Your best tango will happen when you connect the basic “three”
I have always thought I have good musicality. For years, I’ve been dancing in international high-level events and always got compliments on my musicality and playfulness. As a kid, I studied music, composition and spent years playing an instrument. I attended some musicality classes but never connected to them, I always thought they were too basic. Phrase, melody, beat… Dancing to different orchestras. I often didn’t see the point in studying that. It didn’t change my dance f
On tango happiness and belonging, or why and how to connect
We all come into tango for different reasons. But many, if not most of us remain because of connection. Connection is a powerful and truly beautiful thing, and it’s also the driving force for belonging. Many scientific studies have determined that human’s most basic need is a sense of community. We simply can’t be happy or even function on our own. People who have been deprived of communication for too long experience actual physical suffering, on top of facing complex psycho
Are you sometimes wondering if you should continue dancing tango? Read this.
This is one of my very first photos in tango. I had been dancing for about 2.5 years then. And I was absolutely not sure that I was an amazing dancer. Millions of doubts and voices telling me I wasn't good. I continued nevertheless. I recently lost a student. We as tango community recently lost a wonderful and exceptionally talented dancer. I could see he would have been able to have a bright and versatile future in tango, in dance. But he quit. He had been dancing for a coup
The Most Powerful Thing in All of Tango
I remember it like it was yesterday. We were dancing. The connection was divine. Music was like pulse in our bodies, part of us. It was one of the best dances I’ve ever had. It was so good that I had to sit down and “breathe” a bit afterwards. I was almost moved to tears, and thanked tango gods for sending him my way. What was so special about that dance, you’d ask? What did he do? And I’ll say, “nothing”. Absolutely and literary NOTHING. The dance had moments when he didn’t
Active Following: a Way to Express and Connect or a Distraction?
A few days ago one student of mine asked me to write an article on active following. What is it, how I understand it and what it gives us. It's great to see people interested in my take on active following, as I am a big proponent of it! What is the difference between “active” and “normal” following? For me, following IS active. I personally can not distinguish between the two in my dance. But I understand how different it can be for different people. And I notice how differe
Tango. A partner dance. Right?
I had an interesting discussion with a local London tanguero. It was based on one of the videos I posted, where I was practising forward ochos by myself. I will by the way soon post a Let's Make It Personal video about solo practice and what value it has in a partner dance like tango, in my point of view. This tanguero respectfully argued that practising ochos by myself is pointless since being able to do it alone does not give an indication whether I can also do it in a coup
Dancers of movement, music and feeling. Who are you?
Have you ever noticed that with some people we dance “moves”, with others - “music”, and then also now and then we encounter people who dance “emotions”? What does it all mean? We are all very different in tango. One of my most favourite things ever about tango is how diverse we are. I know surgeons, artificial intelligence researchers, air traffic controllers, opera singers and recently met a historical precious stones expert, among countless other occupations. The beauty of
Follower and Leader discuss their views on Connection. Let's Make It Personal - Episode 6
We had a chat with Olga and Vicente to get two people's views on what's important for a good connection in a couple. The chat was productive and we will have more videos coming! Wonderfully filmed and edited by Michael Nikolai (thank you!!!) #Dancing #TangoBody #Partner #Technique #Tango #Socialtango #Improvement
Tango and sex
"...And finally to stand up, perhaps, with a completely unfamiliar partner, stop thinking about your legs and open yourself to another person and discover him/her for yourself..." This article is written by Iri Strelkova, a wonderful tanguera living in Moscow. Originally written in Russian, later translated into English. Original post here. Opinions of guest writers might not necessarily correspond with our own, but this is tango! There is no one and only correct way! Have a
What do we look for in dancers?
Who are your favourite dancers? What are their qualities? Why do you love them? We might all enjoy slightly different things, but general qualities we appreciate in our partners are similar. I often have people approach me, asking: “What is it that I need to do to be a better dancer? What qualities would you like me to have so you could be interested in dancing with me at milongas?” While I go through many individual things to answer these sort of questions with my students,
