Rating: 
Summary: Just.... Great !
Review: Thank you Mr. Allen for finally explaining what makes this dance "work" ! I have been a fan (no pun intended) of Tango for a long time. I tried some classes and just couldn't "get it"....after reading this great book, I know why! It really isn't about where your feet go - it's about your entire body and this book explains that beautifully.
All of those beautiful movements that look so complex are really a collection of simple movements and the give and take between the partners- wow, I wish I had read this book first before spending my $$$ on classes!
Rating:
Summary: This is a great start! A Review of Quickstart to Tango
Review: The Argentine Tango-dance is an esoteric dance based on quietness of mind and body contortion, linked by a full awareness of the here and NOW. After reviewing Jeff Allen's book, Quickstart To Tango, where he compares and explains different styles of tango around the world, and also establishes the components of what makes a good Argentine Tango, I said to myself, "This is a great start! At least someone has stopped talking and has started to write!" In Argentine Tango, we have a saying: "To progress quickly, you must close your mouth and move your legs."In Argentine Tango, body action is based on contortion, the torque of the body, which gives rise to CBM (contra-body motion), as well as walks across the 3 lines which construct your axis, CBMP (contra body movement position). These factors have to be well understood, and Quickstart To Tango explains them very well. But these actions cannot happen without correct posture, poise, frame, and contra-frame, which are also described in an impressive manner in the book. Change of weight has nothing to do with just walking. That is the essence of Salon-style Tango, which has nothing to do with the Tango we used to dance in the Salon. This is fully based on one complete circle divided by two people establishing space to dance between them and changing weight together. The book does a good job of explaining this is an easily understandable manner. Argentine Tango is a stepping tango developed by undirected steps in opposition with other styles of tango, which are based on direct walking steps. This is also explained well in Jeff's book. "Rule of Step Then Turn": This is so important for beginners! And very refreshing for those who are used to more advanced turns such as the Torcimiento, Destorcimiento, Enrosque, Rulo, Tornillo, Planeo, Recorte, etc. Thank you for this chapter Mr. Allen. "Improvisation: Recombining your knowledge and knowing exactly what you are doing all the time" is another fabulous section in this book. This section describes how the music, including musicality and rhythm (owned by the man), time (owned by the woman), and Timing (owned by the couple) dictate the improvisation. The couple is the 3rd entity, an investment of a man without ego and woman without impatience. Jeff discusses this approach to improvisation with great clarity. "How To Practice": Jeff talks about this subject in specific and useful terms. Personally, I would say that if you are practicing or learning without guidance, you are just repeating injuries, and you retrieve yourself not in dancing in a milonga, but keep practicing. Yu have to find out where practice stops and dancing starts. That's why you need a guide. Your muscle memory doesn't detect what is right or wrong! It just records it. "Lead and Follow": Man starts as a leader and merges into a follower, while the woman starts as a follower and merges into a leader. This process can happen in single step. What a concept! And an important one that I agree with 100%. This is described perfectly in Quickstart To Tango. "Navigation": The essence of the mass circulating around the floor following LOP (line of progression), counter clockwise, and orientation, the use of LOD (line of dance) counter clockwise by every couple. This need what we call "floor-craft," which you will find in this book! Quickstart To Tango also contains a full history of the Argentine Tango, as well as a very interesting conversation with Carlos Gavito, star of Forever Tango. I strongly recommend this work by Jeff Allen, which I consider of great value. If you want to start tangoing, please do it correctly. The fabulous exercises and analogies contained in Quickstart To Tango will really improve your understanding of the Argentine Tango. The man should learn how to think. The woman should learn how to wait. In the early 1980's, I had the opportunity to teach Jeff Allen his first Argentine Tango lesson. I told myself, "This man is a genius." I was very impressed by his level of understanding and speed of assimilation. Very recently, I had a conversation with Jeff, and I told him how impressed I was with his writing He said, "Listen Ive, I am not a specialist in Argentine Tango." I replied, "Jeff, without any pretension, I am a specialist, having danced for 50 years. Given your writing in Quickstart To Tango, if you are not a specialist, nobody is. Thanks for your humility." Ive Simard Ive Simard: 1. Argentine Tango Artist (choreographer-teacher) 2. Author of El Tango Agentino, Milonga, Val Cruzado Syllabuses 3. Co-founder of El Mundo del Tango 4. President of ATMA (Argentine Tango Masters Association) 5. President and founder of AFTU (America First Tango University) 6. President of "Le Vaudeville", America First Tango Theater 7. Dual Fellow of ISTD (Imperial Society of Teachers of Dance) 8. BA in Dance Art
