The short answer is this: Floorcraft is in its essence an observance and awareness of other couples in the room in relation to you, your dance partner, and vocabulary choices one makes whilst staying in the line, lane, and progression of dance of the rotunda at a milonga. Usually floorcraft issues arise due to the amount (or lack there of) of the available space a dancing pair can take up, *AND* at the same time the application of certain codes of etiquette of the dance. Like for instance, not stepping on anyone’s foot, or trying to keep your dance safe and contained as much as is humanly possible, etc.

Floorcraft is probably the single most talked about thing that most people complain about on either side of the gender divide. At the same time, most people, unless you point it out to them, have absolutely no idea what Floorcraft is, and/or why its an absolute necessity. The following is a paraphrased statement by Tony Rathburn out of Denver applies very nicely: Floorcraft is Dancing like the way you should Drive!. Well said. However, I disagree with the simplicity of that statement. While its very clear, very clean…it lacks a little clarity in terms of having it spelled out. As I have learned in dancing over the years…some folks really do need it spelled out for them.

With that in mind, I’ve put together my own list that takes into account several previous authors and their attempts at the subject via a recent thread on Facebook. Thanks to Robin, Vanja, Homer, Manuel, Debbi, and Tony, and many others I have forgotten.

What is below is not a complete list, but its my interpretation of the list of suggestions for floorcraft on a social dance floor. Your mileage my vary, and I reserve the right to change this list as the need arises. This list is by no means complete, nor is it as concise as it needs to be. It is a work in progress and Im not the sole author here. This is just my take on the issue of Floorcraft.

Rules of Floorcraft

1.) Leaders when entering the line of dance, make eye contact with the on coming traffic of leaders and acknowledge that you’d like to enter the line of dance and only do so when you have consented acknowledgement of the leader next in the lane of dance. Also remember that we want to have 1 couple merging into the Rotunda at a time, IE: Queue up!

2.) Keep your dance vocabulary limited to the size of the Lane and the Progression of dance of the rotunda. Avoid, stepping backwards into the line of dance, avoid leaving the lane of dance, and respect the space of the couples ahead you, behind you, and next to you, try not to tailgate or hold up the progression of the rotunda.

3.) Try to form multiple LANES of dance so that we can all share the space together. Keep the lanes moving in an orderly progression. Try to keep the ‘flashy’ moves to an absolute minimum, so that it doesn’t interfere or frighten other couples.

4.) When collisions happen: Smile, Make Eye Contact to acknowledge the collision, and then *APOLOGIZE* as soon as is humanly possible, even if you think you are right.

5.) In crowded spaces, try to keep your vocabulary limited to foundational movements in close or open, and really try to keep the follower’s feet on the floor. If you must throw a boleo, aim for the edges of the dance floor.

In my travels, and watching a lot of dancers, have noticed that there is a sharpness to certain dancers, a clarity in how they move, an economical behavior to their structure in body placement, in choices, in frequency. I would offer that this is ‘cleanliness’. Its not just a matter of keeping ones feet or knees together. Nope. That’s just the tip of the iceberg. There’s the rest of it, which is as I stated above, which boils down to ‘economy of movement’.

Let’s take a slice of this economy of movement thing apart. What I see is this: 1.) Tension is your enemy, because it doesn’t allow for a converstaion to occur. You’re too focused on the tension to allow a dialogue to happen, and you miss a whole lot of the conversation and the subtle undertones of what’s being said and why. I liken that to coming into conversation that’s already happening between your friends over dinner, with an anger and attitude of a bad day at the office. You’re vision of the conversation is clouded with the anger of the day you’ve just had. Tension in tango is just like that. Usually I’ve attributed tension to being fear based. However there’s another kind of tension, that is fully intentional and rather helpful. So in this case of Cleanliness, tension refers to the fear reaction that we have when we do something wrong, or miss something in the dance. Its a natural human instinct that has to be worked on constantly. 2.) Effortlessness. The old adage applies, “If you have to ask how much it is, you probably can’t afford it!”. The same thing is true in tango. If you have to apply force, then you’re doing something wrong. 3.) Ease. Think about walking to the bank, or to the store. You don’t think about this process of walking to the store. You just do it. You don’t examine it, you don’t consider it, you don’t even rationalize why you do it, you just know that its happening and that you’re getting from point A to point B. How you get from point a to point b is seemingly a lack of mental energy, and maybe not physical motion but definitely a lack in your mental perception of it. 4.) Smallness. Tiny. With all things the devil is in the details and usually those details, especially in tango, is in the small unseen things. Unseen yes, but definitely FELT. 5.) Lastly, Simplicity. The simple things are always the hardest. They require that you ‘grok’ in the fullness of time the studied item. For example. How perfect is a circle ? Even in the many variations of it, a stone circle? a hand drawn circle ? a bitmapped macdraw/macpaint circle ? a circle computed by bits and bytes ? A laser printed circle ? Pi computed out to 6 million digits ? The same is true in tango. Walking.

