Looking for tips about learning Argentine Tango dance?
From absolute beginner to a great milonguero/a Tango dancer.
Because you have realized the value of Tango, we are offering here a guide into your Tango journey.
You'll become more yourself within a community.
Our human nature makes us social beings: we cannot survive in isolation; hence, success is possible for an individual only with the support of one's peers.
That is to say, you learn to dance Tango not only because of your personal taste and choice. There is also a group of people who share your affinity for Tango, and even though you will not agree (and you do not need to agree) with everyone in matters of taste and choices, your success regarding Tango will always be tied to how you relate to those other dancers.
Even if you never dance with most of them, you will still share the same dance floor and seats around it at the same milonga.
Not everybody has the same sensitivity.
If you are willing to take the challenge, as a great milonguero/a does, aim for the highest, most beautiful, most poetic, and most sublime.
For me, that is Tango.
I feel at home with such people, and that is my environment.
That is what I would like to share with you.
My reason for doing so is that my goal is always to become a better dancer, and by inviting and challenging you to have the same goal, I count on you to challenge me in the same way.
We mutually challenge each other to become better dancers.
This will not make us rivals or enemies. On the contrary, we will develop a deep friendship.
I won't be distant (like on a stage). I will be approachable. I will dance with or next to you on the same dance floor. I may have more experience than you, but it may turn out that you are more talented. However, on a milonga's dance floor, we are essentially equals.
The goal of becaming better dancers cannot be quantified.
How do you quantitatively express an excellent example of a human being?
How do you quantify excellence or the admiration that someone awakens in you?
It is easy to get confused in a world that values quantification, like our civilization.
For instance, does the number of members in my Facebook group express the level of my dance?
I could set a goal to end the year with over 2,000 members.
That is easy to do. I will achieve this goal by the end of this year. Will that make me a better human being?
Let’s make a thought experiment (you now know I like them):
An alien comes to our planet and meets with several people. He meets an industrialist called Henry Rearden, a writer and poet called Oliverio Girondo, Gordon Gekko (a banker), Doug McKenzie (a garbage collector), a nurse called Ratched… etc., and a milonguero called Blas Catrenau...
This alien will immediately perceive the egalitarianism and spontaneity of the milonguero, who approaches him the same way he approaches everyone.
He will be surprised that he even hugs him as a greeting.
Another aspect is the milonguero's movement, expressions, and walking: he seems easily in control of himself.
His words are sometimes a little cryptic. He speaks, assuming that the alien understands what he is talking about.
However, he speaks with such comfortable self-confidence that the alien cannot avoid agreeing with Blas, even though he does not know what Blas is talking about.
For Blas, and for any milonguero in general, it does not matter how you look, your degrees, your wealth, or your job. If he has something to say about you, he will say it only if you ask his opinion and only regarding your dance.
Now, you can continue on your own with this experiment.
Imagine any other characters (anyone you want to include), and let me know how you see the alien's experience meeting them. You can write it here:
Back on Earth, once you've made up your mind and accepted that there is no better way to spend your time in life than making it a work of art and that in this endeavor you won’t find anything that makes more sense than dancing Tango, hence, becoming a great dancer (a realization that can take you a period of time ranging from one day to many years), then, the following advice may help you:
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1. Be disciplined, regular, and committed to your study of Tango. While dancing Tango is amusing, it is also different from other ways to amuse yourself. Choose these unique characteristics of Tango to be the core of your dedication to learning it. Tango has common aspects with other dances and other kinds of activities: steps, choreographic patterns, socializing, and proximity to partners. On the other hand, its music is unique, and also unique is the approach that milongueros have to Tango. For them, Tango is not a "way of life" but "Life itself."
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2. If a Tango is life, then your Tango teacher is a life coach. He or she is teaching you how to live Tango. Your relationship between you and your teacher is based on trust, mutual understanding, sympathy, and patience. Tango makes you meet at a very humane level, where both need to accept their limitations, flaws, and good qualities. The potential for improvement of Tango is infinite. In the face of such a wide-open horizon, both student and teacher are students of Tango. Your teacher is your guide through Tango but also your road companion. Choose carefully.
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3. Tango is a world. Your Tango teacher is a bridge to it. Allow yourself to know that world, its inhabitants, its culture. A Tango teacher doing a good job will have different levels of approximation to your definitive contact with Tango and, eventually, living-breathing-existing-embodying Tango. The first pool in your "decant" ng" to Ta" go will be your teacherteacher'sgroup of students. Not everyone who shows up to class, but those who attend class regularly and are noticeably there to learn about Tango. Be discerning of this difference. Then, your teacher, with or without this inner group, will take you to your first local milongas. New questions will arise there that you will need to discuss with your teacher. Eventually, you will visit Buenos Aires. It would be best if you trusted your teacher with this.
They, if authentic, are your most reliable connection to Tango in Buenos Aires.
Start Learning Argentine Tango Today
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