The following comments and ideas are solely based on our own interpretations and understanding along the way while learning from various Argentine tango friends, teachers, milongueros, and milongueras; also, we have the benefit of many years of previous training in ballroom dancing and martial art to allow us to visualize and to break down movements into their fundamental components.  

Posture:

A good mental picture of the positioning and the range of motion of the various parts of the body is fundamental to achieve a good posture for dancing.

Neutral Position

Head 

For both leaders and followers: 

If we want to see the portion of the ceiling which is directly above our heads, we need to lift our chins, rotate our head backward upon our necks and our necks upon our shoulders . If we now hold our necks in position relative to our shoulders and at the same time bring down our chins by rotating our head forward upon our necks until our eyes are looking straight forward, we would achieve the neutral positioning for our heads, having our necks in the perfectly vertical position. 

Shoulders

For both leaders and followers:

Imagine that if we need to reach down to the bottom of the pockets of our pants at the same time, our shoulders would have arrived to their neutral positions

Chest & Elbows

For both leaders and followers: 

Imagine that if we are holding a very large circular plate along its circumference with our chest, arms, palms and finger tips in a horizontal position at the level of our sternum, our chests and elbows would have arrived to their respective neutral positions.

Leaders: First, rotate the left palm up while rotating the left elbow down (counterclockwise rotation from 3 o'clock to 11 o'clock) and keeping the left elbow close to the side of the body.  Second, rotate the right palm up while rotating the right elbow down (clockwise rotation from 9 o'clock to 10 o'clock).

Followers: First, rotate both palms to face outward as if the imaginary circular plate along its circumference with our chest, arms, back of our hands and finger tips.  Second, rotate the right hand up while rotating the right elbow down (clockwise rotation from 9 o'clock to 1 o'clock).

Third, rotate the left hand up while rotating the left elbow down (counterclockwise rotation from 3 o'clock to 12 o'clock).

Spine & Ankles

For both leaders and followers:

Imagine that if we are standing on top of the balls of our feet, having our heels off the floor.  Our back will straighten out automatically to achieve balance.  Once we have achieved balance, we lower our heel slowly without wobbling back and forth.  Now holding our entire body in position and lean forward as much as we can by rotating forward upon our ankles without falling forward.  The maximum forward position of this body leaning forward without falling is the neutral position.  Our weights are on top of the balls of our feet, not on our heels.

Balance:

To be in balance is to be in control of the effect of gravity, so that we do not end up in the direction or path that we do not expect while standing, posting and dancing.  Our body structure resists the effect of gravity by keeping the center mass of the body in vertical alignment on top of our standing foot or between the standing feet.

Stationary 

On One Foot: 

If a dancer is in balance on only one foot, there is no ambiguity regarding to the location of the center mass of the body from the perspective of the partner.  This is important for dancers to ingrain this idea into memory and form part of the dancing habit.  

Ankle touching prior to taking a step is a great way to ensure that balance is always returned to one standing foot before the beginning of the next step.  There are three possible ways to perform ankle touching for each standing foot.  Imagine balance on left foot: (1) left ankle of the right foot touching the right ankle of standing foot; (2a) right ankle of the right foot touching the left ankle of the standing foot by crossing in front of the standing foot and (2b) crossing behind of the standing foot. 

While performing ankle touching, it important to remember to use the proper edges of  the right foot.  The inside edge is along the big toe and the outside edge is along the baby toe. (1) above requires the inside edge having the bottom of the right foot facing away in a slight angle to the floor; (2a & 2b) require the outside edge having the bottom of the right foot  facing away in a slight angle to floor.  

A great way to visualize and to remember which edge of the foot to use is to imagine that a dancer is standing at the center of an analog clock and facing 12 o'clock.  The dancer needs to use the inside edge of the right foot whenever the right  big toe is landing between 12 o'clock and  9 o'clock [going clockwise] and to use the outside edge of the right foot whenever the right big is pointing at 12 o'clock behind the left heel.  The dancer needs to use the inside edge of the left foot whenever the left  big toe is landing between 12 o'clock and  3 o'clock [going counter-clockwise] and to use the outside edge of the left foot whenever the left big is pointing at 12 o'clock behind the right heel.

If a follower is in balance on one foot with ankle touching, the follower is completely free to rotate or to pivot in any direction as directed by the leader with minimal effort.  Since the correct edge of the non-load bearing foot is already close to the floor, weight transferring for the follower would be very efficient.  This is the fastest transition between a linear dance path and a rotational dance path, vice versa.

