Seminar Encuentro Compañeros TangoForge 2022
Join us in the blissful countryside of Southern France for up to 10 days of TangoForge à la carte.
12-22 August. 2022
Each workshop theme will be considered twice: • The High Performance Embrace • Self-expression • What is improvisation? • Creative transitions between movements
Daily fitness classes with professional bodybuilder, acrobat, and stuntman, Daniel Adrenaline: • Stretching for everyone • Bodyweight workout • Elastic bands workout • Vio’s Cardio Workout • Exercises for your Tango Muscles • Exercising through injury and pain
Daily creative projects: • filmmaking for intense action (how to make a video of yourself dancing tango that actually does justice to your experience) • performance combat (it’s as collaborative as tango…) • strategic planning to manifest your dreams • cooking with local, seasonal ingredients.
And: private tango lessons, fitness and diet coaching, deep conversations, languid ebiking through the countryside, tours of the local gourmet markets, and dancing at the massive Tarbes Tango Festival.


































Tango Themes
The high-performance embrace: The embrace is not a static frame. It is first of all a relationship with a particular partner. We will explore how to make our partners most comfortable. Second, the embrace is a system of flexible tension which both delivers information and is prepared to provide physical support to the partner if needed. Third, the three joints of the arms have specifications for each movement. Adjusting the joints to this specification is the very first part of the mark, which makes every communication more clear.
Expression: We dance to express ourselves, but tango’s greatest gift is intense connection. How can we express musicality and delight without breaking the connection? In this session we will examine adornos for both partners, from the most classic ones to the edges of contemporary tango.
Improvisation – What is it really? Social tango is always improvised, but what does that mean? For most dancers it means stringing together a series of sequences they try to remember in classes, and in fact this was how everyone danced until the mid-1990s. At that point a group of dancers called the Cochabamba Investigation Group studied the inherited sequences to find the most fundamental elements. This session will enable you to make the transition from dancing sequences to dancing elements and show you how you can find new variations by yourself, without memorizing or relying on a teacher for your development. Transitions: A delightful dance has contrast between large and small, fast and slow, dramatic and light-hearted. These changes of dynamic and mood are transitions. In this session we will explore the moments of transition between elements to break habits and anticipations to discover new improvisational and expressive possibilities.
We will have a nightly practica with DJ Pez from 21:30-23:30
You are also welcome to only do private lessons and practicas.
NO PARTNER is REQUIRED for REGISTRATION.
The Tarbes festival includes 17 live orquestas. Every evening there is a huge milonga at Halle Marcadieu from 23:00 until 02:00 or 05:00. The cost is usually €13+ and includes live music. There is also an afternoon outdoor milonga every day at Haras de Tarbes from 14:00 to 18:00 which costs €7. There are “after-parties: on Monday 15., Wednesday 16., and Thursday 18 from 02:00-05:00 at the Retro with free admission.
Tarbes is a one hour drive from here. It would be lovely if you offer any extra spaces in your car to dancers who do not have a car.
For details on the daily schedule, please visit the website. Tarbes Tango Festival.
Parking in Tarbes is free on weekends: from Saturday noon to Monday morning 9am.
On-site at the location of classes and evening meals, with pool:
- dormitory accommodation with real beds for 20 persons
- outdoor camping
- Daily yoga and fitness sessions before, during, and after the seminar.
- Private tango lessons.
- Private coaching for personal fitness, flexibility, and bodybuilding.
- Local massage therapists available for bookings.
- E-bikes available for stunning rides through the local countryside and villages.
- Swimming pool
- Guidebook for local shops, services, artisans, and markets
- Lots and lots of stars, and very little light pollution
Accommodation
- dormitory accommodation with beds, linens and towels: €25/per person/night
Education
À la carte
- Tango workshop: €50/day for 2-hour session
- Private Tango lesson: €70/hour
- Fitness class: €10
- Private fitness coaching: €50/hour, €30/half-hour
- Creative projects session: €15
Package
€250 includes ANY 4 days of all the activities + a 30 minute private lesson. For example: You could stay here for 7 days, spend 3 at Tarbes and choose any 4 days of activities with us.
MasterCourse Students
Currently enrolled MasterCourse students and those whose enrollments expired after June 2020 are entitled to free access to workshops, but must still pay the costs of housing, food, private lessons, creative projects, and fitness.
Refund Policy
Accommodation and food: You may cancel or modify this part of your booking with no penalty, and 100% refund if necessary up to one week before the event. Within one week from the event, you will receive a 50% refund.
Workshop registration fees:
- Cancellation more than one calendar month before the event: 75% refund
- Cancellation less than one month but more than more than one week before the event: 50% refund
- Cancellation less than one week before the event: Your registration is transferable to another person, by your own arrangement. Bookings for accommodation and food can be fully refunded.
In the case of cancellation, registration fees not refunded can be used as credits toward enrollments in the TangoForge Digital School.
The location is in the village of Montbernard, department Haute-Garonne, region Occitanie, between Tarbes and Toulouse.
The nearest airport is Toulouse Blagnac TLS.
The nearest train stations are Gare de Saint-Gaudens.
We also encourage car rental so that you can explore the countryside. You can rent cars at Toulouse airport and main train station, Toulouse Matabiau.
We will help to coordinate those arriving at Toulouse airport and train station and we can do pickup for a fee.
Plan to visit coastal France or Spain before or after the workshop.
Or stay here for further days. Relax by the pool in the tranquil countryside. Bring your bike or borrow one of our ebikes, walk, or drive through the blissful rolling hills. Go horseback riding from our neighbor’s stable. Visit the diverse local villages, artisans (wool, ceramics, woodwork…), and daily open-air markets.
We are close to a number of famous international festivals. Should these not go forward you can simply extend your time here.
- Toulouse TangoPostale: 1-10.July 2022
- Tarbes Tango Festival: 13-21.August 2022
- Jazz Festival Marciac: 22.July-5.August, 2022
Distances
- Toulouse: 81km (1-1.25h)
- Tarbes: 85km (1-1.25h)
- Marciac: 50km (1h)
- Marseille: 480km (5h)
- Nice: 640km (6h)
- Barcelona: 470km (5h)
- Pamplona: 348km (4h)
- Biarritz: 230km (2.5h)
- San Sebastian: 275km (3h)
- Carcassone: 175km (2h)
- Bilbao: 370km (4h)
- Lyon: 620km (6h)
- Bordeaux: 260km (3.25h)
Guggenheim Bilbao
To book, please pay €250 per person. You can later tell us how you want to spend it.
Examples of à la carte bookings:
- Stay 7 days, spend 3 at Tarbes and choose any 4 days of activities with us.
- 3 days just fitness classes and private lessons.
- 10 days accommodation while you attend the Tarbes festival.
- Come for two days of workshop and spend just one or two nights.

