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mastercourse challenge v

Current Sessions

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25 Salta

Saltas are movements in which one or both partners do not have a base leg (both legs are deweighted). This includes jumps, drags, and sostenidas

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24 Soltada

In Soltada we dance tango without the standard embrace.

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23 Adorno

Adornos are unmarked decorative elements executed at will both partners.

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Each session will be online for two weeks, so you can always see the current and previous session.

There are links to the DE version from each session.

The questions from the 2020 sessions are still visible in the forum so you can learn from other students. You can ask your own questions in the forum for each session. Vio will answer promptly. 

General dialogue forum. This is to build community, so conversation topics are open.

Challenge Dialogue

Tools

How to get Training 

New Guide to making a Plan and sticking to it.


The 5 Biomechanical Tools Video

Cardio Voleo
10 minute workout that I do every day!

Exercise series to strengthen your muscles (with fashion tips)

In order to support your rapid learning, we are including the KnowledgeBase with the MasterCourse Challenge. This enables you to quickly look up any unfamiliar or forgotten terms. The KnowledgeBase works like Wikipedia, it’s a hyperlinked text Encyclopedia of every term of tango movement (with images and short video clips where necessary). If something is missing, please let us know!

You’ll find the KnowledgeBase terms in the sidebar of every Challenge Session or you can click the logo wherever you see it to visit the KnowledgeBase directly.

 

To log in, click the button just below TangoForge at the top of this page. If you have technical problems, please use the violet chat button at the bottom right of screen.

Technical issues:

  1. If the “Current Sessions” section is blank, you are not logged in. If you have trouble with your credentials, use the button at bottom right to chat with me.
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    Touch the gear icon on the video and choose a lower resolution. Here is Vimeo’s guide for choosing resolution in sync with your home’s internet bandwidth. 
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  4. If you click on the forum button and nothing happens, you have pop-up blockers installed. In order to see all the information here, you need to allow pop-up windows for the site.

Challenge 2023 Students

2020-2022

Screenshot    MasterCourse Challenge  Google My Maps
mastercourseheader
25 Elements in 16 sessions

1 Front Steps 2 Back Steps 4 Change of Foot

3 Side Step 6 Ochos

5 Molinete Lineal

7 Sacada

8 Double Giro 9 Mark’s Single Giro10 Revel’s Single GIro (Calesita)

11 Crosses

12 Parada

13 Barrida… Sandwichito… Pulpeades

14 Rebote 15 Alteración

16 Voleos Circular 17 Voleos Linear

18 Ganchos … Piernazo

19 Rebote Cadera 20 Patada

21 Volcada 22 Colgada

23 Adorno

24 Soltada

25 Salta/Sostenida

Anatomical Terminology: We seek to provide instruction in objective, scientific terms. This will be unfamiliar at first, but our students catch on quickly. At any point, you can visit the Exercise Center to review the 10 key tango muscles and their control exercises.

Tango Language: Before creating the MasterCourse, we spent years documenting tango concepts and disaggregating terminology. If you are confused about what something means, or why we use the term we do, you can visit the KnowledgeBase for reference.

The Structure: The MasterCourse is a comprehensive tour of the entire Lexicon of Tango inherited from the 1940s. It is organized balancing three goals:

  1. We draw on 8 years of teaching to create the most effective revelation of technique and systems by linking elements together based on their functional/biomechanical relationships.
  2. We use traditional terms as much as possible to synchronize with what you learn elsewhere.
  3. We distill to make tango graspable without losing any detail.

How to Learn: We believe that tango has been mystified and students have been disempowered. Watch each video here to build your confidence in understanding of how tango works. Then practice each part of the video with a partner at home or at a practica. Prepare for each practice section by taking notes on the video or writing down the exact section you want to practice.

Close Embrace: We show the movements in open embrace and quite large, so that it’s possible to see on the video. The technique in close embrace is exactly the same.

Technical Support: Your enrollment includes technical support. If you have any kind of question, do not hesitate to send an email to office@TangoForge.com or use the chat function at the lower right corner of your screen. We answer personally within 24 hours.

 

 

The MasterCourse is a complete documentation of TangoForge Pedagogy, covering every Element in the Tango Lexicon. The Lexicon of Tango is the repertoire of 25 Elements and their variations inherited from the 1940s. Until the mid-1990s, tango was understood in groups of steps, or sequences. The Cochabamba Investigation Group analyzed tango and identified the basic elements, from which dancers can compose. Dancing from the elements empowers dancers to to express every music, challenge partners to maintain intense concentration, and use space skillfully for better floorcraft.
We use the term ‘Mark’ for Leader and ‘Revel’ for Follower. Here’s why
I acknowledge my teachers, Pablo Villarraza and Dana Frígoli, Chicho, El Pulpo, Sebastián Arrua, Makela Brizuela, Pablo Rojas, and Eugenia Parrilla. I am grateful to dancers Armin Kyros, Iwan Harlan, and Germain Cascales for inspiring me to understand how far we can go with pure tango elements and technique. The 2017 TangoForge Apprentices, Yoko, Stefan, and Swan, contributed to refining this pedagogy. My students’ questions throughout my career have challenged and inspired new articulations.
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