Within the category of dance hall Argentine tango, which is sometimes called “salon,” different dance styles exist. Read more about dance hall Argentine Tango here. “Milonguero” is one style. What is it and how is it different from other dance hall Argentine tango styles?
This article defines the milonguero style by describing the mechanics of its leading and following, and the consequences of these mechanics. “Mechanics” refers to how a leader/follower pair interact physically.
Both women and men can be leaders or followers in Argentine tango. There are no rules that restrict particular genders to either role. However, in this article, for the sake of simplicity in using gender pronouns, I will use “he” to refer to the leader and “she” to refer to the follower.
The Mechanics of Leading and Following Milonguero Style
The milonguero style relies on the follower’s ability to maintain her axis and the leader’s ability to sense her axis through the embrace. The axis is an imaginary vertical line that the leader feels as the center of the follower’s body. The leader generates the follower’s movements by accelerating and decelerating her axis. The leader imparts force, from the very subtle to the more obvious, to the follower’s axis through the embrace and takes her axis through a variety of trajectories while the follower steps to the beat of the music. The follower allows her feet to fall onto the point on the floor that is a natural consequence of the position of her axis and how the leader has accelerated her body.
I will exaggerate to further illustrate this point: in the milonguero style, the follower’s body is the instrument of the leader. The leader positions and accelerates the follower’s axis to generate almost all of the follower’s movements. The follower perceives the leader’s acceleration and deceleration as “leading.”
The follower does not interpret the position of her axis and her acceleration to compute what movements she’ll make. There is no computation. There are no hand signals transmitted from the leader to the follower. There is no reading, computation, or thought involved on the side of the follower. The leader literally moves her axis via their embrace and she allows the dance to happen by simply maintaining her axis and stepping to the beat. The leader generates the follower’s movements.
The milonguero style leader does not expect the follower’s body to execute a complete step in response to the force he’s imparted. He’s smoothly accelerating her axis through his intended trajectory and observing how her body is moving in response. He adjusts his lead to make the acceleration feel comfortable to the follower. This constant acceleration and adjustment results in the feeling of a physical connection between the leader and follower.
It’s important to note that accelerating the follower’s axis can generate a surprisingly large variety of follower movements. You’ll hear milongueros say “the master milongueros generate even the embellishments of the followers.” That’s true. This is stated not as a way to say “milonguero leaders want to micromanage the follower.” This is stated to say “even the movements that most people imagine cannot be led through the milonguero style, in fact, can actually be led.”
In the same way that a piano that is constrained to 88 keys can still play an infinite variety of songs, the milonguero style that is constrained by close embrace supports an infinite variety of dances.
Why would anyone volunteer to be a follower in the milonguero style because the follower is reduced to being a tool of the leader?
One reason is that the follower’s outwardly visible movement is NOT the only outcome of the leader’s leading. A good leader imparts force onto the follower’s body that expresses the emotion or some other aspect of the music. The force does not have to be “big.” A sensitive follower perceives his trajectories as musicality; feeling a leader’s musicality is an important second outcome. A milonguero follower enjoys the musicality of the leader.
Each leader’s unique set of favorite movements and unique interpretation of music result in his unique musicality. This is why milonguero followers often have favorite leaders for songs by a particular orchestra or a particular type of tango song: waltz, milonga, or tango. Each leader brings a different type of musicality that the follower enjoys.
Doesn’t this style put followers in a submissive role where the leader dictates the dance for the couple?
That’s one way to interpret the relationship, but here’s another way. A roller coaster serves the rider by imparting fun and excitement to the riders, but the roller coaster determines where the steep falls and turns are. The riders enjoy the ride. In this analogy, the roller coaster is the leader and the rider is the follower. The leader serves the follower, so in some sense, the leader is in a submissive role. If a roller coaster is boring, then the rider can choose to stop riding it.
A good milonguero leader’s dance reflects the feeling of the music. Two very different songs result in two different dances. The leader is crafting in real time, the follower’s ride by expressing the music in the dance while he is negotiating the space constraints of a dance floor where others are dancing.
A good milonguero leader and a good follower will connect with each other at the physical level and also share a common appreciation of the song through their movements. Some followers find this shared musicality the most enjoyable part of the dance. This is a matter of taste for each person.
