What kind of clothing men should wear for dancing Tango

Posted on January 30, 2012 by Wolfgang Sandt

Tango clothing. What kind of clothing men should wear for dancing Tango

I am often asked what kind of clothing I recommend for dancing Tango.

Actually I´m not a friend of dress codes and if you come to La Rogaia for a Tango holiday you´ll find out that I never criticize somebodies outfit unless I am asked for my opinion.

That said what would I tell you?

Tango fashion, Wide cut Tango trousers made out of soft falling good cloth will pronounce the clear elegant line of the Tango dancer´s legs Image: Filippo Avignonesi and Yulia Yukhina

La Rogaia Tango holidays, Wide cut Tango trousers made out of soft falling good cloth will pronounce the clear elegant line of the Tango dancer´s legs Image: Filippo Avignonesi and Yulia Yukhina

Look, the ladies are mostly dressed very nicely to Tango and we shouldn´t offend them by dressing like bums.
So brush yourself up, get some decent clothing. You can wear something casual but never go to dancing Tango negligent about your outfit.
Unfortunately still to many men don´t care to much about their appearance (It´s a little bit different here in Italy. Italians by culture and education have an almost natural feeling for it. Even if you compare an Italian and an English punk you will at once see the difference:-).

Okay, what else? Well, I would never ever wear shorts or pirate style knee long trousers when I go out for dancing Tango, no matter how hot the sun shines.
One reason is that I think it looks pretty ridiculous for dancing Tango.
The other reason is that I don´t have the stature and nicely formed legs of a trained ballet dancer (indeed few Tango dancers have).
Therefore I use every trick to make my steps appear more elegant.
Wide cut trousers made out of soft falling good cloth will pronounce the clear elegant line of your legs (given that you stretch your legs almost a little bit:-).
Tight jeans (or other tight pants) with bulged out knees definitely don´t look good.
Some men wear Tango trousers which extremely wide legs (Looking a bit like elephants feet).
I think this is a little bit exaggerated (but that´s a question of your personal taste). I would be afraid to get my or my partners feet caught in these extra wide trousers.

Tango fashion, I prefer to wear a jacket when I go to a milonga, a Tango ball or even a public Tango practica (hardly ever while attending a Tango workshop). I think it looks more elegant and though I am lucky not to sweat a lot, even in case I do, my partner will not feel it.

I prefer to wear a jacket when I go to a milonga, a Tango ball or even a public Tango practica (hardly ever while attending a Tango workshop). I think it looks more elegant and though I am lucky not to sweat a lot, even in case I do, my partner will not feel it.

I prefer to wear a jacket when I go to a milonga, a Tango ball or even a public practica (hardly ever while attending a Tango workshop) .
I think it looks more elegant and though I am lucky not to sweat a lot, even in case I do, my partner will not feel it.
Normally none of my Tango clothing is very tight fit. I want to look elegant of course. But I also want to feel comfortable.

If it is not to hot I wear a scarf (traditional for Tango dancers) or a cravat and if I want to look even more dandy I put a flower in the button hole of my jacket collar.

Posted in My Tango lessons | Leave a comment

New Year Charity – Go for a Tango holiday and help “Doctors without Borders”

Posted on January 2, 2012 by Wolfgang Sandt

Villa La Rogaia, renowned organizer of Tango holidays in Italy has started a New Year charity fundraising to help „Doctors without Borders“

Tango holiday 2012, Enjoy aTango holiday in Italy and help "Doctors without Borders", photo: rogaia

Tango holiday 2012, Enjoy aTango holiday in Italy and help "Doctors without Borders", photo: rogaia

If you plan to go for a Tango holiday in 2012 you can combine your Tango holiday with supporting „Doctors without Borders“. The best thing about it: you won´t pay a cent more for your Tango holiday.

Discover how it works.

Dear friends of La Rogaia,

sometimes we happen to do a bigger favour to one or the other of our guests, arrange something special or give a trial course in Argentine Tango or stone sculpting.

