What to wear for tango? The most important thing is to feel comfortable and to be able to move easily. You need clothes that won't desert you during the twists and turns of the rolling embrace so I tend not to wear wrap dresses or too low cut tops. Also for men a t-shirt that is very open-necked will get pulled about as you move with your partner. A lot of Argentinian men like to wear a jacket to dance in and it does give a very forgiving silhouette but on the other hand you get hot and have quite a barrier of tailoring between you and your partner. I tend to wear a skirt or dress because I get too hot in trousers - but in our dance studio in the middle of winter that's not such a problem! Skirts can't be too tight because you won't be able to take long enough strides or long and flappy because your heel could get caught in your hem when you do those typical flicky, kicky tango moves. I tend to dress up for tango socially because I get more dances when I make an effort to look good and even when I'm teaching I dress up so I look better in our films on YouTube! But there's nothing at all wrong with tango in jeans and a t-shirt; it's not about how you look but how you feel and how you move.
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Tango makes you happy! But how does it do it? Tango is unique among partner dances for the shared axis. We give some of our weight to our partner in the embrace so that the mutual balance point is somewhere between the couple and both partners feel fantastically light and weightless as they move together. I feel like I'm flying when I dance apilado giving some of my weight to my partner, it's a really liberating feeling. But the real benefit of the shared axis is the sensitive mutual non-verbal communication we use to make it happen. This deep interpersonal interaction – sensitive shared cooperation with another person - in tango makes our bodies naturally produce positivity promoting organic chemicals, such as dopamine, as a result of this interaction. So tango promotes well-being and psychological health and keeps us happy.
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AuthorMiriam Gita dances Argentine tango with pure joy and loves to share with you her tango experiences and insights Archives |
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