Using Both Feet

Forward Stride

It is important to understand that we all have to adapt the way we dance to our body structure. A particular length of the legs determines the particular length of a stride. To dance efficiently, one must determine one's own maximum stride without losing balance.  
To determine one's maximum stride, one needs to balance on one foot and points the big toe of the hanging leg forward as far away as possible while touching the floor without losing balance. This is the initial position before actually taking a stride.  Now one must slide the big toe of the hanging leg forward continuously while rotating forward at the ankle and pushing off by rolling on top of the ball of the standing foot until only the big toe touching the floor.  One holds the left big toe in position touching the floor, while standing on the right foot (straight knees).  This is the completed forward stride.

Backward Stride

To determine the maximum backward stride length, one really just run the same steps above backward!  Standing on the left foot, one needs to swing the right leg backward at the hip joint and straight knee (most important) while sliding the big toe backward, full extension as far back as possible without falling backward nor shifting weight backward.  [This is exactly the end position of the forward stride length determination.] Bending the knee of the standing left foot while sliding the right big toe a little more backward, one transfers weight from left foot to right backward.  One holds the left big toe in position touching the floor, while standing on the right foot (straight knees).  This is the completed backward stride.

Side to Side Stride
Standing on the left foot,  one hangs the right leg by the hip joint and performs left ankle of the right foot touching the right ankle of the left foot, while having the the right foot big toe touching floor and having the inside edge of the right foot closer to the floor.  One extends the right leg sideway by rotation at the hip joint, straight right knee and big right touching the floor.  One needs to keep the right knee straight and pushes the big toe of the right foot side way touching the floor as far away as possible without losing balance or shifting weight to the right side.  Bending the knee of the standing left foot while sliding the right big toe a little more sideway, one transfers weight from left foot to right sideway. One holds the left big toe in position touching the floor, while standing on the right foot (straight knees).  This is the completed sideway stride.

When a leader uses the non-load-bearing foot only as a secondary balance contact point to the floor by touching the floor only with the big toe without weight shifting in front-to-back and side-to-side standing positions, the position of the leader's body weight would be very clear to the follower.  

Dynamic 

Translational

Translational movements are linear in nature - straight forward & backward, diagonal to the left and the right forward & backward, side-to-side left & right.  In Tango, one has four track options to walk, two inside and two outside tracks and two method to walk, mirror opposite or mirror cross to partner.  Therefore, if one leaves out side-side movement, by virtue of combinations, there are eight possible track-method movements.

From the perspective of a leader:

1. Mirror-opposite left foot inside track
2. Mirror-cross left foot inside track
3. Mirror-opposite right foot inside track
4. Mirror-cross right foot inside track
5. Mirror-opposite left foot right outside track
6. Mirror-cross left foot right outside track
7. Mirror-opposite right foot left outside track
8. Mirror-cross right foot left outside track

Theoretically, if one considers the inclusion of backward and forward directionality, one could have 16 possible combinations of track-method movements.  

Translational dynamic balance means to maintain balance in linear movements.  

During mirror-opposite movement, one can follows the techniques, which were describes in the Stationary Balance section [above], swing the hanging leg at the hip joint, straight knee, projecting the big toe forward, sliding the big toe while bending the knee of the standing foot, rotating forward at the ankle and push off by rolling on top of the ball of the standing.

However, during mirror-cross and diagonally outside track movements, one needs to add Contra-Body Movement Positioning (torquing the torso toward the right or toward the left) to counter-balance the diagonal rotation effect .  

If a leader is taking a left step diagonally across to the right inside track, the leader's left foot will be directly in front of the right foot at weight transfer,  Just before weight transfer,  the right standing foot becomes the center of rotation; the stepping path between the feet is an arc and a clockwise momentum is created. In order to counteract this clockwise momentum, one needs to apply a counter-clockwise C.B.M.P. at weight transfer to maintain a forward path momentum.  

One needs to practice contra-body movement positioning until it becomes a second nature - left foot stepping toward right [C.B.M.P. toward left - torso rotates counter-clockwise toward left ] and right foot stepping toward left [C.B.M.P. toward right - torso rotates clockwise toward right].

When people walk naturally, the arms swing as counter-weight to counter-act the torquing moment within the upper body every time a step is taken: Left arm forward to match a right foot forward and right arm forward to match a left foot forward.  Since dancing tango having the arms in an embrace and unable to swing, C.B.M.P. is really just a technique to provide what the swinging arms do.

