The Embrace

Frances shares her feelings about the Embrace in tango with Tango 178. Frsnces is a writer, journalist and dances both lead and follower roles in tango

Tango The embrace - a hug - why do we like it, if done in the right spirit, and why is it good for us? We know that as babies if we do not have physical touch, we don't produce the hormones needed for our brain to develop...

I had assumed the word tango was derived from Latin 'tangere', to touch - 'tango', I touch. But Simon and others who know a lot more about it, have told me tango is the name of an African drum beat. Although tango music never has drums, we still step to a beat traditionally carried by the double bass or piano, and reinforced by the bandoneon or violin giving the 'yumba' quality. This driving rhythm without the drum gives a poetic absence at the heart of tango music, Simon suggests, and it makes sense to me, and maybe this is part of what we are pursuing when we dance to it.

Is it that when we hug, in a small way we take responsibility for holding the other person together, or share it with them for a few seconds? So, you hug when someone needs comfort, to congratulate them - sharing their joy - or when we greet each other. We hug young children more often and for longer as we carry them, giving them a respite from having to hold it together on their own. And when you dance tango, you share the holding of each other together, with our hands taken care of on our partners back and in their hand; at the same time, you don't focus on it, it is incidental, it matters but you shouldn't let it.

I am also a believer in the embrace of nature - when you lie on a beach, in long grass, under a tree and look up into its canopy of branches or walk through a wood and pass between the trees' trunks and outstretched arms.

You push from, not down to the floor and that translates as density and lightness within the embrace with your partner while also rooting and giving upwards strength to yourself. People talk of the floor being the third party in the dance - without energy coming from the floor, you have no momentum. I think it translates into the rest of life - literally caressing and pushing from the ground, helps you caress and hold your ground with yourself, others, and life…

When I lead, which technically just amounts to my right arm being under my partner's right, I instantly feel their body very clearly, the blind spots, flexibility, or strength. I have been amazed how the backs of men are strong but often like one block and have to abort moves with back ochos! But also, when I struggle to lead someone but see others lead them well, I have to conclude my experience is subjective.

When I follow, just by having my left arm above my partner's right, even if they are the same person I have just been leading, I experience their body completely differently. Unless their embrace, is too tight or 'army', it is much more a given, and I don't get distracted giving them a physio's appraisal!

It is amazing though changing the embrace over within a dance - reality undulates, as I go through a sort of portal, passing my partner on the way, until emerging on the other side, taking over the new role, hopefully - within step!