Style and Posture in Argentine Tango

A major component of elegant argentine tango style that really improves your appearance is an erect upper body and a lifted head. This kind of tall posture and upright head also improves balance and control, which is necessary for the more advanced and complex tango dance figures. As significantly, argentine tango is a dance with confidence and attitude and great posture helps demonstrate this.

How to Perfect your Posture
When both partners move as one with the music, the intimacy and power of argentine tango is captivating – both as a dancer and as a spectator. The foundation that tango dancers rely on to pull off such a leveled, grounded and intense performance is their Posture.

To achieve this perfect tango posture, it is necessary to stand with your feet together, completely closed. Your feet must be parallel and not turned out and the inner sides of your feet are touching. This is known as the neutral stance in tango.

Tango isn’t about being light and lifted. It’s almost the complete opposite: it’s not about competing with gravity, it’s about using gravity. The tango dancer uses two opposite forces to develop a grounded posture. You should push your shoulders down without rounding them to ground yourself. Attempt to connect your weight to the floor to feel a connection with it and to gain control over the body. Simultaneously, stretch out your core muscles and your neck so that you feel both tall and grounded. You should feel a downward force from your shoulder blades and an upward force from your core muscles.

Finally, remember that your weight should always be on one leg. You should be able to lift one leg without moving. Keep both your feet closed and try to appear as if your weight is still centered even though it isn’t. To ensure you’re doing this properly, practice transferring your weight from one leg to the other. There should be little movement from the upper half of your body, and any movement from your legs should be minimal.

Tango isn’t as energetic as other style of dance, so you should never be out of breath. The only exception is if you’re dancing milonga – aquicker paced tango!). Therefore, it is important to regulate your breathing. Don’t hold your breath.

The final essential element to good tango posture is leaning forwards from the waist up in order to have about 80% of your weight on your toes. This is tricky at first.

Finally, one important thing not to do is looking down. There is no need to look down. It just spoils your posture.