98% of people who start dancing Tango Argentino (and often after being in the journey for a while), assume progress in Tango comes from accumulating more steps, more figures, more things to “know.”
While vocabulary is useful, most of them continue to feel they need more figures to become good dancers, even if they already “know” dozens of them.
What is it then what’s missing?
Let’s not detour into how it was a shame to copy someone else’s steps in not-so-long-ago Tango’s history, and how we came to this generalized mindset that learning Tango Argentino equals memorizing steps.
To this day, it isn’t a secret that most Tango Argentino learners find themselves in a race to accumulate figures, convinced it’ll make them better dancers.
It’s not just their fault though. A quick look into social media tells us a lot on how Tango Argentino is marketed in our times – And it’s also not only these teachers’ fault, by the way, but a full complex cycle we might get into analyzing another time.
Now, if you find yourself in that stage, 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, and make an effort to remember the figures you’ve worked on in your classes and don’t use regularly on the dance floor.
Ask yourself again: Is it the number 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 your Tango feel grounded, musical, connected, beautiful or effortless.
What truly changes your dance is the quality of your attention.
And how to improve your attention?
You probably know how much I advocate for a body awareness based learning.
Regardless of which figures you’re learning, or if you’re working on more fundamental elements of Tango Argentino, like the walk, the embrace, your posture, navigation… it’ll take you much longer to see real progress without improving your body awareness first.
Sounds obvious, but it isn’t as simple to put into practice.
We’re in times of little patience. Many want magic recipes and immediate results with little commitment. Therefore, people struggle with anything that follows the logic of planting a seed and keep watering it until its development becomes visible above the ground.
In the best cases, they’d go regularly to classes and socials. And still could persist in them the feeling of “I need to know more steps”.
It's the difference between training and mindful training.
Both involve repetition.
But only one leads to transformation.
What transforms your dance into a memorable one, for yourself and your dance partner, has very 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 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.
Again, 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 Argentino 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 my 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, same one after the other, 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.
The good news is: You can train to break that pattern and gain more freedom and creativity in your dance.
Stay tuned for our next Tango Immersion editions and, in the meantime, train mindfully at our Focused Prácticas.
They’re not milongas – for real, not just the naming.
They’re not classes.
They’re a space to explore: intentionally, softly, curiously.
A space to ask your body questions and actually have time to hear the answers.
Each session offers a suggested topic to get you started, but you set your own pace.
You choose whether to work solo, with a partner, or both.
You choose depth, intensity, playfulness, or all of them at once.
And most importantly: You practice with awareness, not just through repetition.
If you want to discover what your Tango Argentino 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?
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Have another question? Tell me about it and I'll get back to you as soon as possible.
Tango Argentino
&
Body-Mind integration
by Jessica Gerdel
contact@jessicagerdel.com
+43 681 10323630
(La web en español está en proceso de actualización. Mis disculpas)
