Argentine Tango dancing with Miranda for new students in Lafayette, Cali...

Dancing is the highest wisdom. It is a philosophy of acceptance, not from the resignation of weakness, but from a strength developed in yourself by means of studying and training with courage and love for life. You will dance only if you appreciate the value of dancing.

Argentine Tango intermediate class with Miranda: final review

Argentine Tango intermediate class with Miranda: final review walking outside partner in circles combined with forward-backward move.
Do you have questions about Argentine Tango dance?

Argentine Tango intermediate class with Miranda: walking outside partner...

Argentine Tango intermediate class with Miranda: walking outside partner in circles combined with forward-backward move.

Argentine Tango intermediate class with Miranda: walking outside partner...

Argentine Tango intermediate class with Miranda: walking outside partner in circles.
Do you have questions about Argentine Tango dance?

Argentine Tango beginners class with Miranda: musicality explanation

Argentine Tango beginners class with Miranda: musicality explanation.
Do you have questions about Argentine Tango dance?

Argentine Tango dancing with Miranda: final review intermediate class in...

In the aesthetics of the dance of a good milonguero or milonguera you can see the reflection of an ethic: you won’t find anything evil in a person who dedicated so much of life to develop such a dance.
The dance of a milonguero is not reduced to what you can see on the dance floor. The achievement of such a dance requires the participation of all aspects of life.

Argentine Tango intermediate class with Miranda: basic forward and backw...

Argentine Tango intermediate class with Miranda: basic forward and backward ochos.
Do you have questions about Argentine Tango dance?

Argentine Tango beginners class with Miranda: forward to backward ochos 2

Argentine Tango beginners class with Miranda: forward to backward ochos 2.
Do you have questions about Argentine Tango dance?

Argentine Tango beginners class with Miranda: forward to backward ocho

Argentine Tango beginners class with Miranda: forward to backward ocho.
Do you have questions about Argentine Tango dance?

Argentine Tango beginners class with Miranda: forward ocho

Argentine Tango beginners class with Miranda: forward ocho.
Do you have questions about Argentine Tango dance?

Argentine Tango dance exercise: dancing with sticks

I want to know if you appreciate/value/care-about Tango.
I want your answer to be not in words but in your acts.
When I observe you in class, before giving you corrections I will ask you: are you satisfy with the way you are doing it (your walk, your posture, your technique, etc.)?
If you don’t know what to answer, then I will ask you: do you like the way I dance?
If you still do not have an answer, I will tell you that you need to make up your mind, make more research, find out.

Argentine Tango dance advanced level: ganchos into molinete exercise

Argentine Tango dance advanced level: ganchos into molinete exercise.
Do you have questions about Argentine Tango dance?

Argentine Tango intermediate class with Miranda: milonga traspie basic

Argentine Tango intermediate class with Miranda: milonga traspie basic.
Do you have questions about Argentine Tango dance?

Argentine Tango intermediate class with Miranda: milonga, side step

Argentine Tango intermediate class with Miranda: milonga, side step.
Do you have questions about Argentine Tango dance?

Argentine Tango intermediate class with Miranda: walking backwards

Argentine Tango intermediate class with Miranda: walking backwards.
Do you have questions about Argentine Tango dance?

Argentine Tango dance intermediate class with Miranda: slow walk

Argentine Tango dance intermediate class with Miranda: slow walk.
Do you have questions about Argentine Tango dance?

Argentine Tango beginner class with Miranda: vals, change of direction

Argentine Tango beginner class with Miranda: vals, change of direction.
Do you have questions about Argentine Tango dance?

Argentine Tango beginners class with Miranda: basic milonga walk

Argentine Tango beginners class with Miranda: basic milonga walk.
Do you have questions about Argentine Tango dance?

Argentine Tango beginner's class with Miranda: docking exercise 2

Argentine Tango beginner's class with Miranda: docking exercise 2.
Do you have questions about Argentine Tango dance?

Argentine Tango beginners class with Miranda on walking 2

Argentine Tango beginners class with Miranda on walking 2.
Do you have questions about Argentine Tango dance?

Argentine Tango dancing with Miranda in Lafayette, California, December ...

