The meaning of "The 8th Style"

by The 8th Style

What is the “8th style”? What are the other seven styles?We often get asked this question. Which is the point. We wanted something kind of vague and mysterious. Now we’re stuck with it.It all started with a man named Igor Polk, of the Bay Area, who is a prolific tango blogger and passionate researcher of tango history, particularly of the different styles throughout the decades.As the story goes, after a particularly energetic performance by Jaimes and former partner Rachel Smith at one of the Portland festivals some years ago, Igor, who was hard pressed to place the couple into one of the more clearly defined styles of tango, asked Jaimes what he called his way of dancing. Jaimes said something to the effect of “Uh, uh… I don’t know… uh, it’s just tango, I guess.” This less-than-satisfactory response lead Igor to post Jaimes Friedgen of Seattle as the eighth on a list of several styles, also including Fabrizio Forte and Mariana Dragone in this group, and giving it a loose branding of “martial-arts style” tango, perhaps from Rachel’s famous high and powerful kicks accenting the most emphatic beats in the music.Igor has since posted many iterations of his “Styles of Tango” list, on which Jaimes has shifted around in order, from 9th to 11th, etc. But Jaimes, having been very tickled by the fact that someone would not only write about him online, but also attribute an entire style of tango to him, has affectionately continued to refer to his ever-changing way of dancing as “the 8th style”. As an extension of this, “the 8th style” has come to mean not specifically Jaimes’ style, but “your own personal style”, one that is uniquely yours such that no one can fit you into a box of set parameters. Chicho dances the 8th style. Tete dances the 8th style. Veron dances the 8th style. La Turca dances the 8th style. Cecilia dances the 8th style. Geraldine dances the 8th style. All the greats of this age and times past have become unclassifiable; having spent years studying others, they have become themselves.Conveniently, the number eight is significant in music theory, as a return to the tonic in the diatonic scale. In the key of C major or minor, the first tone is C and the eighth tone is C. The eighth tone is a return to the beginning; to the root. Jaimes has always maintained that his dancing peaked at the beginning of his second class, when he knew only the Salida Basica, before he learned the ocho. Since then it’s been downhill, and he has and will forever strive to return to that point when things were simple, clear, and beautiful in their purity. This elegant concept is the philosophical keystone of The 8th Style: the evolution of the dance is inevitable, and to be embraced, but always with respect to its roots, as it is this grounding in the traditions of the dance that give us the perspective to grow into 8th style dancers; into ourselves.

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