When our guests offer us a payment in return In this cases we often refuse to accept money but suggest to our guests to make a donation to ”Doctors without Borders” instead.

We highly estimate the work of „Doctors without Borders“and have been supporting them for many years.

Yet we would like to do a lot more.

Therefore we´ve decided, to suggest to you the following.

From every booking you  make for a tango holiday in La Rogaia until January 31, 2012, we give 5 percent of the money we receive*  as a donation to”Doctors without Borders”

For you nothing changes. Neither do you have any additional cost (You really don´t pay a single cent more for your Tango holiday), nor do you have any work.

The only action you need to take is making your booking for your Tango holiday until January 31, 2012.

La Rogaia will deduct the amount of 5 percent from the participation fee for your Tango holiday and give it to ”Doctors without Borders”

We  would be very happy if you would help us to make a real big donation to ”Doctors without Borders”.

We wish you nice, relaxing holidays and a Happy New Year.

With kind regards

Annette Greifenhagen and Wolfgang Sandt

 

 

P.S.

If you don´t know”Doctors without Borders”you can find information about ”Doctors without Borders”clicking the link below.

http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/

 

 

*Please understand we have to deduct the fee for the instructors of your Tango holiday from the total sum, as we cannot oblige them to participate in the fundraising

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Posted in Argentine Tango at Villa la Rogaia, My Tango lessons | Leave a comment

Heel or ball? The secret how to walk right in Argentine Tango

Posted on December 13, 2011 by Wolfgang Sandt

If you have danced Tango for a while, probably you´ve been taught completely different ways to walk by different Tango teachers.

 

 

Some Tango teachers tell you to walk with the ball of your foot first.

tango

How do you walk right in Argentine Tango? Stepping first on your heel or the ball of your foot?

Other Tango teachers tell you to walk over your heel the same way you do, when you walk naturally on the street.

Can be fairly confusing, right?

Particularly when the Tango teacher is convinced to be the ONLY ONE who REALLY knows how to do it.

 

 

So, what shall you do?

Don´t worry, Tango can be easy and in reality there is no problem at all.

Look, the right way to walk in Argentine Tango depends simply on the way you dance…

If you dance Tango quickly, taking long steps you will walk over your heel the same way (okay, maybe a little more elegant) you walk on the street.

Of course you can try to take long quick steps walking on tip toe.

Yet unless you are a trained ballet dancer (and who of us normal Tango dancers is?) you will have big problems doing this and most probably it will look pretty funny (Not that I´d think looking funny is bad :-) . Dancing Tango should be fun, true?

If you dance Tango quickly, taking short steps you will in most cases walk on the balls of your feet, because you can move faster.

Also your body will be pending a little bit forward thus keeping a better contact with your dance partner.

 

 

The right walk is one of the most important things in Argentine Tango. Once you´ve mastered the secrets of the Tango walk you start to become a real good Tango dancer.
The right walk is one of the most important things in Argentine Tango. Once you´ve mastered the secrets of the Tango walk you start to become a real good Tango dancer.

If you dance Tango  slowly (or even very slowly like in slow motion), taking long steps, it looks very elegant if you land on the ball of your foot with leg and foot extended as far as possible. And given that Tango is an elegant dance that´s not to bad, isn´t it?

It requires a lot of balance to perform an extra long step in a slow motion Tango, but it really looks and feels like “WOW!” and is an excellent training for your balance.

Of course you can dance Tango slowly, taking short steps but honestly I hardly ever do this.

Okay, now you know the whole secret.

So go out to your favorite milonga and dance…

 

For women:

How to walk right in Tango? How women walk in Argentine Tango?

 

 

Posted in My Tango lessons | Tagged , , , , , , | 5 Comments

My Tango lessons: Gentlemen, resist temptation.

Posted on November 21, 2010 by Wolfgang Sandt

Guys you know, temptation can be overwhelming. Be strong, resist!

Gentlemen, resist the temptation to demonstrate how many fancy figures you can (or cannot) perform on a crowded dance floor.

