Tango Advocacy

It didn’t make sense to me to gather in a chateau somewhere for a more expensive week of workshops.

Advocacy and training has to happen in your community, so you are making experiences with potential dancers and students. The rigor is about reflecting diligently on those experiences, trying new things, and analyzing what works and what doesn’t.

There are lots of tango teachers. What we certainly need are better tango ADVOCATES, and that’s why the focus of our new program is about who to reach out to, how to do that, and how to show tango to them in a way that will resonate and inspire, instead of disempower and discourage.

The core of both programs is one-on-one tutorial focused on your own practice and reflection.

• The practice is structured by a curriculum. That curriculum doesn’t require you to use TangoForge pedagogy, but it does require that you plan what you’ll try and evaluate the results in a rigorous way. We believe that these two commitments alone will vastly improve tango advocacy and pedagogy.
• The reflection is structured by regular (every two weeks) one-on-one call/video chat with me during which I hold you accountable for taking action, documenting, and analyzing it, coach you through tough spots, and give you personal challenges custom to your situation.

Tango Advocacy Program: For dancers of all levels who want to be effective and responsible advocates to help build your local tango community. This is a 6-month program with 4 parts, continuously coached in one-on-one video meetings with Vio twice per month.  [1] Learn to do effective outreach/marketing. Identify the “tribe” with whom you can resonate, and figure out how to get them to try tango. [2] Develop your own 6-week Absolute Beginner class and try it out on 6-8 students. [3] Organize a special event that contributes something new to your local tango scene. [4] Train to give your first class demo performance.

Apprenticeship/Teacher Development Program: For dancers who have completed the Advocacy Program and want to become regular teachers and organizers. This is an 18-month program with 4 parts, all personally supervised in one-on-one video meetings with Vio twice per month.  [1] Develop and evaluate your own curriculum for continuing beginners. [2] Learn to teach effective private lessons. [3] Design and run an ongoing event for your community. [4] Create a style and train for your own outreach performances.

The 6-month Advocacy Program will be focused on experimenting and sharing discoveries.

The 18-month Apprenticeship Program is focused on defining a business model and artistic identity as a tango professional.

The Advocacy Program is open to all, without any prerequisite.

The Apprenticeship is open to Alumni and current students of the TangoForge MasterCourse and MasterCourse Challenges.

If you have not yet done the MasterCourse, you may enroll simultaneously in the MasterCourse and the Apprenticeship Program. 

Neither of these programs require you to use TangoForge pedagogy. We believe that the optimal absolute beginner’s class has yet to be created. We believe that it would be a huge improvement in responsible tango teaching that teachers [1] prepare curricula and [2] evaluate their effectiveness. Therefore this is the main agenda of our pedagogic supervision. What you try is up to you, so long as you do it in a context of rigorous self-reflection.

Neither of these programs automatically authorize you to use the name ‘TangoForge’. Graduates of the Apprenticeship may be invited to represent TangoForge.