"Reversely, one could imagine a delight and a power of self-determining, and a freedom of will, whereby a spirit could bid farewell to every belief, to every wish for certainty, accustomed as it would be to support itself on slender cords and possibilities, and to dance even on the verge of abysses. Such a spirit would be the free spirit par excellence." "The Joyful Science", aphorism 347, Friedrich Nietzsche.

Argentine Tango intermediate class with Miranda: corrida and americana

Argentine Tango intermediate class with Miranda: corrida and americana.

Argentine Tango intermediate class with Miranda: corrida

Argentine Tango intermediate class with Miranda: corrida.
Do you have questions about Argentine Tango dance?

Argentine Tango beginners class with Miranda: docking exercise

Argentine Tango beginners class with Miranda: docking exercise
Do you have questions about Argentine Tango dance?

Argentine Tango beginners class with Miranda on walking

Argentine Tango beginners class with Miranda on walking.
Do you have questions about Argentine Tango dance?

Argentine Tango dance class with Miranda Backward ocho to forward ocho

This is a basic backward ocho and forward ocho sequence.

Argentine Tango dance with Miranda teaching backward ocho at beginner's ...

This is a basic backward ocho.
Do you have questions about Argentine Tango dance?
Ask us at our school.

Argentine Tango dance class: walking with partner.

Beginner level's program of our 8-WEEK TRAINING ARGENTINE TANGO - Class 1: What is Tango? You and Tango: Posture and walk. Pause. Your partner: connection and embrace.

Argentine Tango dancing with Mimi, beginner's class in San Jose, Novembe...

What is dancing and why do we feel so at home when dancing?
Civilization has required the silencing of our bodies.
Where, otherwise, would the indeterminable complexity of our anatomy would fit?
A great split was initiated: the spirit manifested in words and our bodies went on to construct civilization.
Words are easy to control: “Don’t say that!”.
On the other hand, how does one prohibit certain moves?
The entire body was proscribed from expression, there, where the influence of those who negate themselves could reach.
Condemned to build, the slaved bodies danced in their creation of steel and concrete, through the machines they invented, with the technology they deliver to us.
Now, we have accepted their invitation...

Argentine Tango dancing with Miranda, beginner's class in Lafayette, Cal...

Regarding the question of what to do in Tango: Do nothing is the most difficult of all aspects of Tango. However, by doing nothing, you’ll be able to start listening to the music, to your partner and to yourself.

Argentine Tango dancing with Miranda, intermediate class in San Francisc...

Requirements for learning to dance Tango:

1) Self-motivation

To dance Tango is to become a milonguero, that means: it is a lifetime decision.

Nobody can convince you to do Tango. Only you, if you can see what a fulfilling, wise and beautiful life Tango has in store, can make the decision.

Make this clear to yourself.

2) Preparedness

You need to condition yourself. Work on balance, coordination, a natural elasticity of your body, a reasonable stamina, emotional self-control. We provide you with all of these in our classes, group, but fundamentally in private lessons. You need to focus in what concerns you. Only an experienced maestro in one-on-one sessions will be able to address what is fundamental to your Tango.

3) Personal initiative

Research. Your starting point is our website. Learn about the music you will dance to for the rest of your life. Watch videos of milongueros dancing, and see what you will inherit from them and one day pass along to future generations of milongueros. Ask questions.

4) Practice beyond class

Plan a routine of exercises. You can always visit our website for ideas.

5) Be an example

To dance Tango is to become the best of all your possible selves. To dance Tango is always being under the spotlight.

Come to milongas. We organize them in the Bay Area and we would like to take you to Buenos Aires’ milongas with us.

6) Go to Buenos Aires

Not once, but often.

Be guided through the milongas in Buenos Aires. There is no better way to become part of Tango than to be introduced by someone who is already a part of it.

Tango changes your life forever!!!

Argentine Tango dancing with Mimi in Lafayette July 2019

This week class 7 of our program: combining elements, improvisation and dialog between partners. Social aspects of Tango. The milonga. Music: other Orquestas Típicas of the Golden Era.

Argentine Tango vals with Miranda in San Francisco, November 2019

We celebrated Miranda’s birthday!!!

Good morning!

"Gaze, voice, respiration, and walk are identical reflections of one's thoughts. Since a man cannot control all of these different and simultaneous signs at once, seek out the one telling the truth, and it will reveal his full self.” Honore de Balzac, "Theory of walking", 1833.

