Approach
Our Approach
A COLLECTIVE TANGO ADVENTURE
Embrace
We embrace to dance Tango, and we dance Tango to be in the embrace. We approach the Tango embrace as a safe space to share, where two dancers move as one unit. All movements, expressions, and emotions start from this joint space between partners.
We encourage our dancers to embrace their partners how they’d like to be embraced – to feel supported, accepted, and free. Safety and comfort are the basic qualities that we value.
We cultivate this space not by effacing ourselves, but by offering the best version of ourselves at each moment.
Independence in Learning
Tango is a language. We learn a language not by memorising every possible meaningful combination of words, but by learning the grammar. Learning is at its most meaningful and lasting when the learners seek what they need. A big part of the instructors’ role is to help students learn how to learn, so they can learn independently.
As there are only a handful of professional Tango teachers in this vast country, most Indian Tango dancers have had to find their way to develop their own Tango – by seeking input from their local teachers and occasionally from visiting teachers, and travelling to events to take classes. To be able to distill these various inputs into our growth requires a discernment – an understanding that Tango is a popular dance with many approaches, and one has to find what works for themselves.
One Purpose, Many Paths
Auroville Tango is not a school. We’re known for dancers from various backgrounds, of diverse styles, and in our regular classes and special events we aim to provide a platform where dancers/teachers with different perspectives and approaches meet, challenge each other, and discover different ways of learning and dancing.
The Individual and the Collective
We dance as individuals, in the embrace of a duo, and in the collective ronda. A harmonious floor is created by a collective of dancers who not just dance with their partners but share the space with everybody on the floor.
Tango demands individual work. However, individual growth requires an enriching environment. It takes a community to build a dancer – sometimes, communities.
Our quarterly Tango Bootcamps are a hub where dancers from the Southern communities – Bangalore, Hyderabad, Chennai – and beyond meet, learn together, and dance with each other.
Our annual Festivals are a meeting point of committed dancers from across India, where different styles and approaches converge.
Work as an Offering
Auroville Tango brings the principle of Auroville “work as an offering” to life. All who work for Auroville Tango – Auroville organisers, teachers, DJs, as well as visiting artists, offer their experience and expertise without monetary compensation. In this way, we are able to reduce the financial burden of learning and dancing. We are the one Tango community in India that consists of dancers from diverse backgrounds, and we cherish this inclusivity.
The way we operate is not an utopian pie-in-the-sky. It has stood the test of time and reality. With the funds accumulated from regular voluntary contributions, we’ve been able to successfully organised 12 international festivals in addition to regular and seasonal events.
We know this is only possible because of the context of Auroville, and in everything we do – organising events, curating the learning and dancing environment, we seek to adhere to the values that imbibe our surroundings – peaceful, respectful, joyful, and always seeking personal growth instead of ostentatious display.
Musicality
Without music, Tango could have become a somatic exercise. The music calls us to the embrace and moves us – in the physical and inner spaces. Argentine Tango originated from a specific time and place, half a world away and more than half a century ago. We respect the tradition while not being confined by it.
Musicality is one of the focuses in our Tango education. The enjoyment of music is individual and intuitive. With a guided approach, a deeper and broader understanding of music offers a direct route to experiencing Tango at its most exhilarating, sometimes bypassing technical challenges that might take time and practice to overcome.