Blog - Tangosynthesis

X/Tango is Back!!!

03 Apr 2024 - by Graham

On the 19th April, X/Tango will return to the Tangosynthesis calendar for the first time in far too long! We last held one of these events in February 2020 just before the world got shut down around us, and a combination of various life events has meant that we never got them back up and running. But finally and at long last... we are BACK!!!! So what is X/Tango? Do you love tango, but just cannot get on with the "traditional" music played at so many milongas? Do you want to get on the floor and dance without all the messing around with cabeceo & mirada - and risking getting told off for daring to go up to someone and asking if they would like to dance? Do you want to expand your tango horizons and find out just how versatile this amazing dance style can be? And do [read more...]

What is tango?

01 Nov 2023 - by Graham

It is often described as “a dance of passion” or “the sexy dance”, but when it comes to everyday social tango this is very misleading. Tango is not inherently any more passionate or sexier than any other dance style. So… what is it? Tango is mindfulness. It is musical meditation. When you dance tango it is as if you are the only two people on the dance floor, and the rest of the world goes away for a few minutes. Tango is improvised, with the leader and follower obeying certain rules and principles; there is no choreography to learn and no sequences to memorise, so every dance is different. If you have been avoiding tango because of its “sexy” or “passionate” reputation then think again. Tango is for everyone, so give it a go. [read more...]

Jivebeat Radio

26 Aug 2020 - by Graham

One of the projects that I started during lockdown was to set up a small internet radio station to keep people connected to the music and to their dance classes. This was initially just aimed at the people who already danced with us at Tangosynthesis, and I would play the music that they knew from our XTango events and from our earlier LeRoc freestyles. I was not expecting big audiences, but if it could help a few people who were stuck at home missing the dancing then I would be more than happy to call that a success. When I started the radio station I assumed that it would only last as long as lockdown, and then as restrictions ended and things began to return to normal I would slowly start to phase it out. But the shows have proven to be surprisingly popular, especially considering that I have [read more...]

Tangocrisis - Global Edition

23 Mar 2020 - by Graham

At the start of the month I wrote an article about the Tangocrisis, that moment in everyoneâ€™s tango journey where they start to doubt everything they think they know and they wonder if anything will ever make sense again. I was writing in response to a friendâ€™s moment of tango self-doubt, but little did I know that within a matter weeks from then the whole tango world would be thrust into a tangocrisis the like of which has never been seen before. I am of course referring to the global shutdown of tango - and all other dance events - as part of the attempt to slow down the spread of COVID-19. Over a period of about seven days in mid March, every tango class, workshop, milonga, marathon, and festival around the world closed its doors for an as yet undetermined amount of time, leaving dancers and teachers alike [read more...]

Tangocrisis

03 Mar 2020 - by Graham

We have all been there. We have all hit that moment where we start to think that tango is impossible and that no amount of practice or tuition will ever make us any better. We become convinced that instead of moving forwards in our tango progress we are taking giant leaps backwards, and that as it is only a matter of days before we are no longer able to do something as basic as an ocho we should probably give up now before its too late. Anyone who compliments our dancing is obviously wrong or just being nice, and our teacher must be pulling his or her hair out in frustration whenever we are not looking. The tangocrisis seems to be a natural part of learning the dance, but why is that the case? And is it something unique to learning tango? For most of us, learning tango [read more...]

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