About training Argentine Tango by yourself | Escuela de Tango de Buenos Aires

About training by yourself

Marcelo Solis performing with Yanina 1994.

I have a personal story to share with you, in which you may find some similarities with your own, regarding the place that Tango has in our lives.

In the early 1990s, I decided to go full-time into my professional Tango dancing career. I had a busy job in the hotel industry, but I did not feel it was what I wanted to do. However, it was very convenient because I earned a good salary, and the flexible schedule allowed me to study in college and dedicate much of my time and energy to Tango.

I worked for a year and a half with a great partner. She was a skillful dancer, a great person, and a dependable friend who loved Tango like me. We won competitions, trained hard, took classes with the best Maestros, and performed at festivals, conventions, corporate parties, restaurants, and schools. We got so busy that our schedule started to conflict even with my convenient and flexible work hours.

I worked for a year and a half with a great partner. She was a skillful dancer, a great person, and a dependable friend who loved Tango as much as me. We won competitions, trained hard, took classes with the best Maestros, and performed at festivals, conventions, corporate parties, restaurants, and schools. We got so busy that our schedule started to conflict even with my convenient and flexible work hours.

Not only that. At that point, our gigs were providing me with more income than what I earned with my salary.

You guessed it… I decided to quit my job and dedicate all my time to Tango.

Within less than a week after that decision, I received a call: my partner had been in a car accident.

Long story short, she was fine but would not dance the way a performer should for at least three months.

Life often presents us with these kinds of challenges.

I took it as a test of my commitment to my decisions and Tango.

Argentine Tango dancing by Marcelo Solis and Mimi at Water Pulgas Temple in San Francisco California

I did not have my partner to train with, although our partnership strengthened. I did not have money to go to milongas. However, I danced daily, training, studying, watching videos, and remembering what I had learned.