Believe me there is no lady going to complain about you performing too few figures and sequences if you only…,

…well, if you only dance nicely with the music.

Most women love this waaaay better than stressful acrobatic exercises, which have nothing to do with the music.

And… I know not one single women who loves to dance with a man who makes her permanently collide with the other couples on the dance floor because he is only focused on his repertoire of figures and doesn´t care for anything else.

Okay, so now you know what to do, even when temptation seems to become overwhelming…:-)

Posted in My Tango lessons | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Good old Mirada and good old Cabeceo

Posted on November 20, 2010 by Wolfgang Sandt

Good old Mirada never becomes old or outdated

Actually I thought the question who invites to dance at Argentine Tango has been settled once and for all.

However seeing all the discussions in Tango lists and forums questions it seems to be a permanent issue.

But fear not! I bring you good news.

After all we are lucky, because we still have good old Mirada and good old  Cabeceo, two immortal dancers who already have lived at the Golden Age of Tango.

These two get along with each other very well and dance together every night. They are very elegant, flirt nicely, and know how to invite the other one (fairly successfully as you will notice).

They do all this without ever being annoying, without ever losing faces.

I think we really can learn something from these two seasoned dancers. What do you think?

Oh, by the way, good old Mirada knows, that good old Cabeceo is a little cocky. Therefore she leaves him in the belief, that he is taking the initiative.

Of course that´s not true.

If she wouldn´t give him a glance, a “mirada”, he´d never dare to invite her to dance.

Of course he knows this, but he´s not very eager to concede it openly.

Besides, …if he wouldn´t glance back, if he wouldn´t nod…

But anyway…

Mirada and Cabeceo in Argentine Tango. Invite to dance with a glance, a smile, a gentle nod of your head or a wink of the eye. Flirt a little and then start to dance. When I think of Mirada and Cabeceo I can´t help seeing my friends Walter and MariLynne Kane before my inner eye. Somehow the two of them for me are the personification of this elegant and witty game. I fyou want to know more aboutt them google Los Tangringos and Hudson River Valley.

Posted in My Tango lessons | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

My Tango Lessons: How to do the embrace right

Posted on November 15, 2010 by Wolfgang Sandt

Argentine Tango  is very often described as “walking together in an embrace, following the sound of the music…”

embrace

Most important in Argentine Tango the right embrace

This means the embrace is one of the most important things when we are dancing Tango.

Actually the embrace can influence strongly whether we feel well and comfortable dancing together, and whether we have freedom to move or are blocking each others movements.

Okay, here we go.

For the gentlemen:

  • You want to embrace your lady, making her feel nice and comfortable.
  • You are NOT supposed to squeeze your dance partner until her ribcage breaks. Your arm is not a vice!
  • Offer your dance partner a secure but gentle hold with your right arm. She must be able to move freely within your embrace.
  • Never block the ladies possibility to move, unless you really want to stop her.
  • Specially when she performs ochos or a molineta it can cause her heavy back pain and even hurt her back if you hold her to tight, thus forcing her to twist her body completely unnaturally.
  • Of course you make it also difficult for her to stand stable in her axis if you hold her to tight to move.
  • Your arm shouldn´t be fixed tight to the ladies back. You have to be able to shift your arm on her back all the time.
  • When you dance in close embrace your arm glides around her back to the lower part of her right shoulder blade, the right side of her ribcage or waist (This depends on your and her height and the way both of you feel comfortable).
  • When you dance in open embrace your arm glides back towards her left shoulder blade (I prefer this because it provides a good hold) or the back of the left side of her ribcage.
  • Make sure that your  hand rests flatly on the lady´s back. Never press your finger tips into her flesh like an eagle´s talon. You can bet she won´t appreciate it.