Rating: 
Summary: The worst book ever on dance
Review: This book has no dance picture at all. None!!! None at all!!! You are supposed to learn to dance without seeing any picture! Mr. Allen can perhaps consider publishing a "Quickstart to Writing" book without any text! This will complement the serie very nicely:))
Rating:
Summary: Elements of Style...in Dance but not in Writing
Review: This book is of use only to an intermediate to advanced dancer who already has a solid foundation in the steps, and some prior general knowledge of dance vocabulary and concepts. Overall very disappointing as book that will teach you to dance, but enjoyable to read about the subjective though processes involved in the dance. Instead of focusing on teaching the basic steps clearly, the author fills the book with dance theory, history, and conversations. A vexing aspect of this book is his writing style: the book is filled with meaningless repetition and vague 'artsy' expressions that would leave anyone but advanced dancers in the dark. This book is woefully inadequate for the beginner as it has no diagrams of foot placement, and far too few photographs to see the connection between each photograph that makes up any sequence.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Reference - Belongs in your Library!
Review: This review was written by Feature Writer Michael Ditkoff for the publication La Voz Del Tango: A few months ago, I read a recommendation for this book and decided to purchase it. I am glad I did! Quickstart To Tango is a comprehensive book that covers both the American and the Argentine Tangos. For this review I will limit my comments to the general dance and Argentine Tango sections. This book is more than a picture book that describes figures and whether or not a step is quick or slow. That is a review of Paul Bottomer's "Tango Argentino" book. Mr. Allen's book includes tango's social development - collaborating with well-known teacher Daniel Trenner. A sample of the chapters and salient point of each are: What is a dance step? - "Moving the body to new vertical position with all of your weight over the next foot" Learning timing - "If you can hear the knocking on a door, then you can certainly hear the beats in the music while you are learning to dance" Using Good Foot Contact - "The ball of the foot carries the weight in the Argentine style." Rotation in Tango - "Both of these figures - Fans in the Ballroom style and Ochos in the Argentine style - are initiated by one of the partners and concentrate heavily around the established center of rotation of their partner." The Basic Dance Positions and Body Framing - "A major difference in the Argentine style is that the weight of the body is poised over the balls of the feet while being compressed through the knees." Attitudes and Priorities : Mental and Physical - "Be very kind to your partner and remember you are learning too." There is a thorough discussion of contra body motion. Dancers should be "split at the waist" so that the top half and the bottom half can rotate in different directions. For example, in leading the woman to the cross. The man's hips face the left after the second step, but the chest should face the woman. Contra body motion has been rarely discussed in the group classes I've attended. There are black and white photographs of dancers illustrating various figures, e.g. Salida, the Walk to the Cross, and Grapevine. The woman wore brightly colored shoes so her movements show clearly. The man wore traditional black shoes which don't show up as well. This book is an excellent reference and belongs in your library.
Rating:
Summary: Great Book! Over 100 Photographs
Review: Using Mr. Allen's book has unlocked many secrets on how world-class dance instructors would work to establish and or correct the necessary movement to produce a beautiful Tango! My introduction to Quickstart to Tango came after reading one of Mr. Allen's columns in Dancing USA magazine regarding rotation in Salsa. The article was so helpful I decided to purchase his book about Tango; I have been overjoyed as topic-by-topic reading provides me with great insight about the approach and structure of each component. The review written by Mr. Ive Simard also on this page, is absolutely accurate and he IS a master of Tango! I can only add that Mr. Allen's books anticipates the common errors made by leaders and followers at the beginning and intermediate stages of either style of Tango and discusses them with the reader followed by a kinesiological approach to their correction. Quickstart to Tango WILL help you to find the dancer in you. Do not pass this book by if you have a love for Tango!!!
