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Mastering the Art of Argentine Tango: A Roadmap to Dance Excellence
Embarking on the Journey to Mastering Argentine Tango
Given that Argentine Tango is not easily described in abstract terms, I find it challenging to convey its essence through mere words or generalizations.
Thus, I resort to sharing my personal experiences with you.
Here you can see me dancing:
There are countless ways to pass the time without evolving, without exertion, without passion, and without any endeavor.
Given the current inclinations of many individuals, I understand the appeal of such activities. Yet, if there's a dancer's seed within you, you might experience a sense of discomfort when engaging in these leisure pursuits. You may resort to self-medication, alcohol, substance abuse, or even addiction.
Alternatively, you could choose to detach from your body, gravitating toward extreme religious or intellectual pursuits, effectively becoming a living statue or a consciously impaired individual.
Another option is to maintain a fragmented relationship with your body, compartmentalizing it like a puzzle, focusing on different muscle groups each day, eventually creating a disjointed physique struggling for coherence.
This partitioning of the body mirrors the segmentation evident in various facets of life.
Hence, Tango shouldn't be seen as a therapeutic remedy. Therapy and Tango don't align. In Tango, as a way of being, you need not compartmentalize yourself into distinct physical, psychological, and spiritual categories. From the Tango perspective, these realms aren't separate entities. Therefore, psychology, religion, or regular gym sessions might not hold the same relevance for a milonguero.
To embrace Tango fully, you must embody Tango itself.
There's no halfway point; it's an all-or-nothing pursuit.
Explore the melodies of the Golden Era in Tango music.
Consult your instructor for guidance and build your collection of Tango classics from the period when Tango thrived in Buenos Aires and other major cities in Argentina. This music resonates in our classes.
I am curating an Argentine Tango music library on my website.
You need to attend to milongas.
It doesn't matter how many group classes and private lessons you have taken. Tango is not a private and closed relationship with your teachers. If you're a new student and feel like you know too little compared to others, then being at a milonga will significantly increase your knowledge about Tango.
Perhaps you've taken many group classes and private lessons, then being at a milonga will present Tango to you contextualized, similar to learning a language and visiting a country where that language is spoken. The sooner you start going to milongas, the better. Your Tango needs to grow there.
You will be able to understand the reasons for many elements and details in Tango that in classes may seem arbitrary to you. It all makes perfect sense when you dance at milongas. Besides, your teacher needs to see you attending and dancing at milongas to fully assess what you need to work on to improve your dance. If you do not feel confident dancing yet, you do not need to dance; going to milongas is beneficial even if you do not dance there yet.
I recommend starting by going to the milongas your teacher goes to and going to the milongas your teacher organizes if they do. It would be best if you were introduced to the milonga community by someone who belongs to it.
I want to note that although a dance party may be labeled a "milonga," it is not necessarily so. If your teacher is a great dancer (you do not want less from your teacher's quality of dance), he belongs to the community of the milongas and Tango. He will know where to go and will organize authentic milongas.
I am blessed by belonging to the community of milongueros who go to the most wonderful milongas in Buenos Aires, and by the group of my students and regulars who come to the milongas that I go. Don’t miss joining us at the next milonga.
You must come to Buenos Aires.
If you learn the French language, it makes sense to go to France and speak the language there. That is where you will feel the multi-dimensionality of the language with your whole being. You may love French culture so much that you decide to move there or travel there often, any time you have the chance, and in this process, you make many friends in France, which makes you want to travel there even more often.
That is how you will become Tango yourself: by going to Buenos Aires often. Learning a language and culture only to visit it once is incongruent, at best.
I will be honored to introduce you to the community of milongueros in Buenos Aires, to which I am humbled to belong. I currently go twice a year, in the spring and fall, accompanied by a group of my students. I show them the city of Buenos Aires, take them to classes with my teachers and colleagues, and bring them to the milongas, where I am a regular.
I continue the tradition of passing the torch of Tango in the same way that my teachers got introduced to Tango in their times, by taking my students to where I regularly go and sharing my knowledge and passion for Tango with them.
Dancing Tango demands genuine style and personality.
You won’t dance Tango because you know a piece of choreography. You will dance Tango if you put yourself as a link in the chain of the Art of Tango through time, meeting and learning from the best dancers that Tango has produced, from the milongueros.
You must realize the responsibility of caring and passing along this Art in the future, not necessarily teaching it, but fundamentally being a great dancer yourself, teaching it with your example.