Torsional

Torsional dynamic balance means to maintain balance while stretching body's tendons and ligaments in a spiral movement to the left or to the right to build up elastic potential energy within the tendons and ligaments then release them to allow them snap back to neutral position.  The release of the stored elastic potential energy will then drive the body into either full rotation movements [as in enrrosques] or pendulum movements within the body structure [as in C.B.M.P. for translational movements]

Dissociation of torsional movement between torso and hip is required to generate clean dynamic rotations along one's own standing axis.  This kind of rotation is not based on initial built-up of angular momentum but rather relies on torsional energy passing back and forth between the torso and the hip.  

Imagine that there are four elastic bands connecting the left side of the rib cage to the right hip and right side of the rib cage to the left hip as a "X" on front and back.  Imagine that while standing on one foot and holding the hip in place without any movement, rotating the torso 90 degree to the left will elongate the elastic bands connecting between the left side of the rib cage and the right hip on the front and the right side of the rib cage and left hip on the back.  The elongation of the two elastic bands stores up elastic energy as tension and is pulling the hip to the same  angular direction as the torso.  Next, let the hip to snap back to neutral position and further rotate the hip for an additional 90 degree, while holding the torso in position.  Now the torso and the hip is 180 degree separated or dissociated.  In another word, each full 360 degree rotation is generated by the hip and by the torso, 180 degree each.  One can rotate easily without losing balance.

Torso Energy:  hold the hip in a fixed position, rotate torso to its maxmum angular position first, then hold the torso in the fixed position, allow the hip to rotate to release the built-up torsional energy by the torso.

 

Hip Energy: hold the torso in a fixed position, rotate hip to its maxmum angular position first, then hold the hip in the fixed position, allow the torso to rotate to release the built-up torsional energy by the hip.

Rotational

Rotational dynamic balance means to maintain balance in rotational movement.  Rotational  movements are more complicate than translational movements as center of  rotation and the system of rotation changes between single person and partnership.  

From the perspective of a single person, the rotational axis passes through the top of the head, the neck, the torso, the hip joint and the leg of the standing foot and the floor contact point of rotation as in enrrosques.

From the perspective of a partnership rotating, the rotational axis passes through air, somewhere between the two bodies as in colgadas!

From the perspective of a system of movements as when the leader is doing an errosque and the follower is doing a molinette.

Projectional

Projectional dynamic balance means to project our center of gravity toward the intended direction to its maximum reaching position before any step.  This could be either translational, rotational and spiral in nature.  Simply put, project the sternum toward to the point just before falling forward in the line of the intended movement.  This is how the leader transmit the intention of the next step before the step.  The reason is that tango dancers connect at the vicinity of the the sternum and sides of the rib cage, which effectively move the combined center of gravity of the dancer above the belly button, where center of gravity resides individually.  Since the sternum location needs to pass beyond the vertical plane which intersect the center of gravity to make the connection with the partner, the only way and surely to indicate the movement intention to the follower is to push the sternum to its maximum outermost reaching point before the actual step.  If the sternum has not moved and passed beyond the big toe of the standing foot of the leader, the follower will not able to receive good unambiguous directional information and the intention of the upcoming step.  Leader should never try to compensate one's ambiguous leading by pushing and pulling with the arms as this will only reinforce the bad habit of leading by the arms not by the chest.

Frame:

Sincerely, the importance of the frame of the dance embrace diminishes as one focuses the importance of the connection between sternums and alongside the rib cages.  The more one thinking about and fussing about the dance embrace, the more likely one would try to dance and to lead with arms and hands.  

In general, leader's left elbow should be by the side of the rib cage, not up in the horizontal position.  The left hand should be held at somewhere between chin heights of the leader and follower.  The right elbow pit should wrap around the left shoulder blade of the follower.  The right hand should be placed just on the top half of the right shoulder blade of the follower.  The leader's shoulders should be relaxed and dropped while dancing.  Always lead by the chest not by arms.  Always turn and rotate with the entire upper body rather than pulling and pushing with arms and hands.  

It is recommended that one should learn how to lead with chest before learning nuevo style types of leading through the arms by tension and compression forces.

