Foxtantino

Foxtantino: A Fusion between Foxtrot and Argentine Tango

Today there are many fusion dances that combine the elements of two or more dance styles into a new dance. These new dances are springing up primarily in metropolitan areas where the dance populations are large, vibrant and hungry for creative opportunities within the specific social dance communities to which they belong.

Foxtantino is a new fusion dance that connects the Ballroom American and International styles of Foxtrot to Argentine Tango. This dance was designed specifically for the Ballroom community. It uses the teaching methods, technique and language of the ballroom dances so Foxtantino is easy for Ballroom dancers to learn and dance with each other. Ballroom dancers are intrigued and fascinated with Argentine Tango, but, many do not want to give up their dance frame, their Ballroom culture and/or acquire new music appreciation skills and fully enter into the Argentine Tango community. Foxtantino provides Ballroom dancers the fun and excitement of Argentine Tango while keeping to the style of dancing with which they are familiar.

Foxtantino: The New Dance for Ballroom Dancers

Foxtantino was created by Ted Ross and Karen Lile in the San Francisco Bay Area in 2005. It combines the elegance and smoothness of International and American Foxtrot with the romantic and lyrical style of Argentine Tango. It is danced at ballroom parties to Foxtrot & Swing music in the line of dance. The tempi range of the music is 110 - 144 beats/minute (28-36 measures per minute) and the time signature of the music is 4/4.

The Foxtrot portions of the dance use the same technique, frame and styling as Standard and American Silver Foxtrot in the closed positions. The Argentine Tango portions are danced without rise and fall or body flight.

The dance connects the fluid moving portions of the Foxtrot to the rhythmical and creative foot movements of Argentine Tango by using easy seamless transitions. It requires neither the Argentine Tango “close embrace” nor the Ballroom Tango hold, rather, the Foxtantino is danced using a Ballroom smooth frame. The entire dance is smooth and lyrical in nature, without the staccato intensity sometimes associated with some Argentine Tango performance styles and with the competition style of International Tango.