THE DANCE OF DEATH 3 💀

“We have fallen into the place where everything is music.”

~ Rumi

Dance to Enhance :

The relationship between dance and martial arts goes back to the intersection of animal based folk dancing and martial forms (kata), both were a vibrant part of many early cultures and used physical based movements to transmit and record information.

The medium of dance enhances fitness levels developing focus, stamina, speed, refined timing, rhythm, fluidity, coordination, precision of movement, muscle tone, and physical agility. All of which were found to benefit the warrior on the battlefield.

As both aesthetic disciplines employ the same muscle groups the naturally inherent  physical osmosis is a seamless way to improve already existing martial skills.

For the open minded modern martial artist dance can be utilised as an arcane path from the past, which allows them to become better skilled, rapidly producing the essential returns we need in order to stay alive on the combative pathways.

Here though only the sincere will reap the benefits, yes you definitely need to be taught by professionals, but you also need to teach yourself, conceptualise that which eventually becomes yours...therein lies the power on this saltatio path. All dances have much codified information to impart to those who understand, though indeed this can be very deceptive in so many ways especially to the untrained eye.

So to help out any novices I guess I should begin by passing along some observances and pointers to start things off.

Firstly lose the ego and empty your cup, you are going to make mistakes and look inept in front of others, get over it before you begin and never beat yourself up about it, it’s character building and part of the learning experience.

The best advice I’ve ever been given concerning learning dance was during my first Sufi Sama (Whirling Dance) class “Feel free – just try, think about it, do it, it may work it may not...but try!”.

Personally I feel dance should always be enjoyable and fun, if it’s not you’re either being taught by the wrong people or dancing with the wrong crowd, in which case seek pastures new. As Stefan Wimmer once told me “It should be a joy”, I wholeheartedly agree with him.

Secondly lose the competitiveness or this will all be a complete waste of time and effort. You have to approach this with a complete absence of aggression or a need to win. Dance removes the pressure of “winning” or if you prefer the need to “defeat” so you can focus one hundred percent on other aspects in greater detail.

With the “Its clobbering time” mind set now switched off it becomes possible to focus on partnered continuous movement without an objective, which is a wonderful way to get intuition to inform body movement, lessening any dead time delays and gapping.

** Straight Razors

Thirdly the importance of (the right) music should never be undervalued, all dances are dependent upon it. Speed and attitude are determined by different rhythms, for instance in capoeira ‘Idalina’ is a relaxed yet dominant rhythm for when the game is played with razors or knives.

There is a very real power in music’s rhythm and cadence which has a profound effect on the human brain. Beat trains us about timing (and by extension how to break it, or even setting the tempo rather than reacting to it) on a subconscious subliminal level, which actually allows us to process combat information faster.

Here with a cooperative partner is the window to explore the dichotomy of speed (in essence ‘being deliberate’) within the tempo of flow. Slow down or speed up, maybe withdrawing or perhaps neutralising as opportunities arise.

Music has been found to enhance and accelerate learning and performance of critical skills. For instance when it comes to bringing a weapon to bear, speed can be increased up to 25%, and that’s with a lack of formal tuition, going a little further with this example dance is an excellent medium to develop softer more fluid movements giving credence to the adage “slow is smooth, smooth is fast”. As my own students will testify the playful use of long feathers (peacock) or gossamer scarves are an excellent way to smooth out any jagged edges.

Here, one learns to use graceful movements of magical expression and rhythmic music to communicate the purest essence of the art, so be it martial or dance It’s always a  thing of beauty.

So let’s look at some general advantages bestowed through dance.

* Moving Well

Learning to move well :

Undoubtedly all forms of dance improve the way you move. You start out learning basic movement patterns to build body awareness. The keystone principle in developing this bodily cohesion is the essential fusion of being stable, balanced, connected and relaxed. All this is quite a challenge and will require a lot of physical work.

Here dance naturally brings together and teaches the many aspects of timing, balance, positioning, footwork, finer points of technique, and precision of movement. Its study inculcates all these into the dancer’s body, so with either empty hand or a weapon a platform is provided from whence one can train a plethora of movements to the point of instinct.

I should mention that in many dances you learn to throw a move into reverse essentially retracing your steps in time and space, in the martial arts this is known as negative repetitions, they eventually allow you to handle greater loads of weight which makes you non-telegraphically faster via muscular eccentric contraction. This practice also reveals new martial applications to the practitioner, it’s commonly found in Chinese martial arts, Silat and Kempo Karate.

Articulate dance has the ability to develop independent muscle control which absolutely sky rockets a martial artists abilities. This is where we are able to avoid any tensions in the entire body except for the body part you need at each moment. A great way to explore this would be the universal teacup motion, it’s essentially a continuously twisting/curling spiral which shows up in everything from Baguazhang to Belly dance, and has endless martial applications and an infinite ability to open postures within its simple motion matrix. This control of dynamic tension leads us nicely to...

