h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I searched for anything on dancing Salon Style Argentine Tango. Zip, zilch, nada. I found entries about dance, dancing, tango and so on, but nothing on this particular topic. Salon Style Argentine Tango is an extremely popular form of couple dance. People do it all over the world. And, it's something I'm particularly interested in. So, if you go to http://www.h2g2.com/A409457 you can take a look at what I wrote.

Enjoy!

You have a very emotional, flowing description of how it feels to dance the Salon Style Argentine Tango, but there's no mention of the actual mechanics of the dance. What kind of steps are used? What kind of beat is a tango? (3/4 time, halftime, 4/4, etc.) What is the traditional costume?

Perhaps this needs a link at least to the tango page (sorry, haven't looked at it yet, probably has all the information I'm wanting). You might be better off getting with the author of the tango page and expanding the topic a little - adding more info on the various styles of tango.

Thank you, the Tango is a very emotional, flowing dance. There are really only 4 steps to learn for basic Salon Style Argentine Tango (SSAT). You can: 1) step forward, 2) step back, 3) take a side step, either to the right or left, and 4) pivot on the ball of your foot to change directions. Which really isn't a step per se, but it's vital to dancing SSAT. And I mentioned that in the course of the article.

Tangos are quite definitly 4/4 time, and for the most part, get played between 60 and 65 beats per minute. There are three types of tunes people dance SSAT to. The Tango itself, Milongas, which are brighter, bouncier and a bit faster than a typical Tango, and finally people dance basic SSAT steps to waltzes. But regardless of the tune, SSAT utilizes the same core of steps: forward, back, side-to-side, and pivots.

I mentioned several times that SSAT is a completly improvisational dance and it's a completly lead dance. So outside of the 4 fundamental steps I've mentioned, there really aren't any other steps required to dance basic SSAT.

There is one exception to that. To understand the exception, I need to explain about tracks for a bit.

There are three tracks you can dance on: inside, center, and outside. For the most part you dance on the center track, which means that the center line of the man matches up, more or less, with the center line of the woman. You don't line up exactly center to center because you'll trod on each others toes. That's nearly universally regarded as bad form. Therefore, you offset just a bit so that the man's right foot is between the woman's feet, and the woman's right foot is between the man's feet. That's center track.

With inside track, you dance so that the man's right foot is to the left of the woman's right foot. Which means her center line is shifted to the right of the man's center line. Outside track is simply the reverse of inside track. The man's left foot is to the right of the women's left foot, and her center line is to the left of the man's.

In SSAT, you can dance center track and outside track forever. However, should the man shift to inside track, the woman is supposed to "walk to the cross." That means the second time her left foot comes down, she crosses it behind her right foot. This brings the couple back to center track.

As far as there being a traditional costume for dancing SSAT? There isn't any. SSAT gets danced in nightclubs and bars. People wear what they normally wear to a nightclub. At least around here, where I live, people try to dress to the nines when they go out to dance SSAT. You're there to see and be seen, so people typically wear whatever they'd wear to a semi-formal cocktail party.

SSAT gets danced internationally. It originated in Buenos Aires, Argentina about 100 years ago, but it's danced world wide now. As I write this it's 3:30 am local time, I'll guarantee there are people in nightclubs somewhere dancing SSAT as I type.

Aside from elico's excellant article, "Tango to San Telmo" at:
[URL removed by moderator]
there really aren't any other articles about dancing SSAT on h2g2 at least. His article goes into the history of the dance. I intended mine to describe how it feels to dance SSAT.

If you want to learn more about how to actually dance SSAT, find a local instructor and take lessons. Here's a website that might assist you:
[URL removed by moderator]

Hi

I read and really enjoyed your entry on Salon Style Argentine Tango- and then I see this post too... how about you have a go at working this post into the enty, to explain the mechanics of it...
Apart from that, I found it very compelling.

Only the Powers That Moderate may know why the link in the middle of posting 3 was squacked, so here again: http://www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/guide/A296219 Note: there's a /B/, another /B/, and a /C/ immediately following each other. My poor brain says this adds up to 'BBC' and thus is an /internal/ link. As to the entry, I think it's got all that it needs, and inserting the posting shouldn't be too difficult to manage for a SubEd, and a suggestion has been posted to the Peer Review as (attention, this is another internal link): http://www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/guide/F48874?thread=108310

Thank you for your kind words. I just updated the article a bit to include the discussion of "walking to the cross" and such.

glad to see you didn't leave forever!

Editorial Note: This conversation has been moved from 'The h2g2 Writing Workshop' to 'Dancing Salon Style Argentine Tango '.

This entry has already been edited via Peer Review...