探戈是一种语言

大多数外行人不认为探戈是一种语言。但事实上探戈是一种语言，可教，可学，可懂，可用来传达包括态度，性格，感情，乐感，意向，和运动特征，如舞步的类型，大小，方向，速度，节奏，计时，暂停等的各种信息。懂这语言的人可以彼此沟通，舞动得象一个优美和谐的整体。不懂这语言的人无法表达和互相交流，在舞蹈中就觉得别扭和沮丧。

象任何语言一样，探戈有自己的字母，词汇，语法和章法。体，臂，手，腰，腿，脚，姿势，拥抱，连接，平衡，换重心和行走等可以看作是探戈的字母。我们用这些元素构造舞步，即探戈的词汇。乐感和沟通则象是按照它把单词组合成舞句的语法。动作的设计编排是舞蹈的章法。

学习探戈就象学习语言一样应该从字母和语法开始。不知道字母就不能正确拼写单词。不知道语法就不能用单词正确组句。在我们的探戈学习中有一个问题，就是我们只重视学习词汇，却很少注意字母和语法。我们不知道如何使用自己的身体。我们不知道如何正确地拥抱和行走。我们的姿势不正确。我们的连接常常断裂。我们的身体太僵硬沉重。我们的运动失去平衡和稳定。我们不听音乐，不踩在节拍上，不按音乐的情绪跳舞。我们不能很好地沟通和理解对方。我们的带领不明确，跟随也笨拙。结果，虽然我们知道很多舞步，却不能以一种有意义的，连贯的，和谐的，美丽的方式把它们组合在一起。

象所有语言一样，探戈有很大的词汇量。没有人能够跳所有的步子，就象没有人知道一种语言中所有的词汇。事实上，我们并不需要背下整本词典来讲一种语言。举例说，汉语中有六万多个字。康熙字典收字四万七千多个。官方的新华字典收字八千五百五十个。而这些字中最常用的只有九百五十个，占通俗文学中全部字符的90％。加上另外两千八百个次常用字，可以把覆盖率提高到99.9％。大多数字符都很少使用。

探戈也一样。在探戈中必不可少的步子是有限的，如行走，交叉腿，摇摆，轴转，上下身分离，前8字步，后8字步，切8字步，葡萄藤步，弯月步，旋转，等。这些基本步子构成社交探戈舞步的90％。更复杂的步子，如三文治，阻拦，拖曳，甩腿，traspie， sacada， castigada， media vuelta， calesita， enrosque， lapiz， carpa，等等，构成另外9％在社交探戈舞中不常用的步子。除此以外，还有一些只在表演探戈中使用的步子，如高甩腿，钩腿，back sacada， colgada， volcada， 踢腿，腾跃，托举，翻转，飞舞等。专业舞蹈演员使用这些步子/动作主要为其惊险炫目的视觉效果。这些步子/动作缺乏社交探戈舞步的舒适和简易，或者很危险，或者占用很大空间，因此不适合用来跳社交舞。

学习不必要的东西而忽视必要和受益最多的东西是不明智的，也没有多大用处。用专业术语来进行日常会话显得做作而不自然。不幸的是，这正是许多初学者所做的事。学习探戈更好的方法是把精力集中在学习探戈的字母，语法和基本词汇上，而不是未打好基础就直接学花哨的步子。坦率地说，对于大多数人，基本步子就完全可以满足他们跳社交探戈舞的需要。真有天赋并希望成为专业舞者的人士可以进一步学习表演，但那应该在掌握了基础以后，而不是之前，更不是在社交舞会上。在那里即使是真正的专业探戈演员也以适合社交场合的友好方式跳舞。

Tango Is a Language

Most laymen don’t think tango as a language. But in fact tango is a language, which can be taught, learned, understood and used to convey manners, personalities, feelings, emotions, musicality, intentions, and movement traits such as type and size of the step, direction, speed, rhythm, timing, cadence, suspension, pause, etc. Those who know the language can communicate with each other and move their bodies harmoniously and beautifully as one unit. Those who don’t know it are not able to express and respond to each other, and they feel awkward and frustrated in their dance.

Like any language, tango has its own alphabet, vocabulary, grammar and composition. Body, arms, hands, legs, feet, embrace, posture, connection, balance and weight change can be seen as the alphabet of tango. We use these elements to make steps, which are the vocabulary of tango. Musicality and communication are like the grammar, according to which steps are improvised to form a dance. Choreography is the composition of the dance.

Just as studying a language, learning tango should start from the alphabet and grammar. If we don’t know the alphabet, we can’t spell words correctly. If we don’t know the grammar, we can’t put words into proper use. One problem in our tango learning is that we focus only on studying the vocabulary but pay little attention to the alphabet and grammar. We don't know how to use our body. We don’t know how to properly embrace and walk. Our posture is bad. Our connection is broken. Our body is too stiff and heavy. There is no balance and stability in our movement. We don’t listen to the music. We don't step on the beat. We don’t follow the sentiment and mood of the music. We don’t communicate well with each other. Our lead is unclear and follow is clumsy. As a result, although we know a lot of steps, we can’t put them together in a meaningful, coherent, harmonious and beautiful way.

Like all languages, tango has a large vocabulary. No one is able to do all the steps in tango, just as no one knows all the words in a language. In fact, we don’t need to memorize the entire dictionary to speak a language. For example, the Chinese language has more than 60000 characters. The Kangxi Dictionary includes 47000 characters. The official Xinhua Dictionary includes 8550 characters, of them only 950 characters are most frequently used, which cover 90% of total characters used in popular literature. Additional 2800 characters of the second highest use frequency increase the coverage to 99.9%. Most characters are rarely used.

Tango is the same. There are only limited steps that are essential in tango, such as walk, cross, rock, pivot, dissociation, cadencia, front ocho, back ocho, ocho cortado, molinete, media luna, giro, etc. These basic steps form 90% of all the steps used in social tango dancing. More complicated steps, such as boleo, traspie, sacada, sandwich, block, drag, wrap, castigada, media vuelta, calesita, enrosque, lapiz, carpa, etc., form the other 9% less commonly used steps in social tango. In addition to the above are steps used mainly in performance tango, such as high boleo, gancho, back sacada, colgada, volcada, kick, jump, body lift, flipping and flying, etc. These steps are used by professional performers for their dazzling visual effects. They lack the comfort and friendliness of the social tango steps, and are either dangerous to do, or requiring a lot of space to do, therefore are not suitable for social dancing.

It is unwise and unnecessary to learn stuffs that are of little use, while neglect the essentials that can benefit us most. It is affected to use professional jargons to carry out a daily conversation. Unfortunately, that is what many are doing. A much better approach to tango is to do just the opposite, concentrating on the alphabet, grammar, and basic vocabulary of tango, instead of jumping into big fancy words without a solid foundation. Frankly, for most people, the basics are all what they need to enjoy social tango. Those who are truly talented and want to become professionals can go further to learn performance, but that should be pursued after they have mastered the fundamentals, not before, and not in the milongas where even true professionals dance social-friendly.