TANGO TIPS – 9 August 2026
The following is a copy of the notes prepared for a “Tango Tips” musicality interlude at the Toca Tango Practilonga in Auckland.
A tango or milonga crab walk can be executed to provide a nice musical contrast to more common tango and milonga steps, as and when suitable music phrases are played at milongas.
In the following YouTube clip of Sebastian Achaval and Roxana Suarez demonstrating a collection of different steps to a variety of milonga phrases, they execute a short series of crab walk steps from 2 minutes 5 seconds to 2 minutes 15 seconds.
Keys to good execution:
- Technique that is appropriate to initiate, execute and resolve each “running” step (as distinct from a regular step or tap)
- Recognition and selection of music phrases with consistent, steady regular “running” accents
- Timing the steps to match the beats in the phrase precisely; especially the first and last step in the run
- Constant connection / resistance for the duration of the phrase
The technique I favour to dance running crab walk steps (i.e. rock steps)
when executing them at high speed:
– meta-tarsols to generate and land steps (no heels & no flat feet)
– change between forward and backward direction after freeing standing foot sufficiently to move it but before achieving 100% stability
– maintain even connection / resistance (soft knees and commitment to smoothness help)
Stu 9 August 2026
