Then the leader steps one step back with the right foot while the the follower steps forward with her left foot. To dance this pattern, the two dancers stand facing each other, embrace, and balance on axis, with their cores engaged and their knees softened.
Learning the eight-step basic then allows the dancers to learn and improvise with the rhythms of the music. The basic 8 usually relies on this phrase with the dancers stepping on each beat, though more advanced dancers often subdivide these four beats into eighth or even 16 th notes. Each measure contains 4 beats (quarter notes), and two measures of four beats each comprise a rhythmic phrase with a slight pause at the 4 th beat and a stop at the 8 th. The eight steps of the basic are also important because tango music is based on a particular kind of rhythm. An instructor might say, for example, “We’ll begin from step 3 of the basic.” An experienced dancer knows that this means beginning from the point at which a woman has performed a step back with her left foot while the man steps on her right side with his right foot. Understanding its structure and the movements it incorporates is a good exercise because its elements are used as reference points in the dance. The same is true of the eight count basic. No one plays a scale on an instrument and claims that it is a musical composition, but it does operate as an exercise for the musician.
As Cleveland tango teacher Greg Messina explains, the basic eight is like the musical scale. While it is a pattern and is rarely danced in this form, many teachers use it to teach the basic elements of the dance because it provides a structure within which most other steps may be added. To learn these moves, the first lessons after these simple exercises in walking often include the foundational pattern, what is called the basic eight. If a dancer knows all these ways to move, he or she can learn limitless figures by combining them into sequences in response to the music. It is often said that there are only a few basic ways to move in tango: stepping back, stepping forward, stepping to the side, changing weight, crossing one foot over the other, and pivoting. All of these patterns build on the movements of the walk and the pivot. While the tango walk provides the foundation of the dance, the dance depends upon the dancers knowing certain principles that they may use to create patterns or figures.
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