Tango Dance Step Illustrations

One of the basic tools of social dance are tango dance step illustrations. For as long as social dance has been around, these illustrations have been used by teachers to reinforce the lessons, and also been used by novice dancers to get started on learning the basic steps in the tango.

There are two main schools of tango: International and Argentine. The former lends itself more easily to the use of diagrams and tango dance step illustrations, because it is a very rigid and formal kind of dance. Once the couple has set themselves in the "dance frame" they have very few variations where they will change it. When this frame is mastered, it is very easy to then simply learn the dance steps for each partner using the diagrams.

Usually diagrams come in matched pairs, one for the lead, one for the follow, and while certain moves such as the corté do change the dance frame a bit, that change is easily communicated either through photos or even drawings showing the positions of the people involved.

In Argentine tango, on the other hand, the movement is much more fluid and improvisatory. While there are probably more images, both in photo and graphic arts, of the Argentine tango than the International, that is simply because the line of the dancers' bodies is more dynamic, curving and changing and with a constant sense of implied motion. The dance step illustrations that serve International style (and many other ballroom styles of dance) so well do not begin to communicate the tempo, sense of connection, or dynamic tension of the Argentine tango. At best, these types of illustrations are only useful to help remember moves which have been learned in a live instructional situation.

There is a standard notation for dance step illustrations that makes it very easy to read and understand what each step entails.

• The left and right foot are usually indicated either by the shape of the foot, by one being black and the other white, by a small "L" or "R" in the diagram, or by any combination of these three. Regardless, it will be very clear which foot is which.
• The order of steps is shown by numbers – 1, 2, 3, etc. – usually shown on the foot that begins the motion (almost always the left foot).
• The motion of the foot is indicated by either a solid or a dashed line – the solid indicating the foot that moves first, the dash indicating the secondary motion of the following foot. Usually these lines begin and end with the silhouette of the foot in the position it should be in, and the dance student is left to extrapolate where the rest of the body will be.
• Some dance steps (such as the basic walk) are simple enough to only require one diagram with all the motions involved in it. Other, more complex steps require several diagrams to fully explain the pattern.
• Sometimes the shoes are shaped differently, reflecting a male/female aesthetic, in order to show the roles of lead and follow. However, many printers do not presume gender and simply use androgynous foot outlines to show the steps, with both sets drawn from the perspective of the dancer (that is, with the toes pointing at the top of the diagram) even though the dancers are usually facing each other.

With the advent of digital video dance lessons on the web, as well as the plethora of dance DVDs available, the use of dance step illustrations as teaching tools has declined in favor of much more useful and clear teaching tools. Some websites still use them, but it is very much a reflection of learning styles (where some people acquire knowledge better through text, some through visual, etc).

Regardless of the methods used to learn, the important thing when dancing tango is simply to get out there and dance. If you're having fun, odds are you are doing it right.

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