Prácticas
Our regular Práctica is on Thursday evenings at St Joan’s, Farnham, from 8.30 to 10.30pm, folllowing the Foundation Class.
There is no need to book for the Práctica – just turn up and dance, or, if you wish, you can have a ½ hour Private Lesson with one of us.
Practice Makes Permanent!
Our bodies only become familiar and comfortable with new movements through repetition. Tango is not an easy dance – especially at first – and there is no substitute for regular practice. If you want to make real progress you have to consider dancing more than once a week.
The Práctica is a time honoured tradition in the learning of Tango in Argentina. In its original form, young men who wanted to learn how to dance well would attend prácticas to perfect their technique by dancing with other men. Given the shortage of women in Argentina at the time, being a good dancer was the best chance they had of meeting women and finding a girlfriend. After months of learning the Follower’s steps they would finally be allowed start to learn how to lead. By the time they attended their first Milongas they would have mastered both the men’s and ladies’ steps and were well and truly ready.
Nowadays we have to find a shorter route to successful and enjoyable social dancing. Our classes are carefully structured to learn as quickly and effectively as possible. From then on it’s a question of getting the movements into your muscle memory so that you can do them naturally and without thinking.
We foster a positive and encouraging atmosphere to build dancers’ confidence, with no blame or criticism allowed – we can all feel a bit vulnerable when learning something new, so it is vital that people feel comfortable and supported. We also discourage more experienced dancers from teaching ‘their moves’ to recent beginners because, in our experience, this is rarely helpful and often causes confusion. Learning complicated moves badly really does get in the way of developing a good technique.
Classes are for learning. Prácticas are for practising what you’ve learned in the Class. Milongas are for social dancing where ‘feedback’ and coaching of any kind are best avoided – especially on the main dance floor.
Thursday Evening Prices
Práctica only – £5
Foundation Class only – £8
Foundation Class + Práctica – £10
½ hour Private Lesson – £15