I think to redefine cleanliness we have to re-think what that actually is, and for me, I believe that’s an economy of movement. That’s the beginning of being ‘clean’. That ‘clean’ perception is just the beginning of clarity. The more clean you are, the more clear you become.

I once had a dance with my first tango teacher, after I’d been away from him for about a year, and he was leading me in milonga. I have never since had a milonga so quite clearly directed or danced in my life. I knew exactly what he wanted and how he wanted it. It was probably the single most satisfying dance I had had to that point in time. I remember it so vividly as to when I’m teaching milonga that is what I have in mind. Trying to convey to my students that sense of order, cleanliness, but more over…CLARITY of what was being asked of me. He wasn’t pushy, pokey, proding me. He just directed me WITHOUT force. Think back to when you were a child and your parents were taking you by the hand, and walking with you. You always felt that when you strayed from the intended path, they continuously guided you back to where you should be. Same thing. Only without the arm pulling, screaming, and crying associated with those experiences.

Clarity of purpose he used to say to me. “Miles, see her feet in your mind. I know where your feet are at all times. And because of that, I know where your body is going to be and how to move you so that you end up in the right place, at the right time.” Wiser words were never spoken, well in tango that is.

I think from my perspective these many years later, that his economy of movement created a clarity in his lead that was ‘effortless’.

The Default Vocabulary.

A Follower has 7 basic moves. Note I said ‘moves’, and not ’steps’. Let’s review just what those ‘moves’ are so that we can have a vocabulary of understanding each other a little bit.

Those moves are: 1.) Forward. 2.) Side. 3.) Back. The next 2 moves, comprise the first 3, with one minor difference, the judicious application of the principle of disassociation: 4.) Forward Ochos. 5.) Back Ochos. And the 6th comprises the first 5 moves: 6.) A Giro, or Molinete, or ‘Grapevine Turn’ to the left or right. Ok, so what’s the 7th ? The 7th is the Argentine Cross, if you’re ‘classically’ trained then you’ll think of this as steps 3 through 5 of the linear ‘Argentine Basic’ (there is another version of the ‘basic’ that works in the line of dance and curves).

The Leading Fallacy.

The leading fallacy is that the leader is doing all the ‘hard’ work, or the heavy lifting. In my opinion he’s nothing more than wallpaper, very fancy and pretty wallpaper, but wallpaper none the less.

To validate my point, do the following with a partner the next time you are at a practica: As a couple I want you to perform the following vocabulary – Walk*, Walk, Walk, Ocho, Ocho, Ocho, Molinete, Walk, Walk, Walk. Now, I want you to walk both sides of the vocabulary without a partner, just as if you were doing with a partner. Assuming you’ve completed the task, ask this question: Who did all the physical work, leader or follower ? [note: * 'walk' is 2 steps forward, one step forward on the right and one step forward on the left. 'ocho' is a complete ocho to the left or right. 'molinete' is one complete turn of forward, side, back, side, forward.]

Let’s break this down a bit, note what I asked: “Who did all the PHYSICAL work ?”. You’ll hear leaders *AND* followers respond to that question with ,”He’s leading her, he’s choreographing, navigating, interpreting the music, and dancing all at the same time, that’s so hard!”. My response to that is as follows:

“So you’re telling me that the car, horse, buggy, golf cart, train you’re driving isn’t doing anything at all ? That without you, the magical leader, you’d never get anywhere ? Really ? Ok, next time your ___________ (fill in the blank) is taking a day off, just try getting anywhere without it! You my friend are going to do an awful lot of walking that day.”

