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CHAPTER 9 Ganchos paradas and barridas.
Excerpt..... "“A gancho is an interruption of the collection of the legs,” says el Chino. This is the simple, elemental truth about the gancho, but, as with so many distillations, it needs explanation and discussion. What, for example, do we mean by “collection of the legs”? Well, when we take a single step we move one leg from one point to another, and as the moving leg passes the weight-bearing leg this is the moment of collection. This moment is the thing that the gancho prevents. If we analyse any gancho we find that the reason it happens is that one dancer tries to bring the moving leg to a point of collection and is unable to do so because of an intrusion by the leg of their partner. Now, this next point is the critical extra requirement. The intrusion that interrupts the collection must be above the knee of the moving, collecting leg. If the intrusion is below the moving knee, it will be impossible for the intruding leg to be ‘wrapped’ by the collecting leg; but it will most certainly be ‘rapped’ by it!

Of all the moves in tango, surely the gancho is the one that looks the most exotic and excites the onlooker. When we do it well it feels great too. I am sad to report that the desire to perform the gancho exceeds by far the competence to make it work as it should. We love it to death! Only rarely does it love us. I think of the gancho not just as the cherry on the cake but, perhaps more accurately, as the cream on the chocolate on the icing on the cake. It can make you sick."



A Gancho Reproduced from A Passion for Tango

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