For the ladies:

  • Don´t try to get your stability from clinging to your partner. Never hang on him like a sack of potatoes. Try to stand stable in your axis.
  • Your left arm shouldn´t be fixed to your partner´s right arm like a clamp. Instead it should be able to glide smoothly up and down his arm adapting to the embrace.
  • When you dance in close embrace your arm glides up his arm around his neck, where it rests loosely (Don´t strangle him with an anaconda grip:-).
  • In case your partner is much taller than you are, don´t try to wrap your arm around his neck, but rest it on the outside of his shoulder or upper arm in a position which is comfortable for you. Remember though your arm needs to rest on his arm loosely without weight. Otherwise you block his movement and it feels  awkward for him.
  • When you dance in open embrace your arm glides back to the outside of his lower arm. Don´t rest on his arm, just hold the contact. Be relaxed and prepared to change to close embrace again.

For both partners:

You should never block your partner.

Remember! You dance as a couple. If you block your partner´s freedom and possibilities to dance, you block yourself.

You don´t want that, do you?

This article could also be interesting for you:

One of the biggest (and most unpleasant) mistakes small men make when dancing with larger women.

Posted in My Tango lessons | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

My tango lessons: The trick with the left arm

Posted on November 9, 2010 by Wolfgang Sandt

My tango lessons: The trick with the left arm

Many Argentine Tango dancers specially among those who consider themselves traditional dancers, seem to think it to be important to keep their left arm held in a very strong, even rigid way, to “give a stable hold to the ladys arm”.

Well, this may look okay and I don´t claim that it´s entirely wrong. At least if the man adapts his hand to the shoulder height of the lady and doesn´t drag up her arm uncomfortably.

A lady who has learned to stand in her own axis however doesn´t need that “support”.

Anyway, every Tango dancer should definitely strive to stand in his/her own axis (apart while performing figures which require to give up the own axis intentionally).

That means the „rigid hand” is not really necessary. Yet it has a real disadvantage. Actually it is blocking the movement of the dancers.

This starts already when doing simple things, like walking in front of each other in parallel system.

You ask me why? Well, I´ll explain it.

When we walk naturally our right arm always swings forward together with our left leg, while our left arm swings forward together with our right leg.

That´s not different when we are dancing Tango, also dancing Tango we want to move naturally and relaxed. But dancing Tango we are walking together with our partner. And here is the problem. If the left hand of the man is very rigid it happens quite often that the natural swinging of arms and legs is blocked.

Thus dancing together is less comfortable, many moves become unneccesarily complicated or even impossible.

So, and here is the trick:

Gentlemen,

  • Relax your left arm. To relax doesn´t mean though to get wobbly rubber arms all at a sudden. You still need to maintain a minimum of tension.
  • Keep your hand not higher than the height of the lady´s shoulder (Consider to hold it even a little lower, to make it more comfortable for her).
  • Everytime you step forward with your left leg,           swing your left arm slightly backwards. Remember I said slightly, okay? If you drag the lady out of her axis, making her falling towards you, you´ve done something wrong. By this slight backwards swing your body will be turned a little around your vertical axis and you get into the desired natural move together.
  • Everytime you step forward with your right leg, swing your left arm slightly forward. This movement however normally should be even smaller than the backward swing.
  • The good thing about this move is that you have to concentrate only on your left arm. The rest of your body will be turned almost automatically.
  • Of course you can and should apply this also, when you go backwards (Please go backwards only after making sure that there is free space and possibly not against the line of the dance.).

That means:

  • Left leg steps back   >> Left arm swings forward
  • Right leg steps back >> Left arm swings backwards
  • Important: I am only talking about the left arm. Your right arm provides a safe and comfortable embrace for the lady and doesn´t need to be moved intentionally.

That´s it. Try it and ask your partner what is most agreeable for her and how she understands best your signals, or better your invitations.

Posted in My Tango lessons | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Why is it so important to walk the tango first?

Posted on October 27, 2010 by Wolfgang Sandt

Sebastian Arce posted this on Facebook, October 21, 2010 and I completely agree. Probably this is one of the most important lessons in Argentine Tango.

For those who don´t know Sebastiàn Arce: Sebastiàn is one of the best known Tango dancers of our time. Being a student of Gustavo Naveira and Fabiàn Salas he developed Tango Nuevo to its limits, creating a new exciting way of dancing Argentine Tango.