At this point there’s a lot of eye blinking, looking at of watches, checking cellphones, and a general sound of cricket’s chirping if it’s the right time of year. For those that are paying attention, someone will submit, “What about Musicality?”. My reply is: Tango is a conversation, and what most leaders state as ‘musicality’, is nothing more than a monologue in script! There must be a dialogue, and the space for that dialogue to occur! Otherwise its just someone speaking AT you. To be fair there are some people that like being led around by their noses. Its much easier for them, they don’t have to think or to be an active participant…they just want to let someone else do the driving.

A leader’s job in my opinion is to show off the follower. Create opportunities for the follower to be presented in the best possible light at all times, especially on a social dance floor, and that means dropping the antics and vocabulary and presenting the follower’s best attributes…always!

And in case you haven’t done your homework, and are wondering what the answer is to my query above, who is doing all the physical work ? The answer is: The Follower! The follower is doing all the work. Not the leader. As you’ll discover when you do the exercise, you’ll see that he’s doing nothing more than walking forwards, to and fro, and turning in place. While the follower is walking backwards, in heels, disassociating clearly and cleanly, extending their legs back behind themselves, and oh yeah, then there’s that little detail of a molinete…oy! And the lead is doing what ? hmmmm…yeah, lots of work there.

Summing up the absurdity of leading: The better I get as a lead I realize the less that I actually have to do. Which in turn validates the old axiom that LESS is MORE!

Putting It All Together.

I am not minimizing the importance of a leader, the leader has a role, I am simply putting them in their place, this includes the author. The leader is a guide, a shepherd, and a gentleman in the best sense of the word. At the same time I’m not elevating the follower to take over the dance, I am, however, empowering the follower to take control of their side of the embrace, through their defaults! Expanding a bit, the follower’s role is to perform those defaults mentioned above with an ownership of those movements! Take responsibility for what you do.

Example: As a leader, I may *ASK* for a side step in time to the music, however, the follower takes that request, responds to it to the best of the follower’s ability WITH OWNERSHIP & CONTROL of the MOVEMENT! That means the follower is responsible for the execution, timing within the musical selection, application of technique, and possibly an adornment of options to add a finishing touch!

What ends up happening is a rather amazing dynamic of gender roles personified, and at the same time, literally elevating each other to a greater prominence together than by themselves, i.e.: The sum of the parts is greater than the parts by themselves! By doing nothing, a leader becomes prominent because the leader is allowing the follower to perform their defaults which in turn makes the leader look like they’re being amazing when in fact, it’s an illusion.

I can. I can name a few of my favorites, and one in particular that has spoiled me personally for watching others dance milonga. And that would be Horacio Godoy & Cecelia Garcia:.

What does it for me, is the floating aspect to his movements. He literally looks like he’s floating to me, and then he’s sharp and quick like lightening…and it’s the sharp contrast between the two that really push my envelope. While Horacio is known for his Milonga, and very few can say that, he’s actually quite an amazing dance all the way around…and even more so he shows that he’s floating, as he does here with his partner Cecelia.

In my estimation Cecelia is no slouch. To be certain, if it weren’t for her, Horacio certainly wouldn’t be as ‘fab’ as he looks. She reads him like a book, cover to cover. He’s good, but she’s better, In my estimation. She is the sizzle that sells the dance, eg: what you’re watching. And frequently it is the extremes to what he takes her to that look so impossibly graceful, and like she’s floating…not like she’s being dragged across the floor but rather being tossed high in the air and floating down to earth, slowly as if on a cloud that’s resting down for the night. It is her abilities as a fluid, lurid response, and more over companion to his requests as a lead that just makes you spin your head around a few zillion times.

Who ‘floats’ for you ?