Pendulum:

Normally, we think of pendulum as a mass attached to an anchoring point with a piece of string and the mass swings about the anchoring point due to the effect of gravity.  Within our body structure, we can visualize an upside down "V", having the vertex at the sternum and each leg of the "V" represents all the connecting parts from sternum to the feet.   The standing leg provides the vertical support for the sternum, the anchoring point.  As one projects the sternum forward beyond the big toe of the standing foot, the hanging leg should fall forward due to gravity.  This concept can be applied to any direction, moving the hanging leg by moving the sternum out of alignment of the standing leg.

Tango Walk:

Natural Walk

Normally, we swing our hanging leg forward, rotating at the hip joint, to maintain our center of gravity in the middle of each stride.  Effectively, just before the hanging leg landing on the heel, our center of gravity is falling forward and rotating in an arc having a moment arm between the heel of the standing foot and the center of gravity.  From heel to heel, this is our individual natural stride distance.  The pendulum picture of the natural walk can be visualized by having the vertex of the upside down "V" at the hip joint.

Heel or Toe Leads 

Our natural walk have much longer period to complete each stride cycle than typical tango/ milonga/ vals rhythm.  During natural walk, the impacts of our heels making to the floor is much lighter than dancing as we have more time to change weight between our feet.  If we are dancing toe lead, the whole foot acts like a shock absorber to slow down the downward force to allow a soft landing for the heel, which is better for the knee and hip in the longer run.  However, sometimes it is necessary to dance heel-lead and toe-lead steps as in a grape-vine sequence in milonga.  

Personally, I prefer toe-lead over heel-lead, because toe-lead is more elegant.

Fundamental Movement Exercise:

Draw Circles

Draw circles with the big toes, right big toe clock-wise and left big toe counter-clock-wise without crossing center line.  Big circles to train maximum reach for balance and small tiny circles next to the heel for building up habit to return foot to center line before taking the next step for proper tango walk.  Tiny circles are especially important for followers, always balance on one foot and draw circles while waiting the leader to finish changing direction.

Standing Crosses

Stationary cross exercises at the front and at the back are important to train ankle and lower leg muscles. 

Back crosses

Right big toe clock-wise big circle crosses center line at the back and parks on the left side of the left foot and transfer weight.  

Left big toe counter-clock-wise big circle crosses center line at the back and parks on the right side of the right foot and transfer weight.

Front crosses

Right big toe counter- clock-wise big circle crosses center line at the front and parks on the left side of the left foot and transfer weight.  

Left big toe clock-wise big circle crosses center line at the front and parks on the right side of the right foot and transfer weight.

 

Standing Pivots

Pivots are done on top of the ball of a foot, area just behind the big toe.  Rotational momentum is generated sequentially by isolations and dissociated rotational movement between the hip and the torso.  Each dissociated rotational movement should  ideally cover 90 degrees from neutral position.  One is at the neutral position when the hip and the torso are in parallel position to each other.  Therefore, conceiveably one can rotate the torso from -90 degree to 90 degree off the neutral position by isolating the hip from any movement and vise versa for the hip by the holding the torso in position.  Effectively, one can generate rotational momentum by splitting each 360-degree rotation into two halves between the torso and the hip.  

One may try the following pivot exercises.

Part 1: 

Balance on the left  foot and park the right foot off the floor to the left foot without crossing the knees but touching at the heels.  Raise both hands to sternum level, with palms facing away as if touching one of the walls standing inside an imaginary square box.  The walls are about one foot away from the torso.  Both elbows should be pointing to the floor and are close to the sides of the rib cage.  With the left knee slightly bent for better balance, one needs to distribute the entire body weight evenly across the left foot.  From this stationary position, one rotates the torso in counter-clockwise direction without rotating the hip and place both palms on the new wall of the imaginary box.  Assuming that "-" standing for counter-clock-wise direction and "+" standing for clock-wise direction, the torso is now at -90 degrees from the hip and has generated its portion torque along the central axis.  Imagine that one can now anchor both palms onto the new imaginary wall and transfer the weight from the left heel to the ball of the left foot, while letting the hip to rotate naturally in the counter-clockwise direction to unwind the tension previously generated by the isolation of the hip and the torquing of the torso.  When the hip becomes parallel with the torso, the hip would have traveled 90 degrees around the central axis 

Part 2: 

As the hip arrives to the parallel position to the torso, one isolates the torso and actively rotates 

the hip further to an extra -90 degree from the neutral position.  The left heel needs to come down to the floor when the hip arrives at the end of the extra -90 degree rotation.  The hip would have generated its portion of torque along the central axis.  Allowing the torso to rotate naturally in the counter-clockwise direction to unwind the torque tension along the central axis while holding the hip in position, the torso would have traveled -90 degree when the torso arrives at the neutral position and the central axis would have completed one 360 degree rotation.