Remember, any gender can take on either the role of leader or follower; I just happen to be using “he” for leader and “she” for follower for simplicity.
Why can’t followers express the music with their movements too while dancing the milonguero style?
Of course followers can.
A safe way a follower can express the music through her improvisation is by constraining her movements to the space that the leader and follower already occupy and not disrupting the trajectory of their movement. The leader may be taking the follower through a movement — possibly to avoid a collision. Larger movements that make the couple travel across the dance floor or increase the space occupied by the couple are discouraged because they increase the likelihood that the couple will collide with another.
If the follower wants to move the position of the couple, then the leader and follower must have an agreed upon way to transition the responsibilities of navigating while dancing; the follower must know how to lead; and the leader must know how to follow. Because executing the above is complicated, in the milonguero style, the follower is not expected to lead.
Large blind kicks made by the follower in a direction she can’t see is probably not the safest movement. This constraint is not particular to the milonguero style but common across all dances that share the floor with other couples. In empty dance floors with tons of space, safety is less of a concern.
In general, in the milonguero style, the leader leads and the follower follows. Because the leader is responsible for avoiding collisions, the leader often determines the movements of the couple and thus what the couple does. The leader determines the timing of the follower’s opportunity to add her musicality. Remember, women can lead and men can follow, so this isn’t meant to be a sexist relationship where the leader “dominates” the follower.
Milonguero Style Requires Close Embrace
In the milonguero style, the leader continuously accelerates the follower’s axis. In order to effectively do this, the couple is almost always in close embrace. The embrace is the entirety of the hug. It includes any contact point where the two people touch: the chest, the arms, the back, and everywhere else that serves as a surface that can impart or receive force.
This embrace is not rigid. In general, the chests and hips of the couple face each other. The leader can execute movements that require him to impart force through different parts of his chest — the right side of his chest rather than the center. In these moments, the leader visualizes his chest as a cylinder that runs parallel to his body’s axis. The chest is a curved surface where only parts of the surface are in contact with the follower. Force is imparted through the areas of contact.
Sometimes, some momentary separation is necessary to execute a movement.
Close embrace does not permit the couple enough room to execute some popular “moves” that require lots of space. Dismissing milonguero style entirely because “there’s no room for these moves” might be too drastic. Remember, within the constrains of close embrace, a leader can still create infinite variations by varying how he accelerates the follower’s axis.
Milonguero style is still worth exploration because you gain the benefit of shared musicality at the cost of “moves” that dancers might want to do.
Milonguero Style Requires the Follower to Maintain an Axis
How does a follower maintain an axis? The follower strengthens her lower back to maintain connectivity between her torso and her hips. The leader senses her axis because when he accelerates her body, the connection between her upper body and lower body makes the entirety of her body move as a single unit with her vertical axes as the center.
Imagine if the follower relaxed her lower back. What would happen when a leader accelerates her upper body? Her lower body would unlikely move in concert with her upper body. She would absorb the force that the leader has imparted on her torso and this force never transfers to her lower body. Her legs would not follow her upper body. The follower would not be following the leader.
By placing strength in her lower back, the follower connects her upper body to her lower body. This allows the leader to feel her legs dangling from her hips. The follower’s axis wiggles from the movements of her legs. A leader can feel the follower’s axis wiggling and can then infer the position of her legs and her lower body. The leader can also impart force onto the follower’s axis so her legs swing a particular way. Master milongueros know how to accelerate a follower’s axis through a particular trajectory that generates an embellishment.
It’s important to note that the follower must learn how to apply the “right” degree of strength/tension in her legs for the leader to sense them through her axis. If a follower puts a lot of strength into her legs and stiffens them, then to the leader, her legs will feel like solid bars hanging from her hips. In contrast, if she puts less strength in her legs, her legs will feel more like rope dangling from her hips and the leader will be able to more impart the right amount of force in the right sequence to her axis to shape her legs. In general, the strength that a follower puts into her legs should be constant so her legs respond consistently to the forces imparted by the leader.
Conclusion
Milonguero style isn’t for everyone. For people who want to explore a dance that allows two people to enjoy shared musicality, milonguero style is worth exploring. Those who feel more satisfaction from demonstrating tango moves, and feel that its more important that both the leader and follower have equal say in the moves that are executed as a couple, should avoid the milonguero style.