Argentine Tango dancing with Mimi in San Jose, November 2019

Reasons to Tango.
You would only learn to dance Tango if you realize that Tango is what you will be doing for the rest of your life. It seems irrational, since you are not going to be able to give a rational explanation for doing it. However, is there a reason to live, since we die anyways?
How do you think it would be possible that I teach you to Tango if you cannot give me a sincere, warm and meaningful embrace?
Tango requires from you to be aware, to be empathetic and generous.
I can be very generous with you. Would you take my challenge?

TANGOS DE LA EPOCA DEL FONOGRAFO LA FRANELA MANUEL O CAMPOAMOR

Manuel Campoamor. Pianista y compositor (7 noviembre 1877 - 29 abril 1941).

Argentine Tango dancing with Miranda at our beginner's class in San Fran...

How do you want to be?
This is an important question you need to ask yourself if you want to dance: how do you move, how do you present yourself, who -in essence- are you?
Make your life a work of art. Dance Tango!

Argentine Tango dancing with sticks at a beginner class

There is always room for improvement. An artist needs to know well the conditions of the raw material which will compose his or her work of art.

Argentine Tango Dancing with Mimi in San Jose, California, October 2019

Tango is a social and partner dance that originated in the city of Buenos Aires, where, together with its music, poetry and culture, the population consider it their identity.
To learn it, you will embrace not only your partner, but Tango itself, its music, culture, and home city.
In my classes, I will guide you into the beauty of Tango music, how to interpret this music with your body, how to enter the dance floor and stay there while you dance. I am going to guide you into the embrace of your partner, into the society of the milonga (Tango dance party), into the culture of Tango, and into the city of Buenos Aires.

Argentine Tango Dancing with Miranda in San Francisco, October 2019

You never did anything more profound in your life: it is to be intimately connected at all levels to another human being in a beautiful way.

Argentine Tango Dancing with Miranda in San Francisco, October 2019

You never did anything more profound in your life: it is to be intimately connected at all levels to another human being in a beautiful way.

Argentine Tango dancing with Miranda at a beginner's class in Lafayette,...

What is Argentine Tango?

Since dancing Argentine Tango is not an abstraction, I cannot explain by talking or writing about it in generalizations. Besides dancing itself, I can only use my own personal experiences to explain it to you. 

Argentine Tango dancing with Mimi at beginner class in San Jose, October...

If you want to dance, you must be with dancers.
Everything is social for humans.
Tango gives you a unique opportunity to get to know people of remarkable quality.
To improve you need to be in company of the best.

Argentine Tango dancing with Mimi at beginner's class in San Jose, Calif...

There are innumerable ways to spend your time without transforming yourself, without sweating, without emotions, and without any effort. All this sounds very appealing, I guess, since most individuals at the present time choose to spend their time in such ways. If there is a seed of a dancer in the soil of your existence, you will feel a kind of nausea, in different degrees, if you happen to have to try any of these ways to consume your time.

Argentine Tango dancing with Miranda at intermediate class in San Franci...

Tango is not my profession in the same sense that your profession is for you. For instance: everything you do in relation to your profession is effort, while in my case it is effortless.

Argentine Tango dancing: milonga in Lafayette. With Suzanne. Third song ...

What is Argentine Tango? Since dancing Argentine Tango is not an abstraction, I cannot explain by talking or writing about it in generalizations. Besides dancing itself, I can only use my own personal experiences to explain it to you.

Argentine Tango dancing at a milonga in Lafayette, California, August 2019

Lafayette classes and milonga (Argentine Tango dance parties) are the most similar to a Buenos Aires neighborhood class and milonga.

Argentine Tango Dancing with Miranda in San Francisco, Union Square, Jul...

How to become a great Tango dancer?

Firstly, you need to change in you vocabulary the expression “Tango dancer” for “milonguero/a”.

Secondly, if you dance Tango, you can’t be less than great.

Start with classes. Your first class could be a group class or a private lesson. To learn to dance you need both, regularly, more than once a week.

I am blessed by my group of regular students and my assistants. It worth many trillion dollars (if you like to express it in quantities) to count on them as part of my life. You should not miss your opportunity to make them part of your life too.

In group classes and private lessons, from your teachers, you will learn the value of Tango.

