The Three Cs: Connection, communication and comfort (part 1 of ?)
Recently, I have been giving more and more thought to the embrace in tango. I would like to share some of those thoughts on how three elements create and maintain the embrace.
Mark Word has often written of the Three Ms in tango: Music, eMbrace and Movement. I suggest that the embrace is built upon three Cs: Connection, Communication and Comfort.
Together, these Cs form the three legs of a stool that establish the structure of the embrace and help define tango.
Here is how I see them:
Connection: This element refers to the physical touch we share as well as the mental (intellectual and emotional) attention and intention we use to maintain awareness of our selves and our partner.
Communication: Argentine tango is a spontaneously improvised dance. We are engaged in a deep dialogue using only our bodies to co-create our dance in the moment.
Comfort: Although we are engaged in movements that can be physically challenging (e.g. engaging our cores, pushing the floor and dissociating), we can only do this over the course of hours in a night if we seek to establish comfort in our bodies and for our partners.
Taking these three elements together, I would offer the following description for a tango embrace:
A tango embrace is the physical touch and mental awareness that we share to co-create the dance and which is constantly being adjusted to allow our bodies to be as comfortable as possible while maintaining good personal form and technique.
The following video provides some great examples of how Sebastián Achaval and Roxana Suarez use these elements.
I suggest that you watch this video once simply to enjoy it. They are fun dancers. Then, watch it again looking only at their embrace (i.e. their arm and hand positions). Observe how flexible their embrace is allowing them to dynamically and quickly create or reduce space. Sometimes it is very loose. Other times, it is quite taut. Notice how frequently Roxana adjusts her left arm.
I will leave the rest of the observations to you, but I will point out one treat from 1:47-1:51.