Who's Tango Immersion for?
Detail lovers
Curious people
Fans of quality over quantity
Out of the box thinkers and doers
Learners with an open mind and good vibes
People who value the holistic nature of Tango Argentino
Critical thinkers that don't conform to “must do's” without understanding why, when and if they make sense
People willing to build meaningful connections and growth within a welcoming community
❤️
Sounds like you?
Let's talk Tango
I always tell my students that Tango Argentino is a language.
And it isn't just a metaphor.
There's no official system though to say you're at A1, B2, C1… level at it.
And self evaluation is rather far from reality in most cases.
There's also no unified official academic program to teach it, as it's a popular dance.
At most, there's different approaches, some more or less thoughtful and coherent than others.
So, how can you get fluent on it without wasting time?
Tango Immersion in-depth Program is designed to support your learning process and address what you can improve, regardless of where you are at in your tango path. Focusing on quality over quantity and saving you time in the long run.
Instead of pretending that knowledge is linear and everyone learns the same way and in the same speed, I work from an approach that meets you where you are. Aware of the many dimensions that interact together in a dance like Tango Argentino, and the particularities that each person brings into a classroom.
In order to prioritize quality, we work on modules that are transversal to all levels, with different sets of exercises from simple to complex according to the participants level.
There's naturally some modules that build on top of others, which is specified accordingly on each edition of the program.
(E.g. in order to take the successive modules, you must have taken first the Tango Fundamentals with me or have previous experience with Tango Argentino. If your agenda doesn't fit our schedules, contact me for a private lesson to catch up as needed).
Each edition of the program takes place once a month in the form of an intensive tango weekend, so you have it easier to save the time in your agenda and we can get into deeper work using time more efficiently.
In-between editions, you can keep training and learning while having fun at our focused prácticas.
Tango Immersion 1st edition:
🗓 March 21.
19:00-21:00 Module I, Fundamentals 1
🗓 March 22.
17:30-19:30 Module II, Fundamentals 2
🗓 March 23.
15:00-18:30 Open level modules
18:30-21:30 Open practice for all levels
📍 This time we're at two (nearby) locations:
Friday 21.03. and Saturday 22.03. at Haydngasse 1, 1060 Wien
Sunday 23.03. at Zentrum Exist, Sechshauserstraße 38-36, 1150 Wien
Planning ahead? Save the dates!
After this edition of the program, you can continue with the following:
April 11th-13th Tango Immersion 2nd edition
May 9th-11th Tango Immersion 3rd edition
In-between editions, the Focused Prácticas await you to keep up your training and improve your dance while socializing in a relaxed atmosphere on March 30th, April 6th and 27th, and May 25th.
📍 Haydngasse 1, 1060 Wien
Happy to meet you
Hi! I'm Jessica
My journey to connect with my body started with Tango Argentino.
I wasn’t looking for it back then. After a while dancing, I became aware of how disconnected I was from my body and how tango was opening that door for me.
Being a very rational person (academic overdose included: graduated from three BAs, went through a MA program and half of another one… just to start the list), body and emotions were like two invisible islands for me.
Long story short, life took me to become a certified Tango Argentino instructor in Buenos Aires.
Along that path, my sociological eye helped me notice that tango was being transformative not only for myself but for other people I met in the community.
I became curious.
How’s that a dance can impact in such ways other aspects of life?
I wanted to know how the body-mind connections work and thought that Yoga could be a place to look for it. So I decided to enrol in a yoga teachers program.
I was lucky to join a school that understands yoga as much more than fancy poses and physical demand, and became certified as Yoga Integral teacher. An approach that allows to choose and adapt the many techniques that exist in yoga to what’s beneficial for the student, regardless of their previous experience or physical condition.
These learnings gave me some of the clues I was looking for to understand what happens with Tango Argentino, and many others I was totally unaware of.
My curiosity continued to grow and the doors to my inner journey opened even more.
I found myself exploring other body-mind integration approaches, like Bioenergetics, Body-Mind Centering®, Psychodrama, Authentic Movement, Expressive Body Arts, Contact Improvisation, movement analysis and somatic education, among others.
From the many paths I tried, I chose to follow a postgrad in Dance/Movement Therapy to deepen my journey. And there’s no words to tell you how it changed my life.
Curiously, while this path was more clarifying for my approach to dance than many tango classes I attended before, friends at the milongas started to ask me what I was doing, if I was taking extra classes or such.
They noticed something different in my dance.
Something they liked and wanted to reach themselves.
That path of embodiment and conscious movement was the most influential in my work to this date. More supportive for my self-awareness, self-confidence and empowerment than traditional counseling. And definitely powerful to improve the way I relate to myself and others, both in dance and daily life.
