I was hesitant to use this title at first, but it is a real question some folks are asking online about Argentine Tango! So there it is, can one Tango when drunk?
This post opens a new category added to Tango Bohemia blog – Tango Question and Answers. Many are curious about Tango dance, and I’ll be happy to answer questions as they come in or when I find them online. Now onto the drinking and dancing subject.
Many milongas (Tango dance parties) provide some wine as well as allow dancers to BYOB. Almost always everything is just fine and a bit of wine brightens the mood and allows guests to unwind and relax. However, on occasion a person may have a glass (or two) too many. What happens then?
Nothing bad as far as the behavior, but it does have an interesting affect on his or her dancing! Tango is quite sensitive to one aspect of the dance – the balance. When two people connect, they are supposed to “own” their side-to-side axis, while sharing a front-to-back one. And it is the side-to-side balance that can suffer during the dance.
If we were dancing at a distance, it would have been quite forgiving. But since most of the time we dance Tango in a so called close embrace, with dancers in close contact, the loss of a balance by one person inevitably affects the his/her partner’s balance and makes it hard or even impossible to enjoy the dance…
And this is why drinking and dancing Tango do not mix, pretty much like drinking and driving. And yes, I am speaking from experience :)
Now, even without imbibing most folks could use some help with their balance. We do a special balance exercise on a regular basis in our group classes. I’ll briefly describe it here: when walking forward we make a step and then put the other foot back and behind the first one. While keeping weight on the first foot, we carefully “unwind” the back-crossing foot by circling it around and in front of the first foot. After (almost) a full circle we make another step with the same foot. This cycle continues. Then we repeat the same exercise when walking back. What fun!
Of course, if a picture is worth a thousand words, then actually doing this exercise in a class would be worth…a million? :) You can be worth This much quite easily – just visit out Beginner Tango Lessons page and join the fun!
To close this post I want you to see the video below of The Perfect Balance:
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