Barrida
Argentine tango floor sweep (arrastre)
Tango argentinoLevel: Improver2 min read2 citations
The barrida — Spanish for "sweep" — is one of the floor-contact figures of Argentine tango, in which one dancer's foot meets the partner's free foot and carries it across the floor to a new placement.[1] It is an intimate, understated figure built on touch rather than force: the sweeping foot settles against the side of the partner's weightless foot and holds a light, even pressure, so that the swept foot glides along with it while that partner keeps all weight balanced over the standing leg. The lead lives entirely in that sustained contact — there is no push and no kick, only a shared, continuous pressure that the receiving foot yields to.
Either partner can initiate the figure. Most commonly the leader carries the follower's free foot, but the action reverses readily, and the two may pass the sweep back and forth in succession. In practice the barrida tends to grow out of a parada — the stop that arrests the follower's foot and presents it, side to side, to be swept — and it resolves onward into a forward step, an ocho, or a sacada. The whole craft lies in the quality of the contact: too little and the foot is left behind; too much and the couple's shared balance breaks. The pressure therefore stays even and the tempo unhurried, the swept foot tracking smoothly to its new point of arrival.
The figure travels under more than one name. The same gliding floor sweep is also known as the arrastre — the "drag" — the two terms naming a single dragging contact within the tango figure vocabulary.[2] Because tango is walked and phrased rather than counted, the barrida carries no fixed step-count; dancers typically stretch it across a slow beat or a held pause and place its resolution on a strong beat of the 2/4 measure. It circulates internationally under its Spanish names, its terminology kept largely intact from one scene to the next rather than splintering into local variants.
How it's danced
Lead and follow cues
CountNo fixed step-count. Tango is walked, not counted; the barrida is danced ad libitum, typically stretched over a slow beat or a held pause, with its resolution placed on a strong beat of the 2/4 measure.
Lead
After bringing the follower to a stop (parada), place the instep or inside edge of the foot against the side of her free foot; keep the contact constant and use a grounded shift of the body — never a kick — to carry her foot along the floor to its new placement, holding the own axis vertical and letting the embrace, not the arms, transmit the direction.
Follow
Keep all weight on the standing leg and let the swept leg stay free and heavy without gripping; allow the foot to be carried rather than placing weight on it or moving it independently, maintaining contact and following the leader's body until he sets the foot down, then transfer weight only when led.
Song timingBest suited to slow-to-moderate, lyrical tangos with clear phrasing and room for pauses — roughly the 110-130 bpm (2/4 quarter-note) range of the Di Sarli or Pugliese mold, where held beats let the foot be carried unhurried. Brisk milongas and fast valses leave little space for the figure.
Learn first
Prerequisites
- secure walk (caminata) with clean weight transfers
- comfort in the embrace (abrazo) in both close and open positions
- control of the free leg and basic dissociation
- the parada (stop), which commonly sets up the barrida
Watch out
Common mistakes
- Leader kicking or shoving the foot instead of carrying it with sustained, even contact.
- Follower taking weight onto the swept foot, which kills the sweep.
- Follower anticipating and moving her own foot rather than letting it be led.
- Either partner losing the vertical axis by leaning to push or to resist.
- Breaking foot contact partway through the sweep.
- Rushing the carry instead of matching the slow phrasing of the music.
Don't confuse with
Easily confused moves
- Sacada — a displacement in which one partner's leg enters and pushes the partner's leg out of its space; visually adjacent contact but a different mechanic.
- Parada — the stop that frequently precedes a barrida; the setup element, not the sweep itself.
- Mordida (sandwich) — trapping the partner's foot between one's own two feet; a related stationary figure, not a sweep.
- Paso / caminata sweeps in other styles — 'barrida' literally means 'sweep', but it denotes this specific foot-carry, not any general sweeping leg action.
Around the world
Other names
Buenos Aires / Río de la Plata (standard)
Barrida
from barrer, 'to sweep'
Argentina, general usage
Arrastre
from arrastrar, 'to drag'; used interchangeably, sometimes implying a heavier or more sustained sweep
Argentine teaching lineages
Llevada (de pie)
'a carry'; the foot-carry sense overlaps with the barrida, though llevada can also mean carrying the follower's whole body across the floor
Anglophone tango scenes (US, UK, and beyond)
Sweep (Spanish 'barrida' usually retained)
tango keeps its Spanish vocabulary worldwide, so there is no distinct local name; 'sweep' is the descriptive English gloss rather than a separate scene term
References
- 1.Figures of Argentine tango - Wikipedia — en.wikipedia.org
- 2.Figures of Argentine tango - Wikipedia — en.wikipedia.org
How to cite this article
Choose a style and copy the citation.
Bailar Editorial Team. (2026). Barrida. Bailar Biblioteca. Retrieved June 29, 2026, from https://bailar.site/biblioteca/move/tango-barrida
Bailar Editorial Team. “Barrida.” Bailar Biblioteca, 2026, bailar.site/biblioteca/move/tango-barrida. Accessed 29 June 2026.
Bailar Editorial Team. “Barrida.” Bailar Biblioteca. Accessed June 29, 2026. https://bailar.site/biblioteca/move/tango-barrida.
@misc{bailar-move-tango-barrida, author = {{Bailar Editorial Team}}, title = {{Barrida}}, year = {2026}, howpublished = {Bailar Biblioteca}, url = {https://bailar.site/biblioteca/move/tango-barrida}, note = {Accessed: 2026-06-29} }
Editor-in-Chief: Paul Thomas Plawin
How we research & review these articles