I've been with 7 other Tango teachers in Melbourne, Sydney and New York.
Your videos give more relevant practical info in 60 seconds then most students get in 10 years, if ever...




Every time I watch your videos
your clarity and accuracy amazes me anew.It is rewarding to see my partner's transformation...
He is more confident, and a lot more playful and creative.
I really need to compliment you on your teaching methods, because
I grow as a tango dancer very quickly with the MasterCourse, so I stopped doing regular group classes.


Seminar Encuentro Compañeros TangoForge 2022
Schedule
( better on desktop or tablet… )
09:00-11:00
Markets
10:00-11:30
Fitness
10:00-12:00
Tango Privates
13:00-15:00
Tango Workshops
16:00-18:00
Creative Projects
FRIDAY 12.August
17:00
Stretching
Saturday 13.August
Aurignac market,
100% direct producers
Bodyweight workout
the High-Performance Embrace
filmmaking for intense action
Sunday 14.August
Tango Muscle Workout
Private Lessons
self-expression in Tango
Performance combat
Monday 15.August
Samatan Food Market
Elastic Bands workout
improvisation: what is it really?
strategic planning to manifest
your dreams
Tuesday 16.August
Cardio
transitions
filmmaking for intense action
Wednesday 17.August
09:00
Boulogne-sur-Gesse Food Market
Stretching
the High-Performance Embrace
cooking with local, seasonal ingredients
Thursday 18.August
Training through injuries and pain
self-expression in Tango
filmmaking for intense action
FRIDAY 19.August
Bodyweight workout
improvisation: what is it really?
Performance combat
Saturday 20.August
Aurignac market,
100% direct producers
Cardio +
Elastic Bands Workout
transitions
cooking with local, seasonal ingredients
Sunday 21.August
Tango Muscle Workout
Q/A and Review
strategic planning to manifest
your dreams
Monday 22.August
Samatan Food Market
Stretching