use the following figures:


Low Boleo
Click to expand...

During my first trip I noticed that the girls were very cautious with back boleos and were doing very spectacular (and certainly not low) front boleos.
Here in my non-BsAs town the front boleos are almost inexistent, they're more like an adornment automatically added by the ladies after a back boleo.



tangomaniac said:
What figures are missing from the above list you feel are necessary?
Click to expand...


barridas, just to name one.
 
The OP said that he just returned from Baires, and this is what they are dancing as the essentials. Then, we, a bunch of non-argentines chime in w/ what we feel it should be. Does someone else see the irony in this, or am I being aloof?

TM, Welcome to the DF.
 
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