My interest in the connections between body, mind, emotions, identity and culture keeps driving what I do.
Honouring the teachings of my Maestros and Maestras, I build my own way to help others access the art of Tango Argentino in its holistic nature.
For me, Tango Argentino is a philosophy of life.
A path to freedom, empowerment and personal transformation.
A door to a deeper connection with ourselves and others.
It’s culture and community.
Definitely way more than a mere collection of memorized steps to copy and repeat.
When learning with me, you can expect a mix of all this.
Traveling is my other big passion so it is also present in what I do.
In a more obvious way, by designing transformational retreats and cultural immersion experiences in Argentina and other Latin American countries. Soon around here too 😉
And in the subtle ways, by bringing parts of that culture to my classes and events in any place I’m based at. Which at the moment means bringing to Austria what I love and miss from tango in Buenos Aires ❤
Tango Immersion Program
Tango Argentino is a popular dance. Did you know?
Popular as created by regular people.
Somehow, in the last decades it became common to learn it the same way as standard dances, shrinking the creativity and organicity that's in the core of this dance, delaying into many years what it takes to most tango enthusiasts to taste what improvisation can be like (if they ever do).
While standardization has been useful in many areas for humankind, it's discussable when it comes to arts and education.
It's the reason behind many cases of tango learners who were exposed to only memorizing their role for figures that later didn't work at the milonga, and came to my classes looking for an answer to their frustration.
And of dancers who spent years searching for the missing ingredient to achieve the precious connection everyone talks about in Tango Argentino, and found their aha moments with the approach I offer.
If you've followed my work, it's no news that I approach Tango Argentino learning, practice and teaching from a holistic perspective that shortens the path to improvisation and connection.
This new format, that preserves the essence of what I've been teaching and advocating for during almost 10 years, intends to shorten it even more.
The Tango Immersion in-depth program supports you in developing improvisational skills sooner than later, to truly own the popular moves you see at the Tango Argentino socials, and to go beyond, as the art of improvisation is everything but merely copying others.
You may have heard me saying countless times that Tango Argentino is a process, and full of subtleties.
Building up quality, flow and confidence in your dance comes by diving deep into those details, with the patience and consistency that every learning process needs.
Fostering long-term mastery and a deep connection with the culture, tradition and evolution of Tango Argentino.
That's exactly what this program is about and I'm very excited to launch it now in Vienna!
Are you ready?
Let's train your palate from the beginning to taste the subtleties that make this dance so special!
The Tango Argentino Fundamentals
The place to start if you’re new to tango, and to come back if you’ve been around.
The modules I and II come in a crash course format, and focus on the essential elements of Tango Argentino.
These are a pre-requisite to join the successive modules of the program.
This crash course is specially designed to help you learn the Tango Argentino basis in a short time (one weekend instead of a month) if you're new to this dance, and to discover new details to improve the functionality and aesthetics of your dance if you have previous experience.
🗓 March 21. 19:00-21:00 Fundamentals 1
🗓 March 22. 17:30-19:30 Fundamentals 2
Haydngasse 1, 1060 Wien
🗓 March 23. 18:30-22:00 Open practice for all levels Sechshauserstraße 38-36, 1150 Zentrum Exist
Join with or without a dance partner and invite your friends.
You're welcome to choose the role(s) you want to learn and to learn both, regardless of gender.
Bring a good attitude and an open mind to learn and co-create a good atmosphere for all.
After completing the Fundamentals 1 and 2, you can continue learning at the successive modules on March 23rd (15:00-18:30) before the practice session.
Have previous experience and wonder if the Tango Argentino Fundamentals are for you?
Magic happens on the details and beyond the form, as it’s not only what you do but how you do it.
If you’re used to standard dance programs, you might be curious what my teaching system is about.
First of all, you (and your classmates), and quality, are at the center.
Instead of forcing you to fit in a box, my pedagogy addresses what you need to learn and improve at every stage of your tango path. Making sure that whatever you learn, you learn it good, as quantity is nothing without quality.
“Some common synonyms of fundamental are cardinal, essential, and vital. While all these words mean ‘so important as to be indispensable,’ fundamental applies to something that is a foundation without which an entire system or complex whole would collapse.”
The contents I group under the Tango Fundamentals umbrella are everything related to individual and partner posture and body organization, which includes balance, embrace and moving together (with all that it implies), plus circulation on the dance floor, musicality and the 5 pillars that support everything else in Tango Argentino.
What would you tell me if I expect to get a six pack after doing abdominals once?
Exactly 😉
Somehow, the most extended mindset in our culture about learning something is that you see a topic once and never again.
