High tango

Kind of introduction . . .

The term "High tango" is not something widely accepted. It will be used here to describe a way to dance tnngo. It is both old and new. Old, because in fact many tangueros danced this way for decades. New, because there are no known to me sources of information about it. At least, a systematic one. So, many things had to be reinvented, based on experience and pieces of information, coming from various sources (Web sites, youtube videos, workshops with good dancers).

Of course, my personal ideas about "high tango" may not fully coincide with the ideas of someone else, but still, these ideas come from more than 9 years of practice and are verified to be very fruitful. Both in the way the dance feels and the way the movements look from outside. Because for me, those are one and the same thing. Or at least, there is strong connection between them. "Form follows function", as mentioned on a respected web-site (www.tangoandchaos.org). One should care about function first, then about the form. In 99% of the cases, if the function works fine, then the look will be fine too without any need for additional work specifically targeted on the look.

"High" may be interpreted in many ways in the context of tango. One may be that this is elitist tango. Yes, it could be elitist, but not because it is not social and not democratic. It is open to every one, every one is invited to dance and berry the fruits. But it is elitist, because not everyone will be able or will invest enough time and effort to reach the point (or the height?), where the fruits become accessible.

Another interpretation is connected with the technique used. The couple generally stays high. There no grounding of any kind. And this is not about beauty, it is about effectiveness. Moving with knees bent is like crawling, a lot of unnecessary moves of strained body joints, which consumes energy, Instead, by having the knee bend less, the energy loss is less, resulting in very light movements of the couple, enabling flight-like experience. More on this topic in some later post.