Do I need to know how to dance to come to the lessons?
For beginner-level lessons, you don’t need to have any prior experience. You are welcome to join even if you have never danced anything in your life, and even if you consider yourself to be one of those people who have “two left legs”… we will help you to begin your dancing journey!
Can I dance tango without a partner?
Tango is always danced with a partner. That being said, you are very welcome to join the lessons without your own partner. Sometimes, in order to ensure role balance, we ask for pre-registration (specially for our weekend courses). During the lessons, we encourage partner rotation. It is important to understand that tango is a social dance where we improvise and adapt to different partners. So even to people who start with their own partner, it is recommended that they try the steps with someone else. The objective of partner rotation is to support one’s learning by giving the possibility to try the same moves with different partners.
Do I need to wear special shoes/clothes to attend the lessons?
No. For the lessons, specially for beginner-level lessons, it is not necessary to come with any special shoes or clothes. Any indoor shoe that allows you to pivot will do. You can even practice with socks at first before you decide to purchase any special shoes. For clothes, it is good to wear comfortable clothes, basically any clothes should do. If you decide to continue dancing tango after your first beginner-level experiences, then you might want to buy dancing shoes, but it is definitely not necessary at the beginning.
How do I choose a lesson for myself? What do the different levels mean?
There is no standard way to define the levels of the dance. Time alone is not a good way to define it because it depends a lot on your own skills, practice, motivation, etc. Moreover, the learning process is not linear and you may want to - for instance - take a beginner course 2 or 3 times before you move on to the next level.
That being considered, here’s a broad description of the levels of the dance:
Beginner/Basic (from 0 to 1 year of practice):
Beginner level lessons are suitable for all people who are initiating their steps in the dance. You may have no experience whatsoever or little experience. Some people take the beginner level courses more than one time, this is actually recommended. Each time, you will get something new out of them.
Improver (from 1 to 2 years of practice):
Improver level lessons are suitable for everyone who has already taken beginner-level lessons and has kept a regular practice through some time. You can already lead or follow certain basic patterns (e.g. walking in parallel system, basic step/salida, front and back ocho, parada, ocho cortado, half turn). We recommend to start attending the milonga (dance party) as soon as possible at the improver-level.
Intermediate (from 2 to 5 years of practice):
At the intermediate level you already have a good movement vocabulary (you can lead/follow at least one version of more complex movements e.g. turns, boleos, sacadas. You should already be able to interpret some elements of the music, such as different rhythmical patterns (double beat, single beat, half beat). Even thought your movements can be improved, they work. Because of this, the intermediate level is the most difficult level to get out from. It is also completely possible that you stay in the intermediate level: not everyone needs to be an advanced level dancer. And even though you are an intermediate-level dancer, you can still attend advanced level lessons.
Advanced (from 4-5 years of practice):
An advanced-level dancer has a wide movement vocabulary and can already imprint their own interpretation to the moves. The movements feel as one’s own and you are able to modify the movements to adapt them to the space, to the music, and to the partner’s possibilities and inputs. You are able to do different versions of the same movements and even to come up with creative variations of your own. Being an advanced dancer doesn’t mean that your tango journey is ove, or that you should stop taking lessons. You still have things to learn and ways to improve.
I dance other pair-dances. Do I need to come to beginner level lessons?
We recommend to everyone to begin their tango journey in beginner level lessons. At the beginner lessons we learn the basic vocabulary of the dance which is specific to this dance and not necessarily applicable to other dances. If you have experience in other pair-dances, maybe a weekend course is the best option for you.
What does “Open Level” lesson mean?
An open level lesson means that we target a broad audience. The lesson includes elements that will be useful for different levels (excluding beginners). In the first part of the lesson, we review a movement that is reachable by improver, intermediate and advanced dancers. In the second part of the lesson, we offer a variation or an addition that will be a bit more challenging. For advanced dancers, we offer specific options.