Body awareness :

Dance turbo boosts your kinaesthetic sense – the ability to sense body position and the movement of muscles, tendons and joints. You learn to be observant and pay attention completely to what your body does naturally via tactile cues and posture connections. A perfect remedy for overly tense stances. This is where we learn to balance and rebalance via an awareness of the pelvic bowl, in class I use a water filled glass bowl to explain how its displacement reflects what the body is doing and how this can be an opening for an opponent to easily topple us.

It has great value in preparation and training for combat especially if you’re dancing with a partner. Here we mimic the establishment of balance in energy between combatants based on the use of sensitivity as the counter to power, we use sensitivity to alter the balance to advantage using time and distance properly to deliver a strike, remember successful strikes use less energy than misses at the same moment. The effort of missing is greater than the effort of the successful strike. It’s all about gaining the upper hand through sensitivity rather than the direct use of power.

Over the years I’ve found some people have a distinct lack of body awareness and incorrect understanding of movement, they can be something of a challenge in either discipline as they often “live in their own heads” as a former dance teacher once told me.

From here on in I’d like to go into more specific detail about some of the actual martial skills (and mechanics) that reside within dance using the medium of Tango, based primarily on my own observances.

I’ll start by saying that the following is not a how to guide and again it certainly isn’t comprehensive but it should give the reader a foothold to explore this subject further for themselves should they so wish.

* Street Tango

Why Tango? Aside from my training in it, it has violent roots. Dating from 1800s Argentina it was developed from gaucho esgrima criolla knife techniques, favoured by ghetto criminals (often ‘Guapo’ men who practised the ‘Cult of Courage’) and compadronas (tough street girls) who frequented seedy waterfront bars, back street dance halls and red light districts. Often under the influence of raw gin or cocaine mixed in green tea duelistic knife fights were a common occurrence that added an element of  blood ritual to the whole scene.

Even the songs of Tango often contain ‘Lunfardo’ secret prison slang – usually about various knives or how to scar someone’s face.

It was a time when Tango belonged to the night not the tea room.

Eventually it became very stylised, a man could dance a Tango alone expressing his sorrows and hopes, or two men could use it mimic symbolic combat.

The posture is deceptively practical. With the knees slightly bent helping ground you, and a forward lean hollowing out the lower body anticipating a ‘tripear’ – upward cut to the abdomen, while the chin is slightly withdrawn protecting the neck. The dancer’s bodies are completely united in an intimate embrace (it’s said to be the first dance based on a human embrace) creating ‘one body and four legs’. In the Milionguero old style, dancers would be cheek to cheek – a challenging body alignment as you share an axis, it’s a tricky one to dance in as mistakes seem amplified and are harder to correct, after saying that I really like it – which I’ve been led to believe places me in a minority.

It’s dancing in this posture on a packed milonga dance floor that one learns about postural blindsides, what the Spanish call the “dead side” with good reason. I’ll return to this subject in a moment.

It all really starts with basic ‘cambio’ walking, essentially ‘V’ stepping quite naturally. The weight is forward near the toes for fast footwork, this keeps you wispy and light as you ‘massage the ground’ – heavy styles have heavy actions which are slower to generate, they also tend to telegraph, neither are desirable when blades are concerned. Using the foot triangle allows for detailed foot placement and weight distribution (between supporting and active foot) which improves your overall balance, and you’re less likely to be unbalanced easily, you learn that small alterations here can change everything.

(Point of note, the balance and timed heel raising exercises in Tango are way more challenging than anything I’ve ever done in either the martial arts or yoga.)

** Gancho

The ‘conita’ for instance is where we switch feet to turn a corner (slipping an attack) or make a full circle (stalking an opponent for an opening), creating sudden changes in the centre of gravity which can also be used to generate power for ballistic movements.

Martially it is not easy to create, enter, or leave circles these things require a lot of practice - Tango does this all the time, making it an excellent platform for this higher level skill.

‘Giro’s’ and ‘Ocho’s’ which are figure eight stepping patterns are great for evasion, as are ‘Refalada’ a slip, ‘Salto’ a jump, or going the other way ‘Agachada’ a duck.

** Clavada

It’s also here that you learn to move on a smooth plane with great control, which combatively allows for some invasive footplay such as the ‘Ronde’ a foot sweep which has greater control potential, the ‘Barrida’ a foot drag, the ‘Amague’ a fajing stamp which could easily destroy the tarsal bones in a foot and doubles as a threatening gesture (in the dance this theatrical signal tells your partner that the next move will be fast). A ‘Gancho’ back flick with the heel can avoid this, as well as deliver ankle hooks. Opposite to this is the ‘Clavada’ where we raise the toes remaining stationary acting as a foot trap – throw in a ‘Arroje’ or push and you have a downed opponent, there’s even some shin/ankle kicks hidden away as well.

Within the Milonga dance tradition there is a convulsive drop step performed using negative repetitions, aside from learning to put body weight behind a technique its back and forth mimics the ebb and flow of actual combat (to train this we were taught to softly walk a crenellated pattern sideways as though wading through mud).

