MY TEACHING APPROACH

I think of myself as being as much a student as a teacher of Tango. Because of my daily engagement with Tango’s different layers I know that what I teach is researched, tested, and relevant. I keep a question mark over my own beliefs knowing that this pushes me everyday to stay active in evolving my own understandings and growing in my dance. This connects me directly to the process of my students and I am inspired to work with the various challenges they face.

My mission as a teacher is to package the learning experience of Tango in as fun, inclusive, and effective a way possible so that students feel confident to go dancing in Milongas and become active contributors to their larger community. My classes are safe, judgment-free environments where students have the opportunity to study in both roles and are encouraged to work outside of class with each other to further integrate the material.

Typically my classes include these points:

• Technique and body-awareness work as applied to the class theme using a variety of exercises and drills

• Essential structure from the perspective of both roles with context, musical application, and attention to floorcraft

• Focus on less tangible aspects: embrace sensations/management, comfort, connection, variation, improvisation

• Time for application with multiple partners

I believe through the entry point of body awareness students can access the mechanics of each essential form. From form to greater depths of comfort and connection within themselves and with their partner they ultimately develop the tools they need to improvise, navigate, and interpret the music. I infuse classes with as much historical and global context as I can, giving students broader meaning to what they learning.

As Tango reaches into all aspects of my life, so too it works in the other direction and so my teaching is tremendously influenced by my other Practices - Yoga, Aerial Acrobatics, and Meditation.