Blog - Tangosynthesis

What is Neotango?

04 Jun 2019 - by Graham

With all the #neotango and #tangounderground branding that we are posting these days, a question I keep getting asked is "What is Neotango, and how different is it to traditional tango?" It's a fair question, given that we are trying to encourage people to make the move from traditional events and join us at a neolonga as for all they know it might be as different as salsa or LeRoc to what they know as 'tango'. Have we changed it in any way? Is it a modern version of the dance that had been 'fused' with another style to create something different? Will they even know how to do it? The first and most important thing to get across to people new to Neotango is that it is exactly the same dance as they would learn at even the most traditional of classes. It follows all the same rules, [read more...]

I'll never be as good as them!

27 Jan 2019 - by Graham

I've seen something very strange happen a number of times over the last few weeks, although on reflection, maybe it isn't that strange after all. Part of the job of running dance events and classes is that I spend a good part of the evening wandering around the room and talking to people. I might talk to them whilst we are dancing (yes... I know... heresy, but we are neotango after all...), over a cup of tea, or whilst they are sitting down at the side of the room between dances, but I do try to get around to as many people as possible. And one of the things I hear a lot is "You see him / her / that couple over there? I / we will never be as good as them!" Fair enough, you might think. We can't all be experts. But then I cross [read more...]

Happy Neo Year!

31 Dec 2018 - by Graham

The first time I ever saw Argentine Tango being danced socially was at a Modern Jive and Blues event in Winchester Guild Hall. Most people were sticking to the standard dance styles for those sorts of music, but there were a few people on the floor who were dancing the tango. And it looked amazing. Their ability to connect with each other and interpret the music was incredible, and I immediately knew I wanted to learn how to do that. So when a couple of months later a friend (who up to then Iâ€™d only known as a modern jiver) offered to take me along to her tango class, I jumped at the chance. My tango journey was under way. Or perhaps I should say my â€œneotangoâ€ journey, although at the time I had no idea that there was even such a thing. For me, tango was a [read more...]

I'm not good enough to go to a milonga...

11 Dec 2018 - by Graham

This is something I hear from new tango dancers all the time. I tell them about our monthly milongas and the smaller practilongas to see if they are going to come along and practise what they have been learning for the last few weeks, and the most common thing I hear back is "Oh, we're not good enough for a milonga yet. We'll need a lot more lessons before we're ready to come to one of those." But aren't milongas - tango social dances and freestyle evenings - the whole point of learning? I do understand that maybe week one or two might not be the time to attend your first milonga, but don't you come to classes to learn how to dance with other people in a social environment? And if you do, what invisible line do you think you need to cross before you can make [read more...]

The iPhone App

03 Dec 2018 - by Graham

We've got an app! Yes, that's right, you can now get TangoSynthesis directly on your iPhone without having to use a web browser or fiddle around with bookmarks. But why? What was the point of putting together an app, when I could publish all the same information on the website? Firstly and most importantly, it's easier. If you want to check out the diary before heading to a class to see if anything has changed or what the theme of the week's classes might be, then it's a lot quicker and easier to open up an app and see what's going on than it is to open a web browser, find the bookmark you need or remember the URL, navigate the site menus, and eventually find the information you were after. An app is quicker to open on your phone than a web browser like Safari, and it loads [read more...]

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