The Embrace

Tango is first and foremost about connection, the connection between you and your partner. “It takes two to tango,” as everyone knows! And the connection between partners happens with the embrace.


The embrace is intimate certainly (tango has been called a “3-minute love affair with a stranger”), but the main purpose of the embrace (or the frame as it is also called) is to communicate information so as to maintain connection. This enables the two to move together as one.


One way to think of the embrace is in terms of container. The container is solid (though never strained), and within it two bodies move together as one. Imagine the two partners are the single body of a deer or a fox moving gracefully across an open field – one body with four legs.


Or picture yourselves together in the front seat of a car or riding on a motorcycle. You both lean and move together as the vehicle (the container) moves and changes direction. The container which allows that in tango is the embrace.


Imagine small pressure sensors and gauges at each point of physical contact. The idea is to keep those little dials still, the pressures consistent. No push, no pull. Just steady and relaxed pressures between the two partners as you move together.


If you were to count them, there are four main points of contact in open embrace – gently clasped hands, arm on shoulder, hand around back, and forearms overlapped. These contact points allow somatic information to be transferred back and forth between partners. Then add to that two more points of contact – chest to chest and cheek to cheek – and the oneness is deepened and becomes truly sublime in close embrace.

Photo from pxhere.com