A Passion for Tango; A thoughtful, Provocative and Useful Guide to that Universal Body Language, Argentine Tango by David Turner (18-Mar-2006) Paperback

by David Turner

This book really helps you understand what it is about tango that makes it so appealing to dancers and so addictive. Not only does David Turner tell you about the history of it but also the background of logic that allows you to understand why certain movements work. He has lots of great exercises for improving connection between partners and helpful tips about ochos, giros, ganchos etc. This book is quite different from so many other books about tango. It's the perfect companion book for anyone who wants to follow up a class. You can dip into it as you want, but because of the light and amusing way it is writen, you might want to read it all the way through. David writes, not from the perspective of a teacher, although he is one, but from the viewpoint of a learner so, every now and then, you get a sort of "Aaaah!" moment when something you felt yourself comes up.

Paperback

First published March 1, 2004

Reviews

[Mihir T Desai · Rating 2 out of 5]

I could not decide where to classify this book-dance manual, history narrative,sociological observations, personal experience, or something else. In his effort to address a range of these issues, the author sadly falls on his face on all of the above. Given that the readership will be folks that dance the tango and honestly no one else, it would’ve made sense to position this book vis-à-vis other books that are out there and to decide what the reader needs to be educated on. What the reader does not need to be educated on very poor forms of dance elements in the images and a half treatment at best on the description of the steps. YouTube does a bang up job on down steps and, for the hard-core ones, there are dance notations available that are enough even to drive any obsessive compulsive type up the wall.