Tango dance has two styles: stage and milonguero. Their description ignites a controversy in the dance community. Some people establish a false dichotomy between both of them, false because in reality they complement each other. Tango milonguero and stage tango are in a way the two faces of the same coin.
Tango is known all over the world due to its stage form. The beauty and splendor of its figures are shown on TV and in theaters in far away places. Partners separate from each other in order to execute figures that are more or less complex, figures that are visually very attractive; otherwise the body presentation, specially the footwork would not be very interesting. The steps are based in those seen in the social dance halls but they are longer, they are embellished and become choreographies that cross the stage in diagonal lines, creating [elaborate] facades, utilizing entire vast available space.
It is due to those fine, skilled dancers, true artists and thanks to their inspiration and the many daily hours of hard work that they dedicate to their talent that tango is known worldwide However the origin of tango was the dance hall, a place where it still lives. This tango form has to do with the passion that awakens and grows in the couple, with a particular handling of the space and with a special combination of rhythms.
This is the reason why those who live abroad discover a different tango in Buenos Aires and finally understand that stage tango belongs to the stage. This is the reason that the best stage dancers never stop going to the dance halls because this is their source of inspiration, the place where their choreographies get fresh air. Choreographies that project in this fashion the spontaneity and heat of the dance hall.
In the dance hall the couple dance for their own enjoyment and not for the show. Steps are the means to circle in the space which is very limited; it is a closed tango with erratic drawings that vary according to the available space. A good milonguero can dance on four floor tiles, even on one and also right on the spot with great precision preserving the rhythm and the contact with the other body which combines relaxed ease with connection both emotional and physical. The man offers his musical sense to the woman and she follows him as if she was his shirt. Her creativity lays in her interpretation, in the way of returning and enjoying within her body the movements the man proposes.
None of this can be properly put into words the same way as the dance hall intensity and emotion cannot be transferred to other places; this things may only be verifiable with the wink that characterizes any community that share a passion, a little bit in secret. The style has great energy, couples frequently are in trance, in a kind of altered state consciousness. The body language is very rich, feelings guide steps and body movements.The vocabulary used by this dancing elite allows you to glean an insight of the meaning of this dance: " to walk the tango", "to pile up [a mutual lean in the couple posture essential for milonguero style, "A" - OK]", "to put woman to sleep", "to move her", "to dance her".
Show tango must be spectacular but it draws it's inspiration from tango of dance halls otherwise it would be showing something that show tango does not have.
On the other hand social tango needs stage tango to spread and to reach other areas of the planet as well as new generations of dancers.
People are community of lonely hearts who go searching for love, to love and to be loved in return. The tango embrace, "the franela" (touch and rubbing of the bodies), its controlled excitation, is an imitation of that searched love, a relief for the soul, an act where both, man and woman express their happiness in one embrace.
