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
Art, Dirt, Pain and Tango
When I was still an architecture student years ago, we had art classes of all sorts, one of them was still life painting, with oil and watercolour. I wasn't particularly gifted in painting but I was quite exceptional in pen and pencil graphics. The reason I had no future in painting was simple: I couldn't paint with dirt. When you study art and history of it, you can see the trajectory of it is quite chaotic. True geniuses are messy, their ideas are incomprehensible for most
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
Let's Make it Personal - Interview with Maja and Marko
Why do Maja and Marko pay special attention to their clothing? How did Marko start dancing tango (and it wasn't the usual way!), what's the most incredible thing they've tried in their travels, and what is the difference between tango in Europe and tango in Asia?
Surprise! When they were in London in May '18, we arranged a nice relaxed interview with them to get to know them a bit better, and to introduce their less known sides to all of you! Interview was really interestin
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
On Easter-Bunnies of Tango
I've been thinking about this for a long while. There are dancers, male and female, who seem to not be able to rest and relax. They may be beginners, intermediates or advanced dancers. They may be very different, but there are things that unite them. It's almost Easter now. So I finally came up with a proper and sweet way to address such dancers. I'll call them Easter-Bunnies of Tango. Who are Tango Easter-Bunnies? Easter-Bunnies are cute, fluffy and you can't take your eyes
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,
Let's Make It Personal - Episode 2
SO, DO YOU NEED A ROSE TO DANCE TANGO? 🌹
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We are so excited to finish our second video from the “Let’s Make it Personal” series! This time, we are talking about tango if you’re a beginner or someone who doesn’t know much about it at all. What is it, what to expect and why should you do it at all. Hopefully, this will help inspire some new dancers to join us in our community! I tried to make it factual and purposely avoided any ambiguous (although very precise) desc
My latest A-HA moment
I would like to share with you a personal insight of TangoBETTER founder and teacher Olga Metzner, based on her recent discoveries in tango and inspiration is has brought. Keep searching, keep improving! I am trying to work and improve my tango every day. I study a lot with different people, with partners and by myself. It is my goal to continuously grow and get better, because I can see the results of good work and it inspires me. For the last 2 years, I feel I've been havin
Fashions and styles in tango
TangoBETTER questions: What kind of tango is the right tango to learn and to dance?
___________ Take a look at this video. It's ballet, perhaps the most rigid dance, interpreting a modern song, reinventing itself with new kinds of moves. The Royal Ballet is very classical, very strict and they are the stronghold of the conservative dancing. And yet, they produce these things. Tango has fashions. We change dance clothes (make no mistake, beautiful flowing and wide silky skirt
