Argentine Tango Workshop: Milonga and Vals - Workshop Notes

Sunday 27th November 2011, 3pm - 7pm.

Workshop 1: Milonga (3pm - 5pm)

"Milonga" is the name of a specific dance style, with many similarities to Tango. (Confusingly, "milonga" is also the name for a social dance evening. So you can dance Milonga at a milonga - or you can dance Tango at a milonga :) )

Milonga music is typically faster than tango music, and traditional milonga music is characterised by a characteristic rhythm - "da-dum, bom, bom". The feeling of Milonga is also more "fun" than tango, typically.

The good news is, it's fairly easy to get started with - step on every (down) beat, take small steps, keep it simple, and you'll be OK. The bad news is, it's typically a much faster rhythm, so you'll need to move quickly and lead / follow correctly, all the time; there are no real chances to pause in milonga.

Video examples

Here's an extreme example of what can be done in milonga:

Moving to the music

We worked on some simple steps.

  1. Step on single beat
    This is a simple step, in any direction.
  2. Forward-and-change (Quick-Quick-Slow)
    Step forward, weight change, and repeat
  3. Weight-change and sidestep (Quick-Quick-Slow)
    This is two weight changes, followed by a sidestep.

We then played a number of milonga tracks, and danced to each of those, for both nuevo and traditional milonga music.

Key points:

  • Take small steps
  • Keep it very very simple
  • Step on the beat

Workshop 2: Vals

Or, "The Waltz-y One" :)

(Note: at this workshop, we looked at dancing in Vals within the context of a "V" or "offset" embrace)

Video examples

Moving to the music

The Tango Vals is danced to Waltz music 1-2-3, 1-2-3, 1-2-3, time.

Typically, you step on the "1" beat (to keep it simple) - so 1-2-3, 1-2-3, 1-2-3, and so on.. (Musically, this is probably closer to Viennese Waltz than traditional Waltz; it's not particularly slow in tempo.)

We played a number of Vals tracks, and we worked on listening to the beat, and dancing in time with the music.

Key points:

  • Dance on the "one" beat by default
  • Keep it simple, relaxed and flowing

Vals Figures

We adapted the two "quick-quick-slow" figures we did in the Milonga workshop to this timing.

We also worked on two specific figures:

  1. Back cross
    Lady crosses behind, man either stands still or changes weight twice, then move off
  2. Front cross
    Cross in offset - works well as a combination straight from the above back cross move

Further information

Notes about Milonga and Vals in Social dancing

Typically, one in every 6 "tandas" (groups of 3 tracks) is a Milonga Tanda. Similarly one in every 6 "tandas" is a Vals tanda. So you may find a pattern like:

  1. 3 Tango tracks
  2. 3 Tango tracks
  3. 3 Vals tracks
  4. 3 Tango tracks
  5. 3 Tango tracks
  6. 3 Milonga tracks
  7. 3 Tango tracks
  8. 3 Tango tracks
  9. 3 Vals tracks
  10. Etc.

So up to a third of the dances in an evening will be either Milonga or Vals.

More reading

Some more reading...