Argentine Tango dancing with Miranda in San Francisco, July 2019

We dance because we value a fulfilling life. We remain committed to our body, recognizing it as the source of our existence. We receive it without having asked for it. That means, for me, that we were challenged to live. What would be the price of such a life? A life built step by step as an interpretation of the music of your everyday reality. A life that does not reject anything that happens, incorporating every action in the chain of your own history, saying: "It was necessary that it happen, it had to happen, I wanted it to happen".

Argentine Tango dance with Mimi at a beginner's class in San Jose, Calif...

I cannot oblige my students to be passionate about Tango, but I can share my passion with them.

Some may judge me crazy, obsessed, neurotic, and I would reply that while you judge, you cannot dance.

Dancing Tango implies dancing every single note, every nuance in the expressivity of each musician of each song.

I am satisfied if the new student learns, at least, to respect Tango for what it is.

I am very patient. Tango made me so. You do not have to rush in getting to know Tango. Tango is infinite. Also, you have to enjoy your path in becoming a real milonguera or milonguero.

Argentine Tango dance party | Milonga in Lafayette, California

Dancing is not…
A choreography.
When you see dancing, you can objectively describe the movements that you see and note the coincidence of those movements with sounds in the music. A description like this, accurate and precise, cannot replace the experience of witnessing the phenomena of the dance. Your words may be very effective in producing emotions in your audience, but you will be performing poetry, not dancing.

Argentine Tango dancing with Miranda at beginner class in San Francisco,...

What is dancing?

How do you put into words an experience that is mainly physical and emotional? 

Imagine that one day you feel completely aware. Suddenly you feel that you are awake, that until now you were in a semi-sleeping state. 

Now you will always want to be awake and aware. 

That is dancing. 

What is it to be a dancer? 

It is to make of your desire of returning to that sensation of being awake and aware the source and the guide of all other elements composing your life. 

Historia del Tango Parte 9: Eduardo Arolas La evolución de la músic...

"Viborita" es otro de sus delicados tangos, con la peculiaridad de tener solo dos partes, sin trío, como era su costumbre. Grabado en 1920 por primera vez por la Orquesta Típica Select de Osvaldo Fresedo. Su partitura musical no se publicó hasta después de 1930, cuando el sobrino de Arolas recibió un paquete con manuscritos. Por eso aparece publicado como obra póstuma.

Argentine Tango Dancing with Mimi at a Beginner's class in San Jose, Jul...

You are a dancer because dancing is your priority.

Historia del Tango - Parte 9: Eduardo Arolas: La evolución de la músi...

En 1918, la orquesta de Eduardo Arolas se formó con él, como primer bandoneón y director, Manuel Pizzarro en el segundo bandoneón, Rafael Tuegols en el primer violín, Horacio Gomila en el segundo violín, Roberto Goyeneche en el piano y Luis Bernstein en contrabajo. Este fue el pico de su carrera, tocando tanto en Buenos Aires como en Montevideo. Pronto, Julio De Caro se uniría a su orquesta.

Argentine Tango Dancing with Miranda in San Francisco, June 12 2019

What to take seriously?

How do I shape my habits, act with the aim of producing delight in others and myself, seek to cultivate an existence that I can be proud of, a beautiful life to be regarded as an example?

Argentine Tango dancing with Miranda in San Francisco, June 2019

Argentine Tango dancing with Mimi in San Jose, California, June 2019

Dancing requires your absolute presence.

Historia del Tango - Parte 9: Eduardo Arolas. La evolución de la música ...

Entre 1913 y 1916, la composición y producción musical de Eduardo Arolas mostró una mejora evidente debido a sus estudios musicales y la experiencia adquirida en su profesión. Consolidó su fama, llevando a su orquesta al nivel de los más destacados, dejando los cafés de su barrio, tocando en la calle Corrientes y en los lujosos lugares de Palermo, en el interior de Argentina y en Montevideo.

Argentine Tango dancing with Miranda in San Francisco

All aspects of the human existence form your dance.
Dancing is the wisest way of living. The most beautiful.

History of Tango - Part 9: Eduardo Arolas and the evolution of Tango mus...

En 1909, cuando Eduardo Arolas compuso "Una noche de garufa", aún no había adquirido una educación musical formalizada. Tenía 17 años.

Aún así, en su primera composición, todos los elementos de su estilo están presentes, estallando en el mundo, para regocijo de todos aquellos que, como yo, aman el Tango.

