Argentine Tango MasterCourse

Most students go to class and see a new sequence each week. They have difficulty remembering this sequence and integrating what they learn into their dance. Students also know that to dance more smoothly and gracefully they need to train their bodies, but they aren’t sure what exactly to practice.

Of course group classes are more fun and social than videos, and of course it’s helpful to feel expert execution directly with a teacher. But many teachers don’t offer clear, actionable instruction for both roles. Our Digital School provides precise, empowering information.

1. Start by just watching the 10 hours of the MasterCourse. By doing this you will grasp the scope of the tango curriculum, the logic of variations of the elements, and how technique concepts apply to different movements.
2. Each MasterCourse session includes practice exercises for solo dancers and pairs. Plan a schedule to work through the MasterCourse. You can train on your own or invite a practice partner (or two) to work with you.
3. On your own, use the Exercise Center for 5 minutes of daily exercise to improve your muscle strength and control. Use the Practice Courses for twice weekly solo tango training.

Until the mid-1990s, tango was understood in groups of steps, or sequences. The Cochabamba Investigation Group deconstructed these sequences, enabling dancers to improvise every step.

Continuing this work, TangoForge identified 25 distinct tango Elements, each with a number of variations ranging from 5-100. Dancers can do any variation with a number of different dynamics, bringing our total expressive possibilities well beyond 1000.

The technique for each Element is consistent across its variations, so once we learn how to go looking for variations, and how to move with different dynamics we have a huge vocabulary at our disposal.

Dancing from the Elements empowers dancers to to express every music, challenge partners to maintain intense concentration, and use space skillfully for better floorcraft. Improvisation skills are essential to navigating crowded dance floors and dancing on diverse music.

Regardless of which “style” of tango you prefer, all Argentine Tango relies on the same skills.

Yet technique is often taught too abstractly.

We studied and analyzed every tango move to understand its biomechanics.  We can describe motion in terms of position and action of joints and contraction of muscles. We use anatomical terms to describe communication between the bodies and the science of animal gaits to describe the various ways four legs can move along.

We distilled technique to a memorable set of just 5 tools. These tools enable you to diagnose problems, analyze movements to learn from any teacher, and help fellow dancers.

All of our biomechanical claims have been evaluated by two physiologists, Brendan Roach of Wellington’s BodyLab and Michael Chang of Sydney University.