In this page we attempt to show that only simple steps are
used in the social tango setting.
Steps for the stage
As the credits roll in the closing scenes of Robert Duvall's movie Assassination
Tango, Geraldine Rojas and
Pablo Verón
dance to "Una Emoción" by Ricardo Tanturi/Enrique Campos. There is no shortage of flashy steps here: boleos, ganchos,
volcadas, colgadas, sacadas, etc. make the
dance interesting and visually appealing to the audience.
Steps for social dancing
Now that we have established that Geraldine knows a bit about visually impressive steps, let's see how she dances in a social setting.
Scenes from the milonga Porteño y Bailarín, in Buenos Aires, are shown on the
right. The camera follows Geraldine, who is dancing there to enjoy herself rather than for
an audience. Obviously she shines on the dance floor, but...lets watch
carefully...how many boleos, ganchos, volcadas, colgadas & the like is she throwing? ...none! zero!
Her dancing is limited to turns to the right, to the left, and walking... all
strictly in close embrace. The same is true for the other couples on the floor.
Differences between social and stage tango
Social tango differs from performing tango not only in the steps used but, more
importantly, in the objective of the dance. Social tango is danced to interpret
a feeling between two dancers. Stage tango is for the enjoyment of an audience.
In this clip from Assassination Tango, dancer Maria Nieves
captures the escence of social tango dancing when she tells Robert Duvall :
"Tango salón (social tango) has a different feeling. When I dance tango
salón I feel transported, like flying. When I do figures I have to worry about
not being stepped on, or not kicking another dancer, so I am
constantly jumpy." Instead, tango salón is a feeling shared by two people, man and woman.
(There are no English subtitles in this video.)
The whole point of social tango is sharing an emotion, not performing fancy figures.
Figures are for the stage. Performing figures requires a degree of concentration that
generally prevents the free expression of the tango feeling.