Esta cualidad no puede atribuirse a ningún otro compositor de Tango.

Dancing Argentine Tango with Miranda to Troilo-Fiorentino's music

Discipline is as essential as passion. Art is made of both. Our life has prospered thanks to both. Too much or too little of either of them, and we end up with no life and no art at all. This is precisely what defines what we are, as human beings.
Practice discipline and let your emotions come to you not only in the development of your dance, but also in your relationships at the milongas, and in your whole life. Tango will eventually boil over and define your entire life. You become a milonguera, a milonguero.

Dancing Argentine Tango with Miranda to Carlos Di Sarli's music.

Tango is embodied. You can see it. It is that person or that couple dancing, which lets you know -intuitively, but nevertheless as undoubtedly real to you as objective empirical knowledge- what Tango is.

History of Tango 9 - Eduardo Arolas and the evolution of Tango music - C...

In 1922, Eduardo Arolas took a second trip to Europe, with work in mind, but he didn’t receive help from the community of tango musicians living there. On his own, he got advantageous contracts to play in Paris and Madrid.
During his last three years of life, he resided in Europe, and we only know about the composition “Place Pigalle”, which he registered in France.

Buenos Aires, March 2019, dancing with María Olivera at Cachirulo milonga

More Argentine Tango at http://escuelatangoba.com/marcelosolis/.
I know María since 2004, due to our profession.
She is a superb dancer, both to watch and to dance with. You can see the result of a careful and methodic crafting of her art, achieved by the power of her talent, passion and restless research of Argentine Tango.
As an instructor, she generously shares with students her immense knowledge, by explaining with her gifted use of language (both English and Spanish), and by presenting clever exercises that allows everyone to understand the intricacies of dancing Argentine Tango.
As a human being, María is true good person, honest, reliable and compassionate. Being in her presence makes you feel always accepted, she is always attentive to you and participative of your concerns, virtues that make her an amazing teacher.

History of Tango 9 - Eduardo Arolas and the evolution of Tango music - C...

“Viborita” is other of Arolas’ delicate tangos, with the peculiarity of having only two parts, without a trio, as was his custom. Its music sheet was not published until after 1930, when the nephew of Arolas received a pack with manuscripts. That is why it appears published as posthumous work. 

Buenos Aires, March 2019, Argentine Tango class with María Olivera

Come to Buenos Aires with us! http://escuelatangoba.com/marcelosolis/buenos-aires-tango-trips/

Buenos Aires, March 2019, Argentine Tango class with Ana María Schapira

Join our next trip to Buenos Aires, September 27 to October 6, 2019.

http://escuelatangoba.com/marcelosolis/buenos-aires-tango-trips/upcoming/

Buenos Aires, March 2019, milongueando with Miranda

What is Tango?
“Tango is Life”.
What does this sentence mean? It suggests that those who do not tango don’t know what life is. Can such a radical thought make sense?
Ask anyone who is involved in Tango passionately, which is the only way to be involved in it, and that will be the answer. 

Emotions

A life without emotions is not ideal.

We need to rationalize our emotions only if they are problematic, if, in fact, they carry us to die against a hot light bulb like a moth. We are never alone, and we all are necessary.

Reason is a tool. It serves us to survive, organizing our subsistence.

In making reason the center of our existence we make the mistake of chaining ourselves to the machine that should make our lives better, and letting the machine dictate the pulse of our self.

Una vida sin emociones no es lo ideal.

Necesitamos racionalizar nuestras emociones solo si son problemáticas, si, de hecho, nos llevan a morir contra una bombilla caliente como una polilla. Nunca estamos solos, y todos somos necesarios.

La razón es una herramienta. Nos sirve para sobrevivir, organizando nuestra subsistencia.

Al hacer de la razón el centro de nuestra existencia, cometemos el error de encadenarnos a la máquina que debería mejorar nuestras vidas y dejar que la máquina dicte el pulso de nosotros mismos.

History of Tango - Part 9: Eduardo Arolas and the evolution of Tango mus...

Argentine Tango class demo with Karina

Tango is a kind of beauty that can manifest in a handshake, in our gaze, in an embrace, in our walk…

To be able to perceive all of this you need to train and study with passion, perseverance, patience, stamina and focus.

That is why I dance Tango.