What is tango musicality?

When we learn the structure and the content of Argentine tango, we inevitably focus on the mechanics and function of movement - often without connecting to the music. It takes all our concentration to remember how to move with our partner. Without realising the omission, we continue to build our skills as dancers outside the scope and influence of the music.

We help dancers to develop a deep connection with the music to share with their partner. It is a beautiful and essential part of the language of this dance. By connecting with the music, we can transform functional movement into gestured movement, full of nuance and expression. 

It is worth considering that Argentine tango is fundamentally a walk in a close embrace. But most of us have made millions of steps of walk before we started to dance. Our brain and our body know how to walk without any conscious engagement in the process. So walking is a functional movement to get us from A to B. Dancers need to dance the walk with the music. 

Unfortunately, our brains and our bodies have deep muscle memory that defaults to walking the dance with no real connection to the music.

Musical movement is inspired by each tango, and as each tango is unique in its musical storyline, a musical dancer moves differently to each track.

At Tango UK you work with a life-long musician who has developed an inspirational and fun way of engaging with the music. You do not need any previous musical experience and the sessions do not assume any musical knowledge. At the heart of our teaching is a focus on helping dancers to move as if they were playing their body like a musical instrument along with the orchestra.

Steve combines his musical experience with his skills as a performer and creative artist to produce a learning environment that is engaging, informative and fun to participate in. Here are some videos that have been used as visual aids in musicality classes to give you a flavour of the learning space.