This video is my inquiry about the two schools of thought on the relative position of the hips in tango — with Candela Ramos — Social and Performative Tango dancer, teacher with 15 years of experience, graduate of Escuela Superior de Danzas of Buenos Aires, Argentina, and Axis Syllabus Certified teacher — http://www.candelaramos.art/
Variant 1:
-standing hip is below the free hip
-when walking, this allows to fully extend the pushing leg
-allows to engage the standing hip
-builds the mass on top of the support
-mass center shifts toward the standing leg
-“legs begin around belly button” – you actually become taller when your free hip is up
-“walking sitbones” exercise
Variant 2:
-standing hip is above the free hip
-when walking, this allows to fully extend the projecting leg
-aesthetics – adornos, allows to better wrap the free leg
-hanging on the standing hip (standing hip cannot be engaged in this position)
-mass center shifts toward the free leg and sends the standing hip further out
-“walking sitbones” reversed
My tango teacher tells me that there is also a 3rd variant, one that is closer to the 1st one: keeping the hips level.
This gives you the main advantage of Variant 1 — having your full weight clearly on the standing leg, with the standing hip aligned under your spine. It creates a clean vertical channel for pushing into the floor without sending the standing hip sideways or putting excessive pressure on the tendons of the hip joint.
The idea is simple: don’t lift the free-leg hip above the other, but keep both hips level as a default. Paradoxically, this means that muscularly, the free-leg hip is actually slightly lifted, as opposed to dropping toward the floor. Think of the pelvis more as one unified structure rather than two independent halves — although there are moments where the “two halves” image can be helpful. Keeping the pelvis unified helps you engage the lower abdominals.
The issue with dropping the free hip is not only that you lose alignment — the standing hip will hike sideways and tilt the pelvis — but also that, as in Variant 2, it becomes much harder to engage the correct muscles.
In short, Hips parallel to the floor. Standing leg engaged. Free hip on the same level as the standing hip.
Of course, there are movements in which this structure changes. The moment you reach a full back projection of the free leg — a long back step, a back voleo, a gancho — the free-leg side of the pelvis doesn’t “drop,” but instead rotates forward, just as Candela demonstrates when showing how the hip collects the leg.
For example, in a large back voleo, your upper body may counterbalance by moving slightly outside the standing leg. As the free leg flies upward, the pelvis begins to tilt forward. This involves the pelvis as a whole, but on the micro-level you can say that the free-leg half tilts more forward.
This is why the image of the legs growing from the navel — or even from the solar plexus — is so useful during back projections. It prevents you from fixing the pelvis in one rigid position. You begin with the pelvis aligned and level, but as the back projection develops, you allow micro-adjustments, including a slight forward tilt of the free hip.
The free hip is never dropped toward the floor because that would shift the upper-body weight off the standing leg. As Candela explains in the video, this forces unnecessary compensations and can even lead to injury.
Why teach a fully horizontal pelvis? Most of the intricacies discussed in the video can only be understood by dancers with an advanced grasp of body biomechanics. Most tango students do not yet have that knowledge, and when given subtle instructions (“lift the hip a little,” “drop the hip a little”), they tend to exaggerate.
Keeping the hips level works as a global, reliable image:
- it helps students engage their lower abdominals,
- improves access to the push of the standing leg,
- stabilizes the pelvis,
- prevents it from swaying side to side,
- and allows for quick dynamic changes — from slow to explosive, from relaxed to highly engaged.
A note for followers dancing in heels. Heels tend tolift the back of the body and point the tail upward. Without engaging the lower abdominals, the lower back cannot relax or lengthen. These two areas work as a lever. A compressed lower back has less space between vertebrae and absorbs shock poorly with each step.
Engaging the abdominals, controlling the pelvis, and lengthening the lower back increases shock absorption and counteracts the strong curvature that heels often create.
For many women, the pelvis is also heavier than the shoulders. If they are taught to manipulate the two halves separately, they often end up either dropping or lifting one hip excessively — hence the preference for a clear, level-pelvis image.
Why do some teachers suggest dropping the free hip? Students often begin tango with a rigid, low-sensitivity pelvis. They lack proprioception and have tension in the pelvic floor and surrounding areas. To help them loosen up, feel their pelvis, and develop the grounded “swagger” typical of Argentine dancers, teachers historically emphasized hip release. The intention was not to drop the hip per se, but to release tension in the free-leg joint.
What teachers ultimately want is:
- good isolation of the free leg,
- independent control of the pelvis,
- a free leg that doesn’t pull the pelvis out of alignment.
The free leg can only be truly “free” when the pelvis is aligned and the standing leg is fully supporting your balance — and when freedom happens in the leg joint, not the hip bone.
The instruction to “drop the hip” may have developed as a compensatory image — something simple that tries to address a complex issue. Students with rigid pelvic areas usually have limited range of motion in the leg joint and hold too much tension there. To help them feel the weight of the free leg and allow it to swing, teachers used imagery that unintentionally involved the hip.
In reality, the movement is a subtle collaboration between the free leg and the pelvis — difficult to describe to students who have little proprioception in that area.
