Our Approach
Our approach to teaching Tango is constantly evolving. We are always asking ourselves:
“How can we help people learn to dance Tango beautifully, as quickly and easily as possible, and still have a lot of fun doing it?”
Our aim is to create a safe, enjoyable and supportive environment for people to learn and to dance together in the Salon style of Argentine Tango.
If you have attended classes elsewhere, where the approach was to demonstrate a move, then expect you to copy it as best you can, our approach will seem rather more direct. We constantly move around to work with you as individuals and couples to offer support and encouragement as well as specific tips and advice. You will feel like you are being actively coached, rather than left alone to have a quiet dance or figure it out for yourself.
As our focus is social dancing, we teach movements that are practical and appropriate for dancing at Milongas (Tango social dances). We want to help dancers of all ages to create an enjoyable dance to share with their partner, rather than a spectacle, however impressive, for the entertainment of others. You can create an elegant, dramatic and passionate dance without being gymnastic! Often it is the simplest dance that is the most enjoyable and successful. We strongly encourage considerate and responsible dancing, avoiding lifts, kicks and other extreme movements that rightly belong in Performance or Show Tango, but could be dangerous or inconsiderate to partners and other dancers on the Milonga dance floor.
The Salon style of Argentine Tango is a conversation between a man and a woman. It is an improvised dance, relying on our connection with each other and with the music. You cannot achieve this by dancing repeated sequences of steps, or pre-arranged choreographies. So, from the outset, we help you develop the twin arts of Leading and Following, using individual movements which can be combined in any number of ways to create a dance which is fresh, elegant and fun for both partners. For this reason we do not use the “Basic 8″ approach, which in our experience limits dancers’ ability to learn leading, following, improvising or interpreting the music.
We are keen to provide you with good technical foundations, essential if you want to progress beyond the basics. This includes work on posture, connection and balance, as well as understanding your own and (especially for Leaders) your partner’s axis and movement. We often welcome dancers from different dance forms, or who have learned Tango elsewhere, and who have realised they now need to improve their technique in order to progress further.
Although the Salon style of Tango is traditional in origin, our approach in teaching it is very innovative, using the best coaching methods available. We are all individuals, and we differ considerably in the ways we learn best. So we use a variety of teaching processes, adapting our approach wherever possible to each person’s learning styles and preferences.
For some interesting video clips showing different styles of Tango, click here.