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Argentine Tango School

Tag: argentine tango

Argentine Tango class on 1-2-3 structure of turns

Argentine Tango class on 1-2-3 structure of turns










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I lead and I follow.

When leading, I like my partner to be sensitive to my lead, reciprocating with being sensitive to her interpretation of music.

Together we do the dance of a being that is not her or me, but the couple.


Learn to dance Argentine Tango in the San Francisco Bay Area:

Argentine Tango dance with Mimi at Enchanted Tango Home

Argentine Tango dance with Mimi at Enchanted Tango Home

Why dancing? What for? 

I made this thought experiment about it: 

Let’s imagine that before being born, you are given the choice to live or not. 

You know nothing about life since you haven’t experienced it; and no one can explain it to you for the same reason, since in your non-existent state you are not able to grasp anything about what existing means, you wouldn’t understand comparisons nor metaphors because there is nothing you can compare to or metaphorize. 

The only experience you have at this point is nothingness. 

However, you can watch the lives of people. Like on a big-screen television or at the movie theater, you can watch life happening for the billions of people that are alive, without plot, argument, chapters, or selection of location. You watch it all going on together, and your attention drifts here and there, to anything or anyone that calls your attention. 

Like being a child and being taken to a dance party for the first time and watching the crowd dancing. Some dancers catch your attention and that is what you see and will remember. 

You won’t be able to give a rational answer in your response to the offer of being born or not, since to be rational you need some data, information, some knowledge, but that is impossible. You have only the emotions that those images of seeing the lives of people triggered in you to formulate your answer. 

Your answer would be based solely on your emotions. 

You may be afraid, in which case you’ll reject the offer. 

You may be curious, in which case you’ll accept the offer. 

You could be cautious, in which case you’ll reject the offer. 

You could be reckless, in which case you’ll accept it. 

How about having someone explaining to you what life is like? You would be educated on the matter, but now your decision would very much be influenced by your teacher. If your teacher loves life, most likely you’ll choose to live. Your teacher will encourage you to have confidence in life. All the facts and information that your educator presents to you will condition your choice since those facts and pieces of information gathered for you by your teacher are surely justifications of your teacher’s preference for life. Education is mainly an emotional affair. 

It is the same in the case of dancing. 

You watch people dancing, and your sensitivity guides your attention. 

No one can explain the meaning of dancing to you, but someone can encourage or discourage you from dancing. 

Dancing, or the idea of dancing, awakens emotions in you, which you may accept or reject. 

Then, if you decide that your answer is to accept, once you are fully into it, you cannot go back. 

To stop dancing would be suicidal. 

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Now we also have virtual online classes

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“Tarareando” by Miguel Caló y su Orquesta Típica with Raúl Berón in vocals, 1942.

“Tarareando” by Miguel Caló y su Orquesta Típica with Raúl Berón in vocals, 1942.

Miguel Caló, Argentine Tango musician, leader and composer.

Miguel Caló

Bandoneonist, leader and composer (October 28, 1907 – May 24, 1972)

The Miguel Caló orchestra will be remembered as the best tango performance that goes beyond its age and is recognized today for its outstanding artistic qualities and by a dancing group that permanently evokes it.

Caló developed a style that connects traditional tango with the innovations of the age, without stridence, with a highlighted presence of the violins, a rhythmic bandoneon section, and a spectacular piano.

He not only promoted great musicians but also great singers that made their professional debut in his orchestra, for example, Raúl Berón.

Read more about Miguel Caló

Listen and buy:

  • Amazon music

  • iTunes music

  • Spotify

We are happy to have a collaboration with the people from tangotunes.com from whom some of you may have heard, they do high-quality transfers from original tango shellacs.

It is the number 1 source for professional Tango DJs all over the world.

  • Now they started a new project that addresses the dancers and the website is https://en.mytango.online
    You will find two compilations at the beginning, one tango and one vals compilation in amazing quality.
    The price is 50€ each (for 32 songs each compilation) and now the good news!

If you enter the promo code 8343 when you register at this site you will get a 20% discount!

Thanks for supporting this project, you will find other useful information on the site, a great initiative.

Ver este artículo en español

More Argentine Tango music selected for you:

We have lots more music and history

How to dance to this music?

“Flores del alma” by Alfredo De Angelis y su Orquesta Típica with Carlos Dante and Julio Martel in vocals, 1947.

“Flores del alma” by Alfredo De Angelis y su Orquesta Típica with Carlos Dante and Julio Martel in vocals, 1947.

Alfredo Lucero Palacios, Argentine Tango singer, lyricist and musician.

Alfredo Lucero Palacios

Singer, lyricist and guitarist (26 October 1910 – 2 June 1974)

His career lasted relatively short, and he could only record over 20 numbers.

Of them, only two were tango pieces and three waltzes that used to be included in the tango songbooks.

He was a singer with a pleasant range voice with delicate color.

A typical light tenor of the thirties, quite soft and with good intonation.

Together with Lito Bayardo, he wrote the lyrics of “Flores del alma”.

Read more about Alfredo Lucero Palacios at www.todotango.com

Listen and buy:

  • Amazon music

  • iTunes music

  • Spotify

We are happy to have a collaboration with the people from tangotunes.com from whom some of you may have heard, they do high-quality transfers from original tango shellacs.

It is the number 1 source for professional Tango DJs all over the world.

  • Now they started a new project that addresses the dancers and the website is https://en.mytango.online
    You will find two compilations at the beginning, one tango and one vals compilation in amazing quality.
    The price is 50€ each (for 32 songs each compilation) and now the good news!

If you enter the promo code 8343 when you register at this site you will get a 20% discount!

Thanks for supporting this project, you will find other useful information on the site, a great initiative.

Ver este artículo en español

More Argentine Tango music selected for you:

We have lots more music and history

How to dance to this music?

“Lágrimas” by Ricardo Tanturi y su Orquesta Típica, 1941.

“Lágrimas” by Ricardo Tanturi y su Orquesta Típica, 1941.

Eduardo Arolas

Bandoneonist, composer and leader (24 February 1892 – 29 September 1924)

The last group of his compositions, from 1917 to 1923, showed an even further musical evolution, deeper in feelings, nostalgic, almost crying with masculine vulnerability, playing with his characteristic rhythmic phrasing.

These works were influenced by the break up with his lover Delia López, who ended up involved with his brother, and his subsequent submersion into alcoholism and chronic sadness. 

The composition cover artwork for the song “Lágrimas” deserves a special mention because of Arolas’ self-portrait.

Dedicated to the mother of his colleague and violinist Tito Roccatagliata, combined a delicious rhythmic first part with a deeply emotional second part. Ricardo Tanturi recorded it in 1941.

Read more about Eduardo Arolas and the History of Tango

Ver este artículo en español

Listen and buy:

  • Amazon music

  • iTunes music

  • Spotify

More Argentine Tango music selected for you:

We have lots more music and history

How to dance to this music?