As tango dancers, why should we care about the rhythm of tango music? What does it mean to our dancing?

Rhythm is essential in all types of music and has many purposes. It

• sets the music's pace, that is, the tempo, or speed, of a piece of music
• can create "groove" to make people want to get on the floor, move and dance
• enhances the emotions by conveyimg different feelings and moods
• fosters unity for musicians playing together, helping them stay in sync
• adds interest by keeping the music engaging and unpredictable

The music played for tango is classified in three predominate rhythm genres:

• tango rhythm
• vals rhythm, and
• milonga rhythm

Some background: A "milonga" (aka tango social dance party) has sets of music, called "tandas". Each tanda contains pieces of music which share one of these rhythm styles listed above and is separated by a non-tango music snippets or song, called a "cortina". For dance richness and variety at a milonga, often two tandas will have the tango rhythm, followed by a tanda of either a vals or a milonga rhythm (although this order is at the Tango DJ's discretion.)

Experienced dancers want to hear and know the rhythm variety, because the rhythm impacts how the music might be best danced. Each of these rhythms are danced with many of the same steps, but the rhythm suggests HOW to execute the steps.

Without going into heavy-duty musicality about rhythms - as there are plenty of in-depth workshops and videos on tango musicality! - here are some of the different characteristics of each tango rhythm and dancing to it.

• Tango rhythm is the most common rhythm. Musicians hear its musical time signature as a 4/4, and this tango rhythm facilitates dancing both linear and circular movements. Pauses in the dance can occur quite a bit, adding intensity or drama, or giving followers the opportunity to add some embellishments.

• Vals rhythm for tango has a heritage in Viennese waltz, so its time signature is 3/4. As such, it is much faster-paced than its country-waltz musical cousins, and because the rhythm can be constant, it facilitates circular "float-y" lyrical movements like giros, leaving little time to pause your dancing until the music ends.

• Milonga rhythm has a 2/4 musical time signature and often has more beats per minute than tango rhythms. The music often is more playful, so the dancing can be more lively even mischievous, more sharp, more linear, and more simple. Because of the rapidness, the embrace is often closer - and full weight transfers when taking a step are less common, so dancers spend more time with their weight "between" their feet when taking steps.

Sometimes dancers will classify tango music as "Alternativo", but technically, Alternativo tango music is not its own rhythm - most often it adheres to either a tango rhythm or a milonga rhythm. Dancers can be very polarized about Alternativo music. Alternativo music generally is non-traditional tango music, not from the Golden-Age of tango (~1930-1955). Dancers can find it challenging to dance to with a non-traditional tango beat, difficult to predict, and disrupting to the milonga flow. However, it often can be a powerful tool to attract new dancers. Often Alternativo tango music has fewer beats per minute than even classic Golden-Age tango music and so the embrace used is often relaxed and more open. The instruments used in Alternativo music can have greater variety.

We hope this overview helps you better express in your dancing what you hear in the music!