How to practice Tango

Yes, we all know it: practice makes the master. So, then…. how to practice Tango?

The problem is almost nobody knows how to practice. And I know you’re now wondering if I know it…

Well, actually I do. But during my intense years of learning Tango, I actually didn’t.

Now I realise that making your Tango better is a complex thing. However, “complex” does not mean “difficult”. The first thing that’s important to acknowledge is that “dancing Tango” brings together different situations:

Direct situations…

• The social environment where people gather to have fun (milongas)
• The group lessons (many students and a couple of Teachers)
• The private lessons (1 or 2 students with a 1 or 2 Teachers)
• The private practices (yourself with or without a partner)
• The group practices (2 or more couples interacting to help each other)

Indirect situations…

• Watching Tango dance videos (another couple dancing, for example)
• Watching Tango movies
• Traveling to Buenos Aires specifically to Tango places
• Often listening to Tango music
• Talking about Tango dancing in general
• The direct situations are not necessarily better than the indirect ones. However, they certainly are more intense (except for traveling to Buenos Aires… if you’ve already been there, you know what I’m talking about!)

How to become a better Tango dancer

This is tricky thing. But at least I can certainly tell you how I did it: practicing 2 hours per day, 5 days per week. Plus going to dance at night at least 3 times per week.

I know it sounds a lot, because it is a lot! Nowadays I don’t do that anymore. However, that’s how I became much better in 1 year.

Now, at that time (it was during 1998/99) I was very young and didn’t have many obligations. I was supposed to build my future. So I totally understand if you’re an adult with a job and family, practicing that much is actually impossible.

However, when I was practicing with that intensity, I didn’t have a clear or real strategy. For example, my dance partner and I would take a group or private lesson and then practice the new movements or concepts in the studio for 2 hours per day.

But most of the time we used to just dance with maybe 1 or 2 tasks for each of us.

That kind of practicing is very effective and I certainly recommend it.

How to practice Tango in 2024

In 2024 I’m 25 years from those times of intensive Tango practice. It’s been a long way, full of amazing and unbelievable experiences all over the planet.

I’m frequently asked by beginners, advance and young professional Tango dancers about how to practice in order to optimise it in terms of time and effort.

So I will give you some hints or options that you can follow to try and see how this works for you. You can also mix them and you’ll obtain more benefits to increase your dance level:

1- Practice what you and/or your partner enjoy the most. In order to develop the habit of practicing Tango, you need to simply enjoy it as much as possible. So, if you like a specific song or orchestra, you can start off by simply dancing at it.

2- Stop your dancing when something doesn’t work. When you repeatedly feel something is not working, simply stop and talk about it. Try to solve it somehow and, even if you don’t get to solve it in that session, it will remain in your system (mind + body). It will surely unlock during the next days.

3- Choose a topic or movement that you enjoy. Or maybe also practice what you’ve just learned in your last Tango lesson.

4- Find a Tango tutor (can be a Teacher or a more advance dancer) and ask him/her to give you a couple of advices for you to practice on for a while.

In any case, you should be able to master the Strong Beat. This sounds like pretty easy (and it actually is) but here is where things can get complex…

Different Tango exercises to become a better dancer

Dance ONLY on the strong beat. Let me repeat that: ONLY on the strong beat. Soon you’ll realise it’s not that easy. So stop doing steps and come back to walk, but listening to the music, the melody. Yes, walk and stop walking depending on what part of the music you decide to follow.

From there, increase your own tasks. Like, ad a slower movement and a quick movement inside the same musical phrase.

One typical exercise I use is to start the musical phrase with 2 movements every other beat (so, this will take 4 normal beats), this is followed by 2 movements on the beat (this obviously will take 2 normal beats), and finish with a “quick-quick-slow” movement (which will take the rest of the phrase).

After that, you could include a syncopation, for example.

Get a solid knowledge of the Tango Giro (the Turn)

If I was a new beginner nowadays, I would prefer my teacher to teach me the Tango Giro right away.

Nowadays still most teachers teach only the Basic Step, which is ok. However, very few of them actually know where the Basic Step comes from. Yes, from the “Giro”.

And why is it so important to know the Giro? You can read more about it in this other article.

The point here is that, the sooner you know this sequence of movements that we all know as “Giro”, the better results you’ll have. Either you are a beginner or advanced Tango dancer.

The Giro has its rules which will give you the basis for pretty much everything else. This is why it’s so important!

So, if you’re not sure you know everything about the Tango Giro, then you surely don’t know it.

Go ahead and ask your local Tango teacher or purchase our special course on Tango Giro.

(even more convenient if you purchase our monthly or annual subscription and get all our Tango lessons and content in general)

Dancing “Tango” by yourself… on your own: yes, solo!

That’s right! This is actually something I did in my first years just for fun. I didn’t think about it as practice, I simply enjoyed it.

Nowadays I realise why that kind of practice is great…

• Nobody is watching you!
• Your free from worries related to your partner (lead or follow)
• You are not expected to do any step in particular
• You have time to feel your body, your balance, etc
• You can repeat the same part as many times as you want
• Etc, etc, etc

A few weeks ago I remembered all these benefits of dancing by yourself, so I decided to record a series of videos where I’m dancing by myself to show you how I do it.

The music I’ve chosen for your should be ok, because I chose it this way:

A Tango “tanda” (the amount of Tango songs that we all dance at social dancing) lasts 4 songs.

Now, which orchestras to choose?

Well, that was also easy, because we have “the big 4 or the ’40’s”. That means, the big 4 orchestras of the 1940 decade.

They are: Juan D’arienzo, Anibal Troilo, Osvaldo Pugliese, Carlos Di Sarli.

So it was pretty easy to define it:

I would dance 1 song per week of a certain orchestra, and by the new month I would start with a new orchestra.

So this “auto-chellenge-course” will last 4 months and you will have direct inspiration in general or you can also directly copy many of the movements I perform!

Conclusion on how to practice Tango…

Learning and improving Tango is a complex task because it involves a series of different activities that in a first glance are not directly related. However, if you see each part as a necessary piece of a puzzle, then you get many advantages. We know it, and that’s why in Tango Tribu we offer a complete education of Tango in general.

Above all, practicing Tango should be a lot of fun. Think about it: you dance Tango because it’s fun, right? So then practicing Tango is dancing it with the intention of improving it… now the only thing you have to do is, for example, practicing your favourite movements and see what variations of them you can create! And for this you can benefit from knowing the Structure of Tango. Or, you can also make a new sequence by simply changing the rhythm of it. To be able to do this, you just need to know which are the rhythmic combinations in Tango.