Note:
This book tries to explore the elements regulating the tango step movements as a couple (El tango es caminar) and is directed at tango dancers and lovers. Every couple’s tango step is unique in its biomechanical characteristics as a consequence of musical interpretation and performance requiring very subtle and refined body control, where everyone has their role. Transmitting the knowledge of the similarities and differences of the normal step had for the goal a simplification and improvement of the couple’s movement allowing for one’s increase in their interpretative capacity, in the search of lightness! Knowledge of the technical aspects regulating the mechanisms of the tango step does not reduce its emotional aspect. On the contrary, proper technical control allows for greater emotional expression. Many of the technical elements handed down by the founding fathers of tango have been the author’s cardinal points. Further contribution has been provided by an experimental biomechanical study of the tango step performed at the Università Politecnica delle Marche (UNIVPM), Ancona, Italy.
Foreword by Gustavo Naveira, Teacher, Choreographer and Dancer of Argentine Tango
…All in one step ” is a true innovation in this sense since it is, in my opinion, the first time that a serious investigation of scientific scope has been carried out on the “ tango step”. It is an invaluable contribution to the entire tango community which, although it devoted (and rightly so) to the passion of dance, is also “passionate” about always dancing better and better ...The reading of this work was a great breath of fresh air for me, a feeling of well-being ... Let me emphasize the clarity of the concepts and definitions, the intelligence of the careful linking of the elements in order to lead the reader towards a complete understanding of the situation ... the joy that the illustrations convey, one of particular charm and precision, left me suddenly finding myself with an irrepressible smile,…the glossary and the appendix dedicated to the rigorous graph that allows the scientific visualization of the biomechanical analysis are also very useful. I want to deeply thank my friend and colleague Giorgio Gaggiotti, and by extension Professor Sandro Fioretti, for this wonderful work that has begun a path of absolutely necessary enlightenment and I strongly recommend that all lovers of Argentine Tango read it since knowledge will always benefit the quality of our dance ... and therefore our quality of life.
Layout
The book is organized into six sections and an appendix: Section 1 Contains the basic principles that regulate balance and movements of the human body. Section 2 Posture and the tango embrace, which are the essential elements of the social tango (tango de pista o de salon), are analyzed. Section 3 The kinematic elements that characterize the normal forward and backward step are analyzed and compared to those characterizing the tango. Section 4 The mechanisms of walking together as a couple are analyzed. Section 5 Details of the tango step are described. Section 6 Contains the basic concepts of movement learning and breathing. Appendix It contains the results of the comparison between the normal step and the tango step obtained by an experimental study of biomechanics (Gait analysis A simplified language has been used with examples, metaphors and even repetition of concepts to make it easier to read, preferring clarity to formality. The book sections are organized in chapters. At the beginning of each chapter, there is a visual scale (red dots from 1 to 5) that indicates its difficulty. Unfamiliar terms have been collected in a glossary at the book’s end. Furthermore, the book’s large number of illustrations not only serve as clarification of technical details in tango but also to understand biomechanical concepts which aren’t always intuitive. |
