The Simple Tango Tip That Transformed My Stability
Podcast and transcription.
Discover the surprisingly simple yet powerful technique that can instantly make your tango walk and turns feel more stable and controlled. Embrace the rhythm of “push the sand, pull the sand.”
Listen to the podcast here or in your favourite podcast app.
Hi, this is Dimitris Bronowski, the curious tanguero. My goal is to bring more people to tango and more tango to people. I hope you’ll find this episode useful and that you’ll share it with your friends.
Today we’ll discuss a tip that helped me be a lot more stable in my dance.
One of the shortest and yet most effective advice I ever received when it comes to being grounded and stable:
‘Push the sand, pull the sand.’
‘Push the sand, pull the sand.’
‘Push the sand, pull the sand.’
To put this into action do the following:
- Take a few steps forward as if you were dancing.
- Now imagine that you’re dancing on the beach. As you project forward push the sand with your projecting leg.
- Then transfer your weight to the other leg and as you collect pull the sand forward with your back leg.
- Once you pass the zero position (feet together) project forward while pushing the sand.
Take a few steps.
Now try the same when stepping left and right.
Push the sand during the projection phase, and pull the sand during the collection phase.
Do it slowly, putting all your focus on it.
Your walk and side steps should feel ten times more stable.
Try that during ochos, sacadas, giros.
Try it when the music becomes deeper and heavier (Pugliese would be great for it).
Recommend it to the followers you are practising with.
Print it on a t-shirt and wear it in every class, clean or not.
Push the sand, pull the sand, push the sand, pull the sand.
Tango Karate Kid style.
Push the sand…
Pull the sand…
On that topic, leaders:
If you feel that a follower is pulling you, it might be because she is not continuously pushing and not collecting sand, but instead going from A to B as fast as possible.
That also might have as a result that when you walk with her, after the first step, you both keep ‘falling’ toward the direction of the walk.
This also has often the result that you feel as if you are running behind her when she does a giro.
Followers who don’t push and pull the sand are everywhere (leaders too).
Use this realisation to understand why you dance well with some followers and bad with others.
An extremely important concept that will help you even more is understanding the difference between leading from the end position versus leading from the middle position. The middle position is where all the magic of tango happens, where leaders can create an extremely clear lead and followers can dance in flow. This is where elegance happens. You’ll find a link to that in the welcome email of the curious tanguero newsletter to understand it. So if you are not subscribed yet, simply go to thecurioustanguero.com and join.
If you enjoyed what you learned in this episode, don’t keep it to yourself. The best thing you can do is to share it with your friends. That’s what social media and messaging apps are for. You’ll be helping them and me.
The second best thing you can do is to visit thecurioustanguero.com/argentinetango There you’ll find a list of free and paid resources to help you improve and enjoy your tango. I am updating that webpage often with new stuff so make sure to re-visit it every once in a while. thecurioustanguero.com/argentinetango