Pronouncing the importance of the basics, the simplicity and the feeling of Tango Argentino is a strong statement, every dancer, specially every teacher who is mainly concerned with teaching patterns of steps should listen to.

Why is it so important to walk the tango first?

Because there is something in the tango dance that has no relationship with the figures and can not be learnt through the figures…

What exactly?..

Because in the walk hides something that can be described as the smell on the right dish you prepare, the exact sky colour tonality you are looking for while painting a canvas, the right sequence of notes while composing a melody, or the word that describes your true feelings while writing a poem…

In the tango walk the embrace develops as a main element on one structure that later will be changed NOT BY WILL but… BY FEELING… when the emotions are so strong inside the embrace that can not longer fit inside the tranquillity or the excitement of the walk then is when body enters a different stage of expression…

Teachers, dancers, and anyone! should start by forbidding himself to do steps for at least one week, and you will automatically feel the difference on your inner dance.

It will not be easy…Your ego will play against you…You will feel that your dance is empty…AND IT IS…because, before you were NOTHING, or better to say, your dance WAS NOTHING… your dance was missing something important : YOU! After the emptiness, after fighting with your ego, you might meet acceptance, and with acceptance, PEACE…With PEACE, you will reach the state of mind that frees you from the structure, and you will not longer belong to your body but TO YOUR FEELINGS… from there forwards, let the body do its thing… you… YOU… just enjoy the DANCE!

Posted in My Tango lessons | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Argentine Tango Intensive Workshop with FABIAN SALAS and LOLA DIAZ June 9 to June 16 2012

Posted on September 23, 2010 by Wolfgang Sandt

Tangokurs mit Fabian Salas und Lola Diaz in La Rogaia, 30. 10. -6. 11. 2011

How you will improve your understanding of Argentine Tango and bring your dancing and teaching  to a superior level within one week.

For a long time Fabián Salas didn´t  make any teaching tours  outside of Argentina and has been missed badly by his fans and students in Europe

Finally he´s back again, together with his new dance partner Lola Diaz.

La Rogaia is one of the few places in Europe, where he will give a workshop in 2010.

About Fabián Salas:

Sometimes when you speak about one of the great masters of Argentine Tango, you take it for granted, that everybody already knows everything about them.

Maybe though it does make sense to tell alittle about Fabian Salas.

During the Golden Age of Tango, Tango had been danced everywhere in Buenos Aires und you learned to dance Tango watching your parents or other dancers from your town quarter.

This happened completely naturally. Everybody watched and imitated the good dancers …and practiced. Oppurtunities to do so you found everywhere. Nobody had to think about teaching methods or didactics.

Fast forward to the 80ies. After the end of military dictatorship in Argentina the Tango scene has changed completely. Only a few dancers remain who have lived in the Golden Age and can pass on their knowledge. Most of them are excellent dancers, but have never wasted a thought on how to teach Tango efficiently.

A group of young dancers around Fabian Salas and Gustavo Naveira now tries to figure out, how the old milongueros danced.  They try to get a profound understanding how the movements and dynamics of the dance work and develop for the first time a didactically based teaching method. This method until today has a big impact on all Tango dancers, no matter whether they dance traditional Tango or Tango Nuevo.

But they do not stop at that point. With their profound knowledge of the dynamics of Tango they break with old, sometimes rigid conventions and develop a new way of dancing Tango, more open, more fluent. And they start to dance to music, which hasn´t been considered dancable until then, for example the music of Astor Piazzola.

Fabián Salas becomes world famous as one of the main characters of Sally Potter´s world famous Tango movie “The Tango Lesson”  , together with Gustavo Naveira and Pablo Veron.

To learn from Fabián Salas and Lola Diaz in a small, intimate group with a maximum of eight couples is more than simply taking Tango lessons. It is a unique privilege you are not offered very often.

Do you want to take your Tango dancing to a superior level ?

