Five Reasons to Join the Immersion Seminar

 

1. The Immersion Seminar is intensive.

As most tangueros know, our bodies have their own ideas about how long it takes to learn: our brains may understand what we are trying to achieve but actually accomplishing it is a different story. We have found in our practice and teaching that intensive training over several days is most effective in allowing the intellectual understanding to sink into the body. Our seminar takes place over 5 consecutive days, with 4 hours of work each day. Combined with outings to the many milongas in Buenos Aires, that gives the body plenty of time to learn!

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2. The Immersion Seminar is progressive.

After months and sometimes years of hard work learning tango, attending many workshops and festivals, students often find that they are left with a puzzle as they try to fit together all of the different material they have been exposed to. Believing that such a fragmented approach is not the most effective way to learn, we make the seminar progressive. The whole week builds on a few central concepts and each day we advance into new material while reviewing, reinforcing and building on what was previously covered, so that the students get lots of exposure to each of the techniques and incorporate them into a cohesive whole.

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3. The Immersion Seminar is focused on foundations.

While colgadas, volcadas, ganchos, boleos and other elements can be a lot of fun, the difference between a more or less accomplished dancer lies in the foundations. Having solid fundamentals makes all vocabulary easier to perform, but most importantly, it leads to a much more pleasant dance experience: confident, comfortable, connected, and musical. After three editions of the seminar in Buenos Aires and one in the United States, we have converged on the following core elements: individual walk and pivoting technique; lead and follow technique for the walk, ochos, and turns; musicality, including notions of rhythm and melody in tango, vals and milonga; and floorcraft. Sounds simple? Our previous students, ranging from several months to up to 7 years of dance experience, found themselves challenged as they worked on their foundations, improving body awareness, connection and musical understanding!

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4. The Immersion Seminar is personalized.

Tango can be deceptive:t what it feels like to dance with someone many times is not the same as what it looks like. A lot of the comfort and connection depends on internal control of the body, which is not immediately apparent to the eye. That is why we believe that hands-on instruction is the only way to go: in order to do our job as well as possible we need to dance with the students and feel what they are doing. This is also the best way to tune into the individual needs of each person. To achieve this, we keep the seminar limited to a maximum of 20 students, allowing plenty of time each day for us to work individually with everyone. 

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5. The Immersion Seminar is social.

For tangueros coming from all parts of the world to Buenos Aires, getting immersed in the fantastic atmosphere of tango porteno is a fascinating experience; however, it can also be intimidating to navigate on one's own. We do not structure our week as a guided tour, preferring a more spontaneous approach. However, we do propose many optional activities for the group to mingle and form connections, thus being able to enjoy the city and its tango in good company. These activities include a daily break for coffee and a snack when we all go together to a cafe; outings to the milongas; and a special dinner at the end of the week. In the past, the students also arranged outings among themselves, going together to milongas, concerts and other activities, and many stayed in touch after leaving BA.  Everyone agreed that the seminar was great but those shared moments were the best!

 

In versions of our seminar outside Buenos Aires, we also organize informal activities such as after-hour milongas, potluck dinners, etc. so that we can spend time together as a group.