It takes two to Tango
It all started by an invitation from a friend to cover an event & it ended up by me learning Tango dancing." Tango isn't just about the moves it is all about feelings…your deep internal feelings" That is what Dentist Khaled said in the beginning of the orientation session of the Egyptian Tango club day.
Khaled & Azza, Tango instructors in Alexandria showered me with a lot of details about Tango telling that it all started by Ramy William 10 years ago after he watched the movie "Scent of a woman, he was so touched by the dance of Al Pachino, so he decided to travel to Argentina, he was very lucky to learn from the great performer Miguel Zotto directly, and then he came back to Egypt to teach his friends, and this is how the Tango passion was transferred to Egypt.
Explaining the core of the tango dancing Azza said with a big smile" Tango is the embrace; it's a big part of the dance which makes it passionate. The moves are natural and fluid, and the dance does not include any fake or artificial movements"
Tango got many styles, but there are 2 main tango styles, Tango de Salon: It is typically danced with an upright body posture with the two dancers maintaining separate axes; and the second style is Tango Milonguero (Tango Apilado ):where the partners dance in closed embrace, The expression "Milonguero Style" was first used in the mid-1990s, although this close-embrace style of dancing had existed for decades.
Getting into the rhythm:
A dancer is like a musician; a musician makes a movement like striking the piano, and then... comes the sound. It means that, in an anticipating moment, the sound is inside him before it comes out. A dancer starts a movement and steps at the moment that the sound appears or instantaneously following it, he is "one" with the music because he knows the music by heart.
The legendary dancer Carlos Gavito, recognized tango dance, saying: First, to dance it is to know how to listen to music. The secret of tango is in this moment of improvisation that happens between step and step: to dance silence. It is like listening to the street at night.
The meaning of Milonga
Milonga is a frequently used word in Tango & itself means party. It also refers to the event where people go to dance tango.
Sometimes it refer to a style of music and dance which appeared in Buenos Aires and gained great popularity before the tango, and still danced till today.
Tango Etiquette
Tango is a social dance; this means that tango provides opportunities for people to communicate, to meet, and to make social relationships, and on the dance floor socializing means to respect other couples.
A DJ usually play 3 or 4 songs of the same orchestra or style followed by a one minute cortina (pause), this is only when you want to stop dancing with our partner and say "thank you", and the set of 3 songs is called a "tanda".
Asking for and accepting or refusing a dance: The classic phrase used in asking a woman to dance is: "may I have this dance?", a woman may smile and reply: "yes, indeed, thank you.", if she wishes to refuse, she needs only to say: "I'm sorry, but I'm not dancing just now.", and if she cannot convey by the tone of her voice the idea that her refusal is not a criticism of the refused partner she might add: "won't you come and sit with us, anyway?" or some such friendly remark.
Finishing dance with one partner: A man returns his partner to the place where he found her unless another partner comes to invite her for dance.