I am not the soul of all tango wisdom. That’s obvious. I am however a dancer that’s traveled further and farther than most. I teach now, mostly beginners and intermediates that are coming along the path behind me. I am by no means a ‘know it all’. What’s contained in these pages is the expression of some things that I have picked up along the way. I have been humbled more times than I can shake a stick at. I have tread a path ahead of most of you that you can’t even begin to imagine, so please take my words with a grain of salt or if you see some point of brilliance in them, share them, or not. I don’t really care. What I do care about is that this site is a work in progress and that as time goes forward I will correct the language of the know it all, and try from time to time to offer some helpful hints here and there that I have learned along the way. Maybe something will spark some resonance in someone somewhere and if that happens, I’d be very happy. If not, then there’s nothing here that you need to see further than to know that there is another dancer out here to dance with. Remember first and foremost I am a dancer, secondly I am a teacher of what I have learned. That’s it, that’s all.

1.) Right Arm/Left Hand. Pay close attention to the leaders right arm around the follower in close embrace, if you see wrinkles in the follower”s fabric from where the leader’s arm is, and an indentation of the follower’s clothing from his right arm…this is a good indicator that the leader is compressing the embrace, meaning pulling the follower into the leader. There is such a thing as having a ‘firm’ embrace, but that’s not what’s going on here. The difference between a firm embrace and this affect, is that the firm embrace is nearly always acting as a corral or container. Whereas in this case, its clear and simple compression, to hold the follower close to the leader, because the leader believes that that is how you tell the follower where to go. Be very careful. At the same time watch the leader’s left hand. Pay attention to the leader’s left hand hold. If that hand hold looks tight, like its a grip, it probably is! At the same time, pay very close attention to whether or not the leader uses the left arm as a metronome, as a way to keep time, because that left arm is connected to his left hand, which is connected to the follower’s right hand and right arm, and that means that the leader is literally jerking the follower around. Some people like this, I am not one of them. There is an exception here, and its a stylistic exception in my opinion. And its only in my opinion but when the leader is using the embrace or architecture of the dance to emphasize a musical point!

2.) Body Placement. Be cognisent of where the leader places the follower on the leader’s body in close embrace! If its off to the side…this could be a sign of trouble. This is my opinion here: The leader should be placing the follower just the left of the leader’s gigline (buttons on the shirt) and keeping the follower there. If the leader places the follower under the leader’s right arm, then the leader is literally asking the follower to change the geometry of the follower’s basic vocabulary, and not in a good way, but a challenging one. For example, if its ochos, then the ocho becomes flattened and linear. If its an argentine cross, then the result is an elongated forward crossing step where the cross is not clean and can’t be (feet together as they cross behind one another) because its physically impossible. There is such a thing as using what’s referred to as a “V” embrace, and that’s not what I’m on about. In the “V” embrace there is space between the bodies to allow for movement and the change in bio-geometry.

3.) Hips. Watch the leader’s hips, if they open in opposition of the follower in anything except for a back sacada or a reverse molenete…boy are you in for trouble. The leader’s hips should be parellel to his followers and in line with them…even in the cross, even in an ocho cortado. Hips to hips.

4.) Feet. Feet, feet, feet, feet. Clean feet. If the leader’s feet are pointing anywhere else except at his follower you have a problem child. What is meant by “Clean feet” is that you pay attention to ‘when’ the leader collects and ‘how’ the leader collects. The ‘when’ should be as the leader moves his center of gravity to closure or completion. The ‘how’ should be on a square, meaning the leader’s pads of the feet should be touching, the heels touch each other. There should be NO misalignment whatsoever. Period. If the leader can’t bring the leader’s feet together, then the leader will expect the follower to do a lot more work than the follower needs to, such as guess work as to where the leader wanted a weight change. To be fair, there are some leaders, even the best in the world who break this unwritten guide of ‘clean feet’ based on several factors, not the least of which is musicality, style, and last but not least, comfort. However, in all of those cases it is a choice, and not about being sloppy. And again to be fair, some leaders are just sloppy, forgetful, and unclean, including this author.

5.) Walking. The leader’s walk, if its gaping, loping, or just looks like its not anything but walking out for a stroll…its going to be rough dancing with this leader. You want a leader who literally ’strolls’ with you. You want THIS

6.) Musicality! This should be at the top of this list. However, here it is at number 6. What is musicality ? In its simplest form, the ability for a leader (and a follower) to hear the primary beat of the music and to follow it religiously. Above and beyond that is the real meaning behind musicality, and that’s the ability to take the musical beat and interpret it to do something else. This is an excellent example of a leader who uses the primary beat, to step on, and uses several accent beats in her boleos, as well as creating several terciary beats on top of what’s in the music.