While that might work for some things you “learn” in school and never use again in life, it’s a very perjudicial mindset for everything related to the body and movement, as building muscular memory and mastering skills require practice and repetition. Especially if you thrive for excellence.
Many people relate the Tango Fundamentals to beginner classes because they’re the entry door for new members into Tango Argentino.
What many ignore is that professional pedagogy organizes contents in different levels of detail and complexity, according to the previous knowledge and learning needs of each group or individual when caring about personalized education.
In fact, the Tango Fundamentals are what supports the entire Tango system, and the different ways (and depth) of training them are so rich you’d have enough material for a whole life.
Most average tango programs are limited to a list of steps, some more or less coherent, leaving aside or underestimating the different dimensions that are involved in becoming a good dancer.
From that perspective, it’s common to ignore the possibility of training the Fundamentals on different levels of detail and complexity, according to the “level” of the student.
Remember that Tango is process?
Same as a weak base can make a building crash from poor construction or lack of maintenance, your Tango building stands stronger when you learn GOOD basics and keep training to improve them.
A quick guide to know if you already mastered the Fundamentals is to ask yourself:
Do I know what they’re about?
Can I execute them all fluently and aesthetically?
Would I be able to explain them clearly and confidently in a spontaneous situation?
Is there really nothing else I can learn or improve on them?
Can I keep up the quality of my dance without training them consistently?
Can I learn complex moves with ease and in good control of my body?
Am I able to create something new from these elements?
Believe it or not, the Tango Fundamentals make 80% or more of what people train at advanced classes in Buenos Aires. The type of focus is the key, and what sets the difference of training them on a beginner, intermediate or advanced level.
Even the greatest names in Tango keep exploring the basics instead of giving everything for granted and set in stone.
It’s the difference between beginner and expert minds. And you can train yours too to recognize new details on topics you’ve seen.
Let’s thrive for excellence. Get ready to shine!
Open Level Modules
The Tango Immersion in-depth program supports you to keep learning and improving your dance, regardless of where you are at in your tango path.
It emphasizes the art of Tango Argentino as more than a dance, working on both the technical and personal growth aspects that tango offers, and invites a supportive and engaged community of dance enthusiasts who encourage each other and celebrate collective progress.
The open level modules are common to all levels (beginner that already attended the Fundamentals modules, intermediate, experienced), with different sets of exercises on each edition, from simple to complex, according to the participants in the group.
🗓 March 23.
15:00-18:30 Tango Immersion Open Level Modules
18:30-21:30 Open práctica for all levels
📍Sechshauserstraße 38-36, 1150 Wien Zentrum Exist
On each edition of the program we focus with high detail on different topics to enhance your dance, with the necessary pauses to keep the long sessions light and easy to digest the new knowledge.
The open level modules require that you've taken the Tango Fundamentals modules or have previous experience in Tango Argentino.
If your schedules aren't compatible with the program, you can book a private lesson to catch up as needed.
It's highly recommended for all levels to attend the full program (including the Fundamentals) for a deeper work on quality of movement and to clean elements of your technique that might be limiting your progress now or in the future.
As usual in my classes, you can sign up solo or with a dance partner.
Learning the role of your choice or both, regardless of gender, is welcome.
The Journey of Precision and Connection
Let’s work on the fine relation of “me” and “we” from the body, mind and emotional dimensions to allow the encounter in the dance.
Mindful Movement
With attention to detail and personalized feedback, this line of work helps you develop body awareness and trains your attention for precision, quality of movement, active presence and fluidity in the dance.
Tango Vocabulary
If Tango Argentino is a language, the music, its popular moves, and how they’re used, are part of its grammar.
This isn’t a typical “copy+paste” approach where you’re limited to see, copy, memorize and repeat movements mindlessly.
Truly owning specific techniques and popular tango figures comes from a deep understanding and embodiment of their dynamics. And that’s what we do.
Improv Exploration
There’s no Tango Argentino without improvisation.
Regardless of the method that each school follows, improvisation is supposed to be the goal.
Although all roads might lead to Rome, we build practical shortcuts.
More than Dance, a Community
Tango Argentino, in its essence, is community.
Train your attention and skills for the collective use of the space, on and off the dance floor, understand its codes and current context, culture, and your role in the entire ecosystem.
🗓 March 23.
15:00-18:30 Tango Immersion Open Level Modules
18:30-21:30 Open práctica for all levels
📍Sechshauserstraße 38-36, 1150 Wien Zentrum Exist
Sign up solo or with a dance partner.
Learning both roles or the one of your choice regardless of gender is welcome.
How can I help you?
Tango Argentino
&
Body-Mind integration
by Jessica Gerdel
contact@jessicagerdel.com
+43 681 10323630
