The 'Basics' of Tango
Everyone thinks that they don’t need their BASICS, or that they don’t need to revisit their foundation. Wrong. You do. Constantly. Unless you teach, and even then you do – even more so, you must revisit your foundation to help you to fix the errors, and yes you have them, that have crept in that you are unaware of. On this site there are over 800 videos and articles (not including all the other stuff) on Tango Topics for you to watch and learn from. It’s not just the videos, but the articles that contain the most of what you need to know to elevate your dance. We’re not trying to sell you videos here, but instead to inform and engage you to educate yourself wherever possible.
Humble: Teacher vs. Maestro
The word 'maestro' in spanish tends towards meaning a 'master teacher'. In english we tend towards removing the word 'master' from that definition and end up with 'teacher'. Nothing could be further from a bastardization than that.
Intention Based Dancing
What is Intention Based Dancing? In its simplest form 'Intention' is really about not using pressure, tension, or force, with one's arms, or hands in any way, shape, or form to communicate an idea, a thought, or a movement. But rather the idea of 'Intention' is to intend to do something. To propose,...
The Ballet Rise
Let's dispense with a few misnomers right out of the gate. 1.) Balance is not the same thing as Stability. 2.) Balance is a component of Stability. 3.) Your stability is generated via 3 very different mechanisms that are all connect via your nervous system. And so that we're clear...
Follower’s Molinete
Every social dance has a variation of a very old idea known as a “Grape Vine Turn”, which is generally 3 steps in either a circular or linear pattern. Argentine Tango is no exception to this factoid. Truthfully Tango has spawned and borrowed and given 8 types of turns based...
The Four Parts of Social Milonga
What is 'Social' Milonga ? Social Milonga is a Milonga of ease, of least resistance, of effortlessness. It's what we would dance at the Milonga when Milonga music is played but for a social environment not a performance! Which translates to smaller (very small) movements, and steps. This isn't about...
The Second Step Problem
As Leads, there are many issues that we need to address and then redress, and then revisit several million times over and the reason is that while we may believe (operative word in the sentence) that we’re leading X, Y, or Z, the reality is far from that. Usually. It’s...
The Cross – Getting In Front
For most Followers, that haven’t been properly trained, they are rushed into an Argentine Cross right from the start of their Tango dancing lives. Aside from Ochos, it’s the one thing that they’re pressed to do without any training aside from the Lead/er (Controlling Lead hence the ‘/er’ part) that...
The Expectant Cross
For most Lead/ers (and Leads) we lead the Argentine Cross so often that we stop thinking about actually leading it and it just sort of ‘happens’. The reason it just happens is because of it’s ubiquitousness, its frequency. You do this enough times and even the most battle hardened Follower...
The Arm Pit Dancer
What is an Arm Pit Dancer ? Put simply the Arm Pit Dancer is where most Leads place their Followers in their arm pit in order to dance with the Follower. Here's the strange part > Most Followers willingly go there and stay there! To be fair, most Leads have...
The Reverse Embrace
What is 'Reversing' the Embrace ? It is exactly what it sounds like. - as a Lead and a Follow, we're reversing the embrace structure. Meaning that the Lead's right arm is where the Follower's right arm would be, and the lead's left goes around the Follower. And vice versa. That's...