Lapiz

Lapiz movement is a combination of drawing large circles with the big toe from 12 o'clock to 8 o'clock for the right foot in clockwise direction and from 12 o'clock to 4 o'clock for the left foot in counter-clockwise direction while holding the torso in position.  The winding up of the standing axis up the torso is due to the dynamic rotation of the hip only.  The toe drawing the circle is only the consequence of the hip rotation action.  As one unwinds the standing axis by rotating the torso by 90 degrees to the same direction as the previous hip rotation, one begins to retract the lapiz big toe to the inside edge of the big toe of the standing foot.  As one rotates the torso by an additional 90 degrees, the standing axis is winding up once again.  One holds the big toe of the lapiz in position, pointing to the floor at 90 degree with the heel up while one pushes off the heel and transfers the body weight to the ball of the standing foot to facilitate the hip rotation, 90 degree into neutral position.  One repeats the same process by drawing a 3/4 circle on the floor the lapiz big toe.

Octchos

Efficient octcho movements depend one's ability to generate pivot momentum by oneself for forward and backward directions.  Effective pivot movement depends on winding up the torso prior to letting the hip to perform a dissociated rotation while balance on the ball of the standing foot.    The follower must receive leader's change in direction signal before allowing the hip to rotate to release torso generated internal torque along the standing axis.  Therefore, the moment of the actual rotation is a snappy one.  Simply put, octchos are standing pivots plus either a diagonal forward step or a backward step.

Ganchos

Take a half stride backward but only land on the ball of the foot. Do not allow the heel to come down!   

Allow the backward momentum carry the free hanging leg to swing backward but only allow the leg to pivot at the hip joint.  As the the ankle of the swing foot pass by the ankle of the standing foot, let the heel of the standing foot to come down to complete weight transfer.   Using the down force as the body comes down on the heel, let the hanging foot to swing up to the balance the downward force.  Do not physically contract the hamstring and the back muscle of the upper leg to bring up the swinging foot.  A real gancho is done solely by reaction force not active force!  The emphasis of an gancho is not on the up take motion of the foot.  It is how fast the foot can come down determines how sharp that the gancho will appear.  How fast the foot can come down is determined by the combination of how fast the center mass of the body can shift back forward and straighten the knee at the same.

Square Molinette

Imagine that one needs to walk around a square column, 1.5 ft by 1.5 ft.  Let's denotes the corners of the columns as UL(upper left), UR(upper right), LL(lower left) and LR(lower right) and one is standing on the south side of the column.  Assuming that one starts at the LR corner with feet together and weight equally distributed:

1. LR corner - with both palms touching the south wall of the column, one shifts body weight to the right foot; pushes the big toe of the left foot to the LL corner; completes weight transfer by dragging the big toe of the right foot and parks the right foot beside the left foot with heel touching.

2. LL corner - one rotates the torso in clock-wise direction until both palms can touch the west wall of the column while holding the hip in position and letting the right heel to lift off the floor;  one extends the right leg by pushing the the big toe of the right foot toward the UL corner of the column; as the big toe of the right foot arrives at the UL corner, one transfers weight to the right foot evenly distributed and allowing the left heel lift off the floor while balancing on the ball of the left foot.

3. UL corner - one rotates the torso in clock-wise direction until both palms can touch the north wall of the column while holding the hip in position;   as one can touch the north wall, one drags the left big toe toward the right heel to allow the hip to begin to unwind and to release the torque along the central axis; one allows the left big toe to touch the right heel prior to proceed a side step toward the UR corner; one completes weight transfer onto the left foot by allowing the right heel to lift off the floor and balance on the big toe of the right foot.

4. UR corner - one rotates the torso in clock-wise direction until both palms can touch the east wall of the column while holding the hip in position; as one can touch the east wall, one drags the right big toe toward the left heel to allow the hip to begin to unwind and to release the torque along the central axis; one allows the right big toe to touch the left heel prior to proceed a back step toward the LR corner; one completes weight transfer onto the right foot by allowing the left heel to lift off the floor and balance on the big toe of the left foot.

5. LR corner - one rotates the torso in clock-wise direction until both palms can touch the south wall of the column while holding the hip in position;  as one can touch the south wall, one drags the left big toe toward the right heel to allow the hip to begin to unwind and to release the torque along the central axis; one allows the left big toe to touch the right heel [Back To Step 1] prior to proceed a side step toward the LL corner; one completes weight transfer onto the left foot by allowing the right heel to lift off the floor and balance on the big toe of the right foot.  

Always lead and follow with the torso to generate internal torque along the standing axis to drive the hip and the hip to drive the leg and the leg to drive the big toe to push or to drag along and to remain contact with the floor as long as possible in a control manner.

Sacadas:

Interaction Components:

Let 

F denotes front (forward/ diagonal) steps, 

S denotes side (open) steps, 

B denotes back (straight/ around) steps, 

L denotes left leg, 

R denotes right leg, 

C denotes clockwise and 

CC denotes counterclockwise rotational directions, 

I for inside and 

O for outside.

Follower's Positions

1. FLC, FLCC, FRC, FRCC

2. SLC, SLCC, SRC, SRCC

3. BLC, BLCC, BRC, BRCC

Leader's Entering Positions

1. FLCI, FLCO, FLCCI, FLCCO, FRCI, FRCO, FRCCI, FRCCO

2. SLCI, SLCO, SLCCI, SLCCO, SRCI, SRCO, SRCCI, SRCCO

3. BLCI, BLCO, BLCCI, BLCCO, BRCI, BRCO, BRCCI, BRCCO

Therefore the maximum theoretical leader-executable sacada possibilities are 12 x 24 = 288 and follower-executable sacada possibilities are also 24 x 12 = 288, a total of 576.

However, some of the combinations would be deemed to be physically impossible.

Always remember the leg that is being displaced has to be 100% non-weight bearing, ie, at the moment of completed weight-transfer.  The point of contact can only be the inside and outside thigh and calve muscles.  All back sacadas require the aid of contra-body positioning.

Traspié

:

Stumble steps or rock-steps in syncopation with half-weight transfer in F, S or B steps

.

Basic 6, 8, 16 & 32 Exercise Training Steps:

Six Steps:

If tango is a conversation, Salida [Leader: R.F. back , L.F side, R.F. diagonal toward left forward] and Resolución [Leader: L.F. straight forward, R.F. side and L.F. close] are the quotation marks of each verse.

Eight Steps:

If Salida and Resolución are the quotation marks of this verse, the message in this verse is a cross and a change in direction to un-cross.

Sixteen Steps:

If you know the basic eight for the leader, do the basic eight for the follower.

Thirty-Two Steps:

If you know the sixteen steps starting with the leader, try the sixteen steps starting with the follower.

Tiempo:

If one full beat is represented by the equal sign "=" and carries the word slow and a half beat is represented by "-" and carries the word quick.

One bar of music has four full beats.

The easiest milonga dance rhythm, quick quick slow quick quick slow can be represented by 

[     -          -         =       -           -           =   ]

[quick, quick, slow, quick, quick, slow ]

[  1/2      1/2      1        1/2      1/2       1    ]

[          1             1              1                1   ]

The vals rhythm, slow quick quick slow quick quick can be represented by 

[  ==        =          -          -         ==         =          -          -     ]

[slow, pause, quick, quick, slow, pause, quick, quick ]

[   1       1/2       1/4       1/4        1       1/2         1/4    1/4   ]

[   1                      1                     1                     1                 ]

The rhythm, quick quick quick quick quick quick slow can be represented by

[     -          -         -         -           -          -         =      ]

[quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, slow ]

[  1/2      1/2     1/2       1/2     1/2      1/2       1      ]

[          1                   1                     1              1      ]

The tango rhythm, slow slow slow slow can be represented by

[     =        =        =        =    ]

[slow, slow, slow, slow]

[    1        1         1         1   ]

The milonga music rhythm, quick quick quick quick quick quick quick can be represented by

[     -          -          -           -         -          -           -           -    ]

[quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick]

[  1/2      1/2      1/2       1/2     1/2      1/2       1/2       1/2 ]

[          1                    1                     1                     1          ]

Basic Musicality:

For Tango:    Dance options are to dance the full beat, to hold the full beat, to dance two steps of half beat [1 full beat]

For Vals:       Emphasize the slow and pause more than the quick quick.

For Milonga: Emphasize the slow more than the quick quick