One of my favorite topics to explore in tango is contrast. To me, contrast is the spice of the dance and the heart of improvisation. A definition of contrast is “to show differences”. Therefore, we need to have something to differ, something to change.

A couple of examples could be as follows:

Speed: slow/fast

Tone: tense/relaxed

Embrace: close/open

An exhaustive list is beyond this post, but you see that you could take this in many directions.

There are two points I want to offer in relation to contrast.

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The first is that when you contrast qualities like this within the vocabulary and techniques you already know, their combinations begin to grow substantially.

If you start with the foundation idea that you have a left leg and a right leg; they go forward, back, side, stop and pivot, you have 10 options at any moment.

If you change speed from slow or fast, those options double. If you modulate your tone between tense and relaxed, you doubled that again.

With just two qualities contrasted, you have 40 options in any moment! There are certainly other qualities that can be contrasted and some of them could have as many as five or more levels.

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Okay so the second point.

Oftentimes, the idea of contrast seems to revolve around the idea of moving from one extreme to the other. Always being at an extreme can be tiring. But more important from the idea of artistic expression, I think this method eventually dulls the impact that the extremes can have.

If you are always fast, you will be exhausted. Think being fast in milonga for the entire song. Most of us didn’t come to tango for aerobics. If you are always slow, it might feel boring.

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This second idea of neutral brings me to the concept of contrasting our qualities from our neutral state. This concept requires that we first find the neutrals in our bodies relative to the various qualities we wish to contrast.

If we think about moving to the beat (i.e. following the basic compas), tango neutral tends to be to move on the first and third beats of a measure. If that is our neutral, the we can move on every beat (i.e. fast), or even the moments in between the beats (faster!). We can move only on a singular beat within a measure (slow). We could even find moments to pause (so slow we are no longer in external motion).

But in between, it feels good to come back to neutral: the basic 1 and 3 that is the basic tango compas.

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But this neutral continues to intrigue me.

When two people meet on the dance floor for the first time, we often talk about how they need to calibrate to each other.

While this is obvious the adjustment two bodies need to make in order to be comfortable, the discussion is often about “levels” or “styles”.

I offer that the most fruitful calibration is when each partner is aware of their neutrals and they offer their neutral to their partner. Then, the calibration is how to bring these neutrals together such that both bodies are as close to their individual neutrals as possible.

Calibrating this way allows each body to be comfortable and provides the opportunities to play with and emphasize all of the contrasts that the partners want to explore.