Rating:
Summary: A Guide to Tango with Great Insight
Review: Using Mr. Allen's book has unlocked many secrets on how world-class dance instructors would work to establish and or correct the necessary movement to produce a beautiful Tango! My introduction to Quickstart to Tango came after reading one of Mr. Allen's columns in Dancing USA magazine regarding rotation in Salsa. The article was so helpful I decided to purchase his book about Tango; I have been overjoyed as topic-by-topic reading provides me with great insight about the approach and structure of each component. The review written by Mr. Ive Simard also on this page, is absolutely accurate and he IS a master of Tango! I can only add that Mr. Allen's books anticipates the common errors made by leaders and followers at the beginning and intermediate stages of either style of Tango and discusses them with the reader followed by a kinesiological approach to their correction. Quickstart to Tango WILL help you to find the dancer in you. Do not pass this book by if you have a love for Tango!!!
Rating:
Summary: Just.... Great !
Review: We wanted to dance Tango at our wedding in Las Vegas. We did!!
As absolute beginners we picked up this book by Jeff Allen and it really made sense as a great instructional and reference. The dance steps are located at the end of the book so we worked ourselves from the back to the front of the book using the wonderfully constructed index to find solutions to our problem areas. The front of the book is really the foundational experience of how to Tango walk, how to lead and follow, how to frame, how to rotate, and much, much more. This appears to be boring you know like learning to read & write so we rushed to get to the story. At first we muddled through because we felt if we could just follow the steps we would be fine, we had more failures than successes. It appears the author had already anticipated this. We found this out by either rereading the introductory chapters or honestly reading them for the first time. Then we went back and forth from what Allen calls "The Technique," (we call them the nuts and bolts) to the "Tango Choreography," and began to solve the problems. We got out of the book just what we wanted!! We figured we saved many hundreds of dollars in class time. Buy the book and really use it don't expect to just flip the pages and find magic!! You'll get out of Quickstart to Tango just what you want.
Rating:
Summary: Tango a Wedding Delight
Review: We wanted to dance Tango at our wedding in Las Vegas. We did!!
As absolute beginners we picked up this book by Jeff Allen and it really made sense as a great instructional and reference. The dance steps are located at the end of the book so we worked ourselves from the back to the front of the book using the wonderfully constructed index to find solutions to our problem areas. The front of the book is really the foundational experience of how to Tango walk, how to lead and follow, how to frame, how to rotate, and much, much more. This appears to be boring you know like learning to read & write so we rushed to get to the story. At first we muddled through because we felt if we could just follow the steps we would be fine, we had more failures than successes. It appears the author had already anticipated this. We found this out by either rereading the introductory chapters or honestly reading them for the first time. Then we went back and forth from what Allen calls "The Technique," (we call them the nuts and bolts) to the "Tango Choreography," and began to solve the problems. We got out of the book just what we wanted!! We figured we saved many hundreds of dollars in class time. Buy the book and really use it don't expect to just flip the pages and find magic!! You'll get out of Quickstart to Tango just what you want.
Rating:
Summary: This book sure helped us!!
Review: We've been to many group classes and watched many videos. Everything they cover for the beginner is included in this book with one major difference - Mr. Allen gives us detail and explanations rather than just dance steps. Participating in group classes and watching videos are fine however, they require us to know the feeling in order to do the steps correctly. Beginners don't know or have the feeling so we tend to mimic what we see incorrectly. Allen in his book seems to have anticipated these problems and discusses them with the reader. I urge the readers of this review as I have urged my fellow classmates to obtain this book as a great Tango reference book. By the way, the index is great for researching a specific element that you need to work on. Every Tango student should own this book!
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