7.) Clean. Clean Shirt, Clean Pants, Clean Shoes. Just Clean. Recently Shaven. If it looks nice, chances are it smells nice. Not always the case if it’s a busy lead, but hopefully this leader brings a change of shirt or jacket!

8.) Roughness. You are looking for jerky moves, and even in milonga. In my opinion, I believe that a leader’s movement should be smooth, clean, clear, almost like the leader is skating on glass. Nothing about what the leader does should disrupt the follower’s walk. Period. No if’s, and’s, or but’s about it. If it does, you’re in for a rocky ride.

9.) Posture. It should be relaxed and comfortable looking, not slouched, and at the same time, not stiff. What you should not see is ram rod straight, like the leader’s got a shaft up …. or slouched over. If the leader is hunched over, this means that the leader is literally taking away the chest from the followers, and that means in close embrace you literally have nothing to listen to (which is bad for the follower that hasn’t studied open embrace!). At the same time if the leader is ramrod then that means he’s stiff and moves like a board and that also means you’re going to get jerked around, staccato movements, jerky, shaky movements that are based on force and not gentility and balance. Side note: The leader’s head (this one is a deal breaker for me) should be upright, not into his followers necks – head over shoulders, Shoulder’s Over Hips, Hips over Feet! There are very few leaders that can actually pull off head into followers neck because it sends the energy of the lead outward and into the floor instead where it should be center of gravity!

10.) Navigation & Floorcraft. This one is key. If the leader can’t drive, then the license to drive should be revoked! Which is to say that you’re going to get bumped and chaffed all night long. If a leader is running figures all through out the tanda dance, you’re in it deep. Period. Pay attention here. Ask yourself this: Is this leader doing the same pattern over and over and over again with NO variation ? This is not about vocabulary but rather the vocabulary that the leader choses to show off the follower, and how the leader places that in the music, with the follower!

And now for the kicker, how much space the leader takes up to do that, whether its small and leaves no trace or when the leader’s driving other leaders just make a hole! One more thing…excessive ganchos or boleos into the lane, line and progression of dance is that the leader’s not aware of what the affect is on the space around the dance. Anything where the follower’s legs leave a standing position, should be pointed away from anyone else.

Again these are ideas, thoughts, and observations…NOT rules. They are guidelines. The language may depict “Do’s” and “Don’ts”, but its not to be taken as such, but rather a very strongly worded guideline for what to pay attention to while a follower is watching a room full of leaders.

Many moons ago, as a I was beginning my tango journey, and still thinking that I had many roads to walk. I still do by the way, I’m not done yet, simply because I teach. Its beginning was on a beach in Freeport, TX, teaching a beginner follower the foundations of her side of the embrace. It was born out of the many months I spent training a series of students in Houston, and the many months since then of answering the same questions over and over and over again.

Me being the programmer/software developer/web architect that I have been for the last 12 years (as of this writing), I saw the need to streamline the process of educating the student, and really myself (remember that we teach that which we most need to learn or practice!), and so I set to work about creating that streamlining process. But as I started down the pathway, a problem arose; one of many to come: How to create a series of videos that talk about tango but don’t necessarily talk about the mind-numbing details of technique that can create distance between the material and the student. And still another problem arose while I was thinking about the first: At the same time create a sense of ease or facileness with the dance itself. Talk about your tall orders. Sheesh! What I was hearing from my private lessons with beginner and ‘intermediate’ students was that the dance was too hard, difficult, complicated…etc. That the music really didn’t turn them on at all (well the leaders anyway). And that there were too many steps to learn, remember, and then use. It all looked so difficult and daunting to them.

