The literary tango

My favorite move in the tango is the corte. In it, the woman lunges forward in a single dramatic and glamorous step, arches her back, bends her knees, tosses her head….great stuff.

Of course it goes without saying (although I'll say it anyway) that if the woman is to step forward, the man has to step back. Dancers call this "creating negative space," and it's just what it sounds like - using your body to create a kind of container on the dance floor, a very certain and specific space for your partner to step into. Sometimes the lead dancer is a big clingy. Hesitant to step back enough and if the man doesn't create enough space for the woman to step into....well you can imagine the disasterous results.

I think it's equally important for a writer to learn how to create negative space. The writer can’t always be the one to advance, just as the man doesn’t always advance in the tango.

But it's hard for writers to step back just as it's hard for men to do it on the dance floor. I don't think it's a matter of ego. I think it's more about the fear that comes when we give up control....Stepping back feels like giving up control, which is ironic, because I'm actually starting to believe that your ability to create negative space is the ultimate demonstration of your finesse.

Bear with me. Here's what I'm trying to say. In a cortes, it's easy to assume since the woman is the one stepping forward the woman is the one leading the move. Not so. The man is using his body to tell her to go forward. It's not like he has let her go totally - not like he says “Hey, babe. You’re on your own. It’s free expression time. It’s fine with me if you want to go over by the bar and start to cha cha.” Quite the contrary. When the man steps backward he is still leading and he is leading her to go into a very specific place on a very specific beat. The cortes is a controlled, technique-driven move. Creating a space and inviting the other person to step into it - which in dancing circles is called “back leading” is a demanding and sophisticated way to dance.


Women love cortes. In my class the women always want to do them and they'll happily dance with any man who knows how to lead a corte. Easy to see why. It’s a fun and flashy move and also - at least from the woman’s perspective - not that hard to do. Men are always less enthused, because backleading is damn hard. The man has to do several tricky steps in order to create the space the woman is stepping into. So for the woman it’s a double blessing - an easy step that makes her the star. And for the man it’s a double curse - a difficult step he doesn’t even get credit for. Leading a woman into a corte is a generous gesture on the part of a man….and it’s equally generous when a writer invites a reader to step forward. A movement away from the idea that this story is somehow something that the writer is doing to the reader and a movement towards the idea that this story is something they’re in together, like a dance.

The poor guys at group dance class. They really struggle. Inexperienced dancers think their job is to grab their partners as tight as they can and march forward, forcing the woman to go backward with every step. There are two problems with this. Number one, a man dragging a woman from one side of the floor to the other is not much of a dance. People who dance like that are said to be "dancing tight" and that's not a good thing. Women don't like men who dance tight. You can drag a woman across the floor but you can't make her like it. Next time she's going to dance with somebody else, somebody who can come up with more varied and creative moves, somebody who lets her in on the action. Somebody who dances loose.

Number two, if marching forward is your only move pretty soon you’re going to find yourself in a corner. And once you're a corner, you’ve got to think of a way to get yourself and your partner/reader out. What writer on earth hasn’t at some point gotten into a plot corner? There's no graceful way to get out of them. After you've been stuck in a few, you eventually realize that you have to figure out a way to build the back and forth movement into the dance, so that you never get into that corner in the first place.

In my second novel I am trying to figure out how to write loose, how to create times when the reader knows more than the narrator, when the reader can predict the next move, when the reader can figure out things on her own, can enter in the story as a participant. It's hellishly hard. It gives me more understanding and greater sympathy for the guys I dance with. Creating negative space isn't the easiest move to pull off....but I know what a supreme pleasure it is, a borderline spiritual/sexual pleasure, to be led by someone who knows what he's doing and I'd like to create that sensation in anyone willing to plunk down $24.95 for my book. I want my readers to feel like they're dancing with a pro.