Several students have asked me, “What is the correct tango embrace?” recently. Given that there is no ONE correct version of the embrace, how can each of us create a connected, comfortable embrace with as many partners as possible? What makes a great embrace?
Tensegrity structure as a model of the body
I am taking a 20-hour yoga and anatomy training right now, and as the body is the same body that dances, I have been applying it to tango. Tom Myers is an amazing teacher, and has studied with Ida Rolf and Moshe Feldenkrais, yielding a deep understanding of anatomy and movement. He also studied with Buckminster Fuller, and has built on Fuller’s tensegrity structures, using them to explain how the body works. Here is a video with Tom explaining tensegrity and the body if you are interested.
Instead of thinking about the body as a stack of parts, like a building, imagine it as a series of solid parts (bones) connected to each other with bungee cords, floating between these stretchy parts and surrounded by them. In other words, the connective tissue of the body, the muscles, skin, etc. hold together and support the bones. With this elastic construction, the body can be twisted, bent, and bounce back to its basic structure thanks to the ligaments, tendons, and other connective tissue.
If each person can be a tensegrity structure, what happens when you join two together in the tango embrace? What if the COUPLE becomes a tensegrity structure? This is what my group class will tackle tonight.
Tensegrity and the embrace
When I talk about leading from your feet, you can see that each person feels the other’s body, all the way to the ground where it can anchor, and then traveling into the other person’s body via the embrace. The embrace does not run the show, but it communicates in real time so that the partners can feel each other’s movements, musicality, and intentions. It also allows both people to create the stretch, tension, or stability that the other person needs.
Too loose, too tight, just right!
The embrace needs to be a stretchy connection between the couple, not a rigid frame, and not a wet noodle limply attached. Finding the right amount of stretch, tension, elasticity—this is the work of building a better embrace. Each dancer and their body presents a different shape and a different amount of stretch and tension to create the best embrace possible. Throughout the dance, as each body moves, the embrace becomes part of the entire structure, and needs to adjust, tune in and move within the ONE tensegrity structure of the couple, as well as inside of the dancer themselves and their personal tensegrity structure/body.
The embrace connects into the body, not just the skin. Imagine being able to touch the muscle layer of the body. Can you feel the structure of the body and the movement of connective tissue, muscles, skin, sliding but anchored? Can you feel the partner’s body adjusting to their breath? Explore to find the “just right” amount of stretch and tension needed for THIS person, for THIS song.
The best embrace
For me, the best embrace wraps around both partners. On the closed side of the embrace, both people have their hand on the other person’s ribs, shoulder blade, or a good bony surface to the side or back. I do not think gripping your partner’s arm with your hand and holding on tightly will ever feel like a nice embrace for social dancing. For stage dancing, sometimes you need this for lifts and other things that should not be on the social dance floor :-)
Think about a wall plug: too loose, and a light will flicker. There is no way to plug the light in more when the plug gets to the wall. Pushing harder doesn’t fix the problem of meeting your partner in the middle; if they don’t meet you, that embrace does not work. The best embrace has each person’s hand on the open side “looking” at the other person, not in a push/pull position. The embrace is round. Chicho used to teach us that the leader creates a sphere, containing the follower, and the follower meets that sphere, sending energy out.
The best embrace makes me feel secure, relaxed, taken care of by my partner. That is true whether I am leading or following. With a good embrace, I know my partner is present and paying attention, and I offer that back to them. I jokingly call this “Hold the baby” but that level of security plus tenderness makes a great embrace all the time. Don’t drop the baby, don’t squeeze so hard the baby cries. Rock me in your embrace and let’s dance.