Out in the field, or in the Tango World, everyone and their grandmother was teaching tango and at the same time, not talking about the underlaying technique at all, but just showing the demonstration of a particular movement or feature, and its left to the student to figure out how it was done. Not all teachers are like that by the way, there are a few that actually teach the underlaying technique and then take that technique and exemplify it and show branches of the technique tree, showing you where and HOW you can apply that technique. By example: Go out to YouTube and watch any of the hundreds (if not thousands by now) of either performance, or didactic demo videos (just by example) and you see absolutely nothing about the underlaying technique, just the application of that technique within the confines of a dance. There’s nothing wrong with this idea because it generates interest in the teacher, and puts money in their pocket eventually. It does create a problem that we as dancers run into (literally) every night that we go out social dancing: Leaders that push, pull, and repeat, and followers that hang, hover, and compress holding on for dear life! What it boils down to really is its the economics of the situation. Its because if a teacher shows the underlaying technique involved they’re giving their bread and butter away for free, and why bother taking private lessons in the first place, right ? When you can simply go out to YouTube and pull up a video by your favorite teacher talking about technique and showing you when, where, and how. Right ?

Another place was born out of learning to teach the dance itself. As a student of the dance, I had to take every class that I went to 3 times. Once as a Lead, Twice as a follower, and still a Third as a teacher (actually several times from several different teachers). As a teacher I had to learn multiple perspectives on the same technique and language that other teachers used. Still another was learning different modalities to talk about the same idea and technique. Which is to say that not all students learn the same way, some are visual students, some are auditory, some are kinesthetic. So for each, you have to create different modalities to explain the same material.

And still another place was seeing that the dance itself was so foreign to many people, off-putting, beautiful but off-putting. Its that there’s that “old squeaky music” danced by “old people” syndrome going on. When as we know, its not that at all.

As I started and restarted, stopped, rethought, discussed, started again, and again, and again, I kept seeing more and more reasons why such a project just wouldn’t work. Not a singular reason why it would. What would be its end product ? How would it be shot ? How would it be used ? All of these things. And more over, was I the right guy to be talking about any of this stuff ? And even more over than any of that, would anyone be watching them ? My original goal with this project was to create a place where I could talk about the foundations of the dance, making it accessible, easy to get, and demystifying it at the same time. Over time, my goal became much much simpler: I just wanted to do it and see what would happen. I wasn’t interested in making any money, and I wasn’t interested in being famous, and I certainly wasn’t interested in any kind of notoriety. The last thing in the world I need right now is *MORE* notoriety. If anything I need less! One thing that refused to go away though in my thinking was I realized that most people can’t handle more than 1 clear idea at a time over a 30 minute period. As a teacher you present an idea, and then you spend 30 minutes re-explaining that same idea over and over and over again, until the student gets what’s really going on. What came out of that is that in that 30 minutes, you actually do only 2 to 5 minutes of actual teaching, and the rest is reinforcement of that idea. That’s just how some people learn. Its not meant as a put down, its just that some people learn differently than others. So a requirement for this project was that whatever I did, had to be short, quick, and to the point: Succinct!

And that’s where this idea for Two Minute Tango came from, to talk about tango but at the same time make it accessible, easy to understand, presented in an atmosphere where you can clearly and cleanly see that this technique leads to X, Y, and Z.

See for yourself.

At some point in the near future, I’d like to open this project up to other people, and have them share their ideas with the project. However, there are some requirements that I’d like to have ironed out before hand…but I am headed in that direction.

Tango is 4/4 time. Vals is 3/4 time. Milonga is 2/4. Hence the 4,3,2. Got it. So what was he on about ? That Vals is 6/8 time. And that he knows a few musicians that will correct me endlessly. I point out to him that Vals is 3/4 time and then go on to show him several resources to back up my assertion. He waives that off to point out that there is a subtle difference in 6/8 time that makes it radically different from 3/4 time. Again shaking my head at him, I point out that they are the same thing, then go on to point out one thing that we both agree on which is this, when you are counting time in Vals, you count “One, Two, Three” with the primary beat being on the 1, and not the 3. Although there is a Vals rhythm, several in fact, that you can put to that so that emphasis is on the 3, and not the 1. Its very similar in temperature to the idea of Sincopa in Tango where you have a strong and a weak beat.

Naturally we agreed to disagree, and went back to our respective corners to argue another day (smile).

Noted reading so that we’re all on the same page:

Dos, Cuatro, Sincopa, and in case that link is dead, you can go here.
Also please look at this YouTube Video on Sincopa and Musicality.