Do you want to improve your teaching methods to to give your students the best teaching  and hence become a more thought after Tango teacher?

Do you want to receive tuition almost like in a private class, instead of merely seeing the big name teachers from afar in one of the big festivals

Than this advanced  workshop with Fabián and Lola is a must for you…

 

This is a unique opportunity to learn Tango Nuevo from one of its founders.  Places are limited to only eight couples. Do not hesitate with your reservation.

 

 

Posted in My Tango lessons | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Improve your social competence by learning how to dance Argentine Tango

Posted on December 17, 2009 by Wolfgang Sandt

Improve your social competence by learning how to dance Argentine Tango

If you don´t know anything about Argentine Tango apart of the tons of clichés which many people have in their minds, you really might ask yourself “What the heck is that guy talking about?”

Just give me a minute and I will explain.

Maybe you know Argentine Tango only from movies where obscure figures on dim lighted dance floors do strange movements, chewing wagon loads of roses. Maybe you made up your judgement about Argentine Tango having seen ballroom dance competitions, frozen smiles, rigid moves, heads twisting unnaturally with every movement…

Could be you went to an  Argentine Tango Show, spectacular, technically brillant sensual and maybe most impressive.

Argentine Tango can be spectacular. Yet you can also improve your social competence by learning how to dance Argentine Tango

Argentine Tango can be spectacular. Yet you can also improve your social competence by learning how to dance Argentine Tango

Yet, what has all this to do with social competence?

To answer this questions we have to go back to the origins of Argentine Tango.

Argentine Tango or maybe better Tango from the Rio de la Plata, started in Buenos Aires and Montevideo at the end of the 19th century. Immigrants from all over the world came to the Rio della Plata hoping for a better live. At the same time native Argentineans from the countryside came to Buenos Aires and Montevideo as well. They had lost their jobs on the big haciendas, the kingdom size cattle farms, and were trying to find work in the big cities. As both groups competed for jobs, housing and often mere survival tensions were inevitable. On the other hand the clash of the cultures was the cradle of one of the most successful music styles and dances, the  Argentine Tango.

Argentine Tango in its beginning was (and still is) a social dance, at that time danced mainly by the ordinary people, craftsmen, workers, small merchants…

Argentine Tango was danced a little differently in the different quarters but in order to dance together all the dancers had to agree upon one common code.

One crucial part of this code, which is still valid among real good Argentine Tango dancers, was the respect for each other.

Argentine Tango is a social dance. Real Argentine Tango dancers respect each other on the dance floor.

Argentine Tango is a social dance. Real Argentine Tango dancers respect each other on the dance floor.

Though of course there have been always more and less talented dancers, the most important thing among milongueros (the Argentine name for Tango dancers) was by no means showing off, demonstrating what a hell of a dancer somebody was.

More important by far was to dance Argentine Tango together in harmony in the “ronda” the round of all the dancers. No one would intentionally dare to disturb the dance of the others, let alone kicking or pushing them. If you wanted to be a great dancer you had to find strategies to dance better while remaining in the harmony of the “ronda”.

Argentine Tango dancers had to develop the mindset to move on with the flow of the music, in harmony with everybody else, instead of fighting each other for every little patch of the dance floor.  Given the fact that dancing Argentine Tango was not simply a pastime but a complete lifestyle this meant in consequence that they developed strong social competence. One aspect we certainly can learn from.

In this article I can not go more into detail. Yet I have to say that I myself experienced that the mindset I have developed dancing Argentine Tango helps me a lot, be it in business or everyday life. I strongly recommend you to give it a try. Find out how  to improve your social competence by learning how to dance real Argentine Tango.

Improve your ability to make right decisions quickly by learning how to dance Argentine Tango.

Argentine Tango is fun. Yet Argentine Tango also can help you to improve your personality. Read more about Argentine Tango and self improvement.

How to improve your ability to make right decisions quickly by learning how to dance Argentine Tango

Posted in My Tango lessons | Tagged , , , , , , | 5 Comments