On the art of deliberately listening to music to make our dancing more expressive
Tango Tangks were started in 2004 to provide dancers with a weekend of immersion in Argentine tango, hence the play on the word tank. The Tangk concept was based on the kind of teaching Debbie and Steve had experienced at international events in Europe and they wanted to make this standard of teaching accessible to the local community.
To generate enough participants to cover the cost of flights and fees of international teachers, they needed to assemble a larger group of dance students than the local community could muster. But as well as keeping the ticket price affordable, they wanted to keep the group small enough to facilitate intimate, effective learning. So they started with a hired hall, a couple of maestros and spread the word like crazy.
The concept worked as seventeen odd years and seventy-nine editions of the event later, the events are still selling out and going strong.
The original formula of the weekend had workshops on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, and milongas on each night. Over the last seventeen years, this has been refined to its current format.
The Tangk offers six hours of progressive workshops in four ninety minute sessions. The maestros start from a simple didactic idea, and then progress to more elaborate and complex movement, style and somatic technique suitable for musical, social dancing. After each session, there is a one hour practica to help get the new ideas from the head to the body. With milongas on Friday and Saturday night, there is the opportunity to immerse yourself in up to eighteen hours of dancing over the weekend.
As well as the dancing and training focus, Debbie and Steve are also aware that tango is, in essence, a community pastime. There is something about dancing in a circle and sharing food that satisfies an ancient, almost forgotten need in us. So they attend to making the space welcoming and homely, ensuring there is a time and place to sit and talk and eat as well as dance. The participants can sit together at lunchtime so they get to know each other ‘off’ the dance floor and share their experiences.
There are kitchen facilities for chilling and warming food. Participants bring their own lunches, and free hot and cold drinks are available all weekend.
All the maestros invited to a Tango Tangk are world class dancers and teachers. They are present and approachable in classes, in the milongas, in the practice sessions, and during refreshment and meal breaks. Teachers are chosen carefully as it takes a special kind of passion and stamina to maintain this presence from 8pm on Friday though to the event closing at 5.45pm on Sunday.
At the end of the weekend, the immersion in the Tango Tangk’s mixture of excellent teaching together with so much dancing and sharing the space with other enthusiastic and passionate dancers will take your dance to the next level.
To see the 2018 line up of visiting maestros, go to our events page.
Pictured at the top of the article: Visiting maestros Kim and David Benitez with the participants of the January 2018 Tango Tangk #79.
Steve Morrall, February 2018