Going back to theatrics, these embellishments are often a form of communication, for example the ‘shoe shine’ or ‘foot tap’ bespeaks of a dancers impatience. They would have had their origins in the urban ritualised knife duels (think European throwing down of a glove, Southern States hair comb signal or Chinese folding a coat over the hip) and do still have practical applications.

The ‘Amague’ mentioned before can serve as a distraction covering the drawing or switching grip of a weapon (kung fu systems also do this sometimes accompanied with a leg slap). Eyes will always be drawn to movement, it’s programmed into us.

The rock or rebound is a feinting technique similar to the ‘Balanca’ of capoeira, used to redirect an opponent’s attention or draw him into making an unsuccessful attack.

The ‘Corte’ is a halt, in the dance this freeze in motion is for control, builds tension and buys time if you need it. In combat this can be used to create a recovery posture granting time to reassess, re-attack or just gather oneself. With edged weapons it may initiate a ‘tempes d’arrest’ – a brief pause followed by a viscous thrust to the opponent's chest.

** Cambio

Tango is a small-frame system to borrow a martial term. In fact ‘Orillero’ is designed for the small floors of cafes. Even so when dancing anticlockwise in a busy three lane milonga when there’s hardly any room around you constant spacial and situational awareness (front, back, and side to side) is a must to avoid being blindsided (or in the past ambushed). Not just for yourself, it is the sole responsibility of a leader to keep the follower safe at all times...Burn that one into your soul, it’s sacrosanct. I jest not!

Eyes are a big part of Tango. Lesson one for all beginners is simply walking around the room haphazardly making direct eye contact, smiling and saying “Hello” to everyone you meet, so you become comfortable holding a stranger’s gaze.

Men use ‘Cabezeo’ eyes the whole time, yes it’s used as an unspoken invitation to dance but it also allows you to take in the surrounding environment using peripheral vision in a similar way to Japanese Metsuke No Mei (soft eye focus) or Old Yang Style Tai Chi’s Ying Arn (eagle vision) which is a little more chi based.

The Argentine gaucho was familiar with ‘opponents of the eye’, special training to chill the flinch reflex (things like splashing a bucket of water) and cause it in others (eye flicks with the fingers, just like we have in single whip).

Traditionally ladies use this as well in the form of ‘Mirada’, more akin to Japanese Fudo Dachi in that it’s a continuous stare. Traditionally used to show their interest to dance with someone specific.

A forte of Tango is its sensitivity skills which are not only peripatetic but take martial sensitivity practices to a whole new level due to the intimate embrace.

From the viewpoint of leading, physically this is done using rotational movements from the core (central axis) with a focus on the upper spinal vertebrae, in layman’s terms you steer with the chest, at least most of the time. You create an impulse of energy which spirals up the body to fuel your movements and make your intention clear, and by extension using this secret signalling to learn how to deceive (martially). You need to stay aligned with the follower to physically communicate clearly and just like Tai Chi focus on their centre line (contouring) in a similar fashion to the ‘follow the line of intent’ exercise when you basically bulldoze your way through someone only far more subtly,  remember you’re making a connection and communicating. At the same time you should be sensing the state of the follower’s balance and accommodating or even adapting for it. This alignment may have its origins in ‘larupu’ or the ‘path of death’ the concept whereby you stay facing always pointing your weapon at the opponent.

Followers naturally develop a very sensitive receiving energy. It’s all about the subtle nuances of giving and receiving pressure in harmony that make for a great dance. In Tai Chi terms we are using Ting Jing (listening energy) and Dong Jing (understanding energy) to communicate. Nian Jing (sticking energy) is also used, especially with the legs, for example the ‘Bicicleta’ is where dancers cycle together, in Tai Chi we do have pushing (sticky) legs exercises but these tend to play second fiddle to pushing hands exercises, in Tango this is a far more common practice granting a whole new skill level to practitioner.

Forget the staccato stage Tango where the woman is thrown around like a rag doll. In reality every move the leader makes is actually a suggestion, it’s entirely up to the follower if they wish to take it or not (they can refuse three different suggestions in a row after that it’s considered ill-mannered), it’s up to the leader to adapt spontaneously and flow seamlessly from one technique to another just like in the martial arts, for example if you accidentally overextend you need to perform a remise to mitigate the break in defence. Similarly in Tango we were taught “there are no mistakes, only creative opportunities” even if that means dipping into the half beats (to turn seemingly at the last second), which again martially is used after a parry.

A quick summary. Dance is a most worthy pursuit, with it you become more physically capable, confident and independent, moreover it teaches you to be alive. There are many new skills here to take into your own martial art through a little exploration and self training.

As always everything you really need is in the basics, but once they become second nature it’s only a small matter to build upon them if you so wish.

Blessings  🕺💃

Mathew Birchall

** Tango

*Images sourced from Canva.

**Images from personal collection.