98% of people who start dancing Tango Argentino (and often after being in the journey for a while), assume that progress in the dance comes from accumulating steps and choreos.
While vocabulary is useful, a lot of people continue to feel they need more figures to become good dancers, even if they already “know” dozens of them.
What’s missing then?
You’d be surprised to know that just a few decades ago in tango’s history, it was a shame to copy someone else’s steps.
How did we come to nowadays generalized mindset that learning Tango Argentino equals memorizing figures?
A short reflection of course can’t exhaust the question, but if you’re curious you can research how Tango Argentino was received abroad, how it’s been taught and what role models it took.
For more recent years, a quick look into social media tells us a lot on how Tango Argentino is marketed in our times – which opens an even broader reflection we might get into analyzing at another time.
Now, if you find yourself in that stage, feeling you need to accumulate steps to be a good dancer, let’s try a simple exercise that might help:
Take a piece of paper and write down the figures you know.
No matter if you don’t know their names, you can describe them.
Take your time. Make an effort to remember the figures you’ve worked on in your classes and don’t use regularly on the dance floor.
See the list and ask yourself: Is the amount of figures I know what limits my dance?
There’s a bonus question that can change your whole perspective on it. We’ll come back to it later.
I bet with this simple exercise you found out you know way more figures than you were aware of.
And still, a large majority of people keep basing their Tango learning in copying figures.
Deep inside, we all know it’s not the amount of figures what makes tango feel grounded, musical, connected, beautiful or effortless.
What truly changes your dance is the quality of your attention.
If you’re now wondering how to improve your attention, you probably know how much I advocate for a body awareness based learning.
Most people do this path:
Learning a lot of figures (sometimes poorly, as the focus is on quantity) and, once they feel ready to attend advanced classes, the focus shifts from quantity to quality and they start working on body awareness and connection.
Nothing wrong with it, it’s a method among many, but what happens if inverting the order?
That’s exactly the foundation of the system I built when I realized that no matter the movements people are learning, it takes much longer to see real progress without improving your body awareness first or in parallel.
Sounds obvious, but it often isn’t as simple to put into practice.
We’re in times of little patience.
The same social media that sells us highly visual moves and aesthetics, trains our attention for very short spans and instant gratification.
Magic recipes and immediate results with little commitment become what lots of people seek.
Anything that requires planting a seed and keep watering it until its development becomes visible above the ground requires extra bravery now.
That doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy the process in all stages.
How would tango learners do decades ago to stay in their path if so?
It's the difference between memorizing steps and mindful training.
Both involve repetition.
But one leads to transformation.
What transforms your dance into a memorable one, for yourself and your dance partner, has little to do with how many steps you throw on the dance floor.
It’s the way you sense your weight before you shift it.
The subtle tone in your embrace.
The way you communicate let’s do this together.
The moment your body realizes it doesn’t need to “try” or force it anymore: It remembers.
It's the magic of mindful training:
It turns knowledge into embodiment.
Confusion into clarity.
Effort into flow.
And the beautiful thing?
It doesn’t require thousand hours of daily practice.
Quantity alone isn’t what makes the difference. One can dedicate hundreds of hours to practice the wrong thing and continue stuck after years…
It requires presence.
A few minutes of focused exploration can do more for your tango than an entire evening of mechanical repetition.
When your mind and body are in the same place — curious, awake, and listening — you learn faster, retain more, and enjoy the process so much more.
This is the core of our weekly classes, the Tango Immersion program, and why our Focused Prácticas exist.
We learn in high detail and beyond mechanical repetition, so you can fully own what you learn.
And here’s the promised bonus question to ask yourself now:
Do I fully own what I’ve learned?
If your dance still consists of repeating the same figures over and over again, unable to keep the flow if your partner does something different than you expected, you’re not alone. It’s how a large majority of people dance tango – even after years on it.
The good news is you can train to break the pattern and gain more freedom and creativity in your dance.
Stay tuned and join our next Tango Immersion weekends, Tango Basics and Grow your Tango classes, and train mindfully at our Focused Prácticas.
The Focused Prácticas are not Milongas – for real, it’s not just the naming.
They’re not classes either.
They’re a space to explore: intentionally, curiously.
A space to ask your body questions and actually have time to hear the answers.
Each session offers you the possibility to train a topic at your own pace and receive support and feedback.
Don’t know what topic to focus on? Ask me and get guidance.
You choose whether to work solo, with a partner, or both.
You choose depth, intensity, playfulness, or all at once.
And most importantly: You practice with awareness, not just through repetition.
If you want to discover what your tango feels like when your attention is truly present, I’d love for you to experience it.
Check out the current schedules here.
Come as you are.
Train what you need.
Stay mindful.
And let your dance evolve in the most natural way.
How can I help you?
Jessica Gerdel
Certified Tango Argentino-Yoga teacher and somatic movement facilitator.
Guiding dancers toward embodied awareness, connection, and freedom on and off the dance floor.
contact@jessicagerdel.com
+43 681 10323630
