Tango Beginner

Friction Connection: In Tango we use pressures to make a connection. The first pressure we will look at is what I call the Friction Connection. This is a connection where we will touch our hands together and the leader will try to move their hands freely but maintain the connection with their partner. What keeps our hands together is the friction connection that we have from the skin simply touching together. We don’t need to push into one another to maintain this connection.

This connection is used when we are just standing in front of each other and take an embrace. The tango embrace takes a few different forms and in each form we have a friction connection. The first is open embrace where the follower and leader connected without the chest. The next is a near embrace where we still don’t connect in the chest but we are much closer to one another and the last is close embrace. In close embrace we will connect in the chest like giving someone a hug. That connection made in the chest is also a friction connection.