Tango Immersion

If you got here looking for the ultimate tango steps and formulas to impress others on the dancing floor, you can stop reading.

When it comes to what’s important in tango I always remember an after class (you know, like an after office but with my students). 

It was Spring. 

We went to one of our favorite places. 

One of those with blurry borders. That escape from any attempt of definition.

You could say it’s a bar. Sometimes they project movies or present plays. So you could say it’s a theater. Sometimes there are workshops and there’s room for rehearsals. So it could be a school or a studio. And one night a week there’s tango dancing and live music: It’s also a milonga ❤️ Food for the soul.

A table on the terrace is our cherry on the top. With the clear sky above us and a fresh breeze reminding us that sometimes the name “Buenos Aires” makes sense. 

Among tango songs, red wine and empanadas, my students started to recall their first tango experiences.

I saw myself in many of their stories.

(Yeah, even if some forget, teachers had a first time with tango too 😉)

One of them made us laugh out loud while acting his attempt of guessing what ‘standing straight’ meant for the teacher, and the many times he stepped onto his partner’s foot. 

Another shared the story of her first milonga (if you’re new to tango, milongas are the places for social tango dancing).

– I was lucky to have a friend to go with. I was afraid of not knowing what to do or how to behave in a milonga. I was starting to grow roots when someone FINALLY invited me to dance. It started ok but suddenly I felt like everyone was watching ME 😳 My hands started to sweat. Got nervous and couldn’t concentrate, like everything I learnt was gone…

The list went on and on –of course not only with stressful experiences. We’ll talk about the good ones too.

The thing is: After years of asking people about their process of learning tango, I found the number one reason why people get frustrated is not because “it’s such a difficult dance” –as you might have heard. Neither because you have “two left feet”. Or because the instructor is bad. Or because you won the lottery of worst dancing partners ever. 

There’s something much more crucial that happens to all of us when learning something new.

And tango amplifies it. 

Somehow people get the idea that dancing tango requires to learn a group of steps –the most complicated the better– to become kings and queens of the dancing floor.

Then the idea is reinforced in competitions, exhibitions and many videos available around.

My friend Alex took a bunch of classes, jumped from school to school, worked hard on memorizing maaany steps… and still felt like a beginner after YEARS of dancing tango. 

I met many others with the same experience and wondered WHY?

Does it really have to be like this?

It’s not all suffering, of course.

During all those years Alex was obsessed with tango. Completely in love with it! Going to 3 to 4 milongas per night (we lucky ones in Buenos Aires 😎). Wanting to dance and meet his tango friends every-single-day.

I knew there had to be a better way (and didn’t find it in traditional tango classes).

Many times without noticing people get deeply transformed by tango dancing.

Tango amplifies the ways we relate with ourselves and with others. Like no other dance does.

In order to enjoy the dance (and be enjoyable to dance with) tango is an open invitation to get to know yourself better and hold the space with another being –at least during the time a song lasts. And this, that might seem small, contains a whole world of possibilities within.

So, is it worth learning tango? 

Becoming aware of how your body works can improve your confidence and expressive skills, increasing your repertory of movements.

You stop needing to think what to do and start trusting your body, flowing with/in it.

Then it comes the part of making this happen while moving with someone else.

How to make it smooth and playful? 

The ability to enter into relation and connect with another being enables the ability to do all the complex steps you want. Not the other way around.

On top of it, we’re not just flesh and bones. There’s mechanics and technique, but not only.

Tango is an interpersonal and social activity (way more intimate than most pair dances). And it’s improvised! Lots of room for the unexpected.

There comes into play our personalities, mental and emotional patterns too. 

Tango can be life changing. Just depends on how you walk its path. 

You can spend years memorizing steps and later find you need to unlearn patterns to become an “advanced” dancer.

This is the way to go if you want to invest way more (time, effort and money) in learning.

Maybe you’re not even interested in being an advanced dancer (btw, what is an “advanced” dancer?) but to enjoy the moment dancing and sharing with others or doing something different with your life partner.

I’ve found with my students that there’s no need to wait for years to start gaining the skills that take you there.

If this is your way to go, be my guest to receive free dosis on body awareness and ways you can use tango as a tool for self growth: