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A lot of people say and teach close embrace as two persons hugging each other, like friends, lovers and family. That is probably the biggest misconception. Granted, there are many different ways to embrace in tango, and the embrace is changing and readjusting throughout the dance. If you watch a lot of youtube clips and pay attention to the best (or ex best) dancers’ embraces, you will find similar characteristics.

This is the embrace that is taught by Javier and Andrea. Man, the leader, opens his chest, feels it expand grande but not to stick out his sternum; left palm faces his left ears, relaxes his shoulders and chest; tucks his navel in, tightens his abs and rib cage (requires works on your core); and breathe in your chest. Then he invites the woman to come to his embrace, by holding her right hand up and over without any tension of pulling, embrace her at the level of the bottom of her breasts line, as if he places her breast over his chest and lift/support them by natural expanding his chest.

The woman, the follower, comes to the man, places her chest over his, as if she hangs herself on his chest with hers; and her left arm places naturally over the man’s shoulder or upper arm, sometimes her left palm presses in and upward to allow better connection with the man without weighing on him.

In this embrace, the contact and connection is on the chest and no other parts of the body. I find more freedom for both to move. And the woman gets much better sensation which I will talk about in “Don’t wake her up”. This is just the technical aspect of the embrace. It is just half of embrace.

A perfect embrace starts with the cabeceo, through the eyes, which also called windows of the hearts, of two persons. The man takes her right hand and invites her to the embrace. At this moment, he should show his confidence that he is the best of the floor and he could take care of her in the crowded pista and give her two wonderful minutes. The confidence is so strong that the others on the floor feel it too, so they will respect his space when he dances around.

It is when the woman feels the confidence in the man, she takes the last step towards him and allows him to embrace her. Then she completely surrenders into the embrace and waits for him to show her two blissful minutes.

“I can teach you how to dance, but I can’t teach you embrace.” Maestro Carlos told me once.”…I am glad that you’ve found your own.”

Shy, intimidated of dancing with one of the best, and nervous of making mistake or causing injury to her. Not until I put away those emotions and started envisioning myself as the best, did Andrea Misse tell Javier and me that the embrace was “Perfecto”.

” keep this embrace. Don’t lose it.” Javier nodded at me.

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Afterword:

A man does not automatically embrace the woman. Instead, he takes her hand; invites her and waits for her acceptance. The woman takes the last step to allow the man to embrace her.

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Steps were/are/ will be created by dancers, mostly the leaders. If you fixate on the steps, spend much of your mind of memorizing the steps, and try to recreate these steps in your dance, then you are forever trapped in the tango labyrinth. At a certain stage of your tango journey, you would realize that you are the creator of the steps, not the slave of them.

“How to do a nice(perfect) giro?” I asked Javier after my imitation of one of his moves. “What’s a giro?” He answered. Instead, he had me standing relaxed, feet together, in practice hold.

“Close your eyes” Andrea translated “now try to remember this movement.”

Javier slowly drew a counter clockwise circle with my upper body. “This is the sensation. Remember that.” Then he and Andrea danced to show me the body movement and energy, but not the steps…

I used to be fascinated by Javier’s unique footworks (steps). I had spent hours loading his Youtube clips in Flash and watched them frame by frame, tried to break down his steps. I wanted to dance like him.

After the private lessons with him, I realized that I didn’t want to dance just like him any more. I want to dance like myself. Of course, I will carry certain distinctive/signature Javier features, ones which he probably learned from his maestros: the embrace, the energy… It was what he taught me, however, freed my mind, my fixation of those fantastic steps of his.

The repertoire of tango is muy grande. But it is also very simple: natural: listen to your body, your body will tell you how to dance…

Your mind tells your body how to move, your body then tells your feet…

Think of whereabout of the fellower’s foot (always on one foot), not your feet during the dance.

—Javier Rodriguez

Understand how to dance elegantly, how to dance sensually, the essence of tango, the connection between the two.

Think of the feet as paint brush, the floor as a canvas. You dance as painting on the floor with brushes.

—Maestro Carlos De Chey

Understand these, I begin to dance with more freedom.

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your lead, follow your musicality, execute your figures. But most importantly listening to the woman, in the embrace, in her figures, in her embellishments, what she wants.” excerpts from Lonewalk’s , who by the way is a damn good dancer himself (cream of the crops by American standard), latest post about Javier Rodriguez talked about musicality.

A very interesting post, the way Javier talked about musicality in a deeper level. I will let you read about it from Issac’s blog yourself.

Tango, at a higher level, is very intriguing, to say the least.

“Its not all about trying to do what you want anymore. Its letting her body and her emotions lead you…”

Leader follows… I am revisiting the idea.

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What? Do you know what you are talking about?

Indeed, this couple of days I found myself, being a “leader”, actually following the followers in the dance. It is actually quite simple.

In the dance, when woman walks back, we follow. “She goes, then you go” Maestro said. The lead is on the leader’s intention. The follow is on the leader’s movement. Sacada in giro is an another good example.

When I actually follow the women’s body and movement, I find more dynamics in the dance. Then come those playful moments, a little see saw: taking turns in the speakers’ role of tango conversation, a little cat and mouse: sacadas in giros, a little twist of the body… the list goes on as your vocabulary increases and understanding of music improves. The fun is endless.

That’s why sometimes I feel so depressed. Few understand this seemingly simple thing.

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