We know tango arose as a way of dancing, that dancers adopted milonga as their favorite rhythm to dance tango. Musicians adapted milonga to the needs of the dancers and so tango-milonga was born, from which tango and milonga portena came.

You need only three things to dance (at least a popular dance): a complete and functioning body; a floor; and dance music.

The dance music is the one that gives you the urge to dance. It's tempo is andante moderato. It's tempo is close to our heart beat. It's compas is close to the speed we achieve walking. It's motives are close to the rhythm of our breath. Then the body comes in touch with a sympathetic vibe and we suddenly feel like dancing.

And the music that moves the body affects our emotions and the dancer translates those emotions into movement. The dancer is a musician whose instrument doesn't produce sound but movement. He's the one translating music into movement, through the emotion the music leads him to.

Tango is no mechanical dance; a tango dancer varies his choreography and the rhythm he imprints in those figures. He performs not only the rhythmical aspect of music but the melodic as well--shape, tension and dramatic sense of music.

For the authentic Argentinian milonguero, music is above all. He doesn't perform steps just because he knows how to. He chooses them to express what he gets from the music in the best way he can. He's a music lover; he loves, knows, searches, enjoys and dances it.

Music is the dancer's best ally. When the language of choreography connects to the music, it becomes larger; when it doesn't connect, it is diminished. When the dancer interprets the music correctly he becomes an artist. When he doesn't, he becomes a gymnast. Steps alone lead to the gym. Steps in concordance with the music lead to art.

Bodies are unified by the embrace, space is unified by the floor, physical support of the body and movement. Time is unified by music, a temporal support of movement.

In Argentina, education is going through a crisis, and music is often put aside. Many people arrive to dance lacking musical education. This makes the teaching and learning of a dance very difficult. Our education system (general, as well as artistic) leaves many things to the responsibility of the learner--what school doesn't provide you have to look for elsewhere on your own.

You can have tango without technique, but you can't have tango without heart. And the heart of the dancer beats to the rhythm of the music.