Modern Tango World N° 4 (Bucharest, Romania) | Page 46

Tango Moves

B

Raymond Lauzzana

In the last issue, we talked about the organization of the dance floor and various
ways to commence the dance (salidas). Remember, it takes more than music and
dancer to tango. The dancer must have a partner. You might and should practice
alone. But, you aren’t dancing tango until you have a partner. The essence of how
the tango works is the connection (la conexión), the way in which the dancers embrace (el abrazo). There has been a lot of discussion about what the correct embrace
should be. Instead of entering into this debate, the various types of embraces will
be presented, leaving the reader to decide which embrace suits the music, their
style, and their partner. No matter which embrace is chosen, at any time during the
dance, it is fundamentally important to maintain a connection.
There is a common misconception that there are
only two types of embraces - closed and open. In
fact, there are many embraces and many ways that
the partners may maintain their connection. We’ll
explore a few of them. There are many more. In all
cases, whether open or closed, a tango embrace is
not rigid,. It is firm, but relaxed, like a freindly hug.

Basic Embraces

First, let’s cover the basic embraces and consider
the most common terms used to describe the embrace. In all of the basic forms, the partners face
each other with the leader left hand holding the
follower’s right hand.
Closed Embrace (Abrazo Cerrado)
This is probably the most common tango face-to-face
embrace, The dancers’ chests are closer to each other
than their hips.The dancers may be in contact at about
the level of the chest. The point of contact will differ
depending on the difference in height of the dancers.
In the modern form of closed embrace, the dancers
do not hold their upper bodies arched away from
their partner. Instead, each dancer maintains their own
individual axis.
Open Embrace (Abrazo Abierto)
A common for all styles of tango dancing. In open embrace, there can be as much space as desired between
the partners. In the open embrace, the chests are not
in contact. But, complete contact is maintained in the
embracing arms to give optimum communication. The
dancers do not maintain head-to-head contact and
they vary the space between them as they dance. Often, the follower may reduce the embrace to holding
the leader’s biceps, while the leader may limit the right
hand contact to the follower’s waist during dynamic
movements.

Same Hand Hold for Doble Frente (Al Reves)
Alexandru Eugen Cristea & Alina Pelmus
— Photo by Cristian Martis

Close Embrace (Abrazo Intimo)
Oft times confused with the closed embrace, the close
embrace is quite different. Those that dance in close
embrace, usually maintain the same embrace thruout
the dance and never change their hold.

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