About us
Why Tango Bar?
Pricing Policy
Tango Bar Financial Policy
Why Deposits?
Tango Bar Teaching Philosophy/Approach
What is Tango ?
Tango Bar Club Constitution
Tango Teaching Qualifications
Leaflets about other tango events
Why Tango Bar?
Tango Bar was created by Stephanie Gögelein, in 1997, so that there could be tango in Cambridge, simply because she likes dancing tango so much.
Mike Rose joined Tango Bar one year after it started.
Both Mike and Stephanie teach tango so that they can also enjoy dancing it in Cambridge, and have also found a great deal of pleasure in the accomplishments of the dancers that they introduce to tango.
Sam and James started a second milonga, Tangamente, in January 2001.
Both Tango Bar and Tangamente work in co-operation to provide the best possible environments for dancing and learning tango, in Cambridge.
Tango Bar Pricing Policy
Tuesday drop in class and milonga£5(£3) for a 1 hour class.
£4(£2) for a 3 hour dance.
£7 (£5) for both the class and 3 hour dance.
Courses and workshops
£5(£4) per hour for local teachers.
Private Lessons
£30 (£20) per hour with local teachers.
The prices in brackets () are concessionary prices for students, OAPs and UB40.
Tango Bar Financial Policy
Tango Bar is run as a nonprofit business. Here is one definition of a nonprofit organisation: "An institution, corporation, or other legal entity no part of whose net earnings may lawfully inure to the benefit of any private shareholder or individual."Note: this does mean we pay people a reasonable rate for the work they do.
The major costs of running Tango Bar are, in descending order:
1. Hall hire
2. Tango teaching training for the local teachers
3. Purchasing music
4. Snacks
5. Equipment such as decorations, lights and stereo.
Why Visiting Teachers?
Initially tango teachers were invited to Cambridge to teach tango to beginners, as there were no local teachers. Now that there are local teachers we believe it is still VERY important to have other teachers come here to teach tango because they:
1. Bring new ideas to the Cambridge tango community
2. Are more experienced tango teachers
3. Explain things in different ways
4. Let you see how tango is danced differently, by everyone
5. Work with the local teachers to improve their teaching
Why Deposits?
In the beginning we did not ask for deposits for workshops or courses, but we had some unbalanced course/workshops. We now have to ask for some money in advance primarily so that we know people are definitely going to turn up and we can balance the group as best we can for the dance enjoyment of all.Tango Bar Teaching Philosophy/Approach
We use a proven method of teaching tango that aims to teach people the feeling of tango. First we teach people the feeling of tango movements, and then we go on to teach people to be conscious of what they are doing, so that they can understand tango more deeply. Once a conscious understanding of tango movements has been obtained then you can find your own possibilities in the dance, and dance tango in the way that you want to.Everyone is different; therefore everyone can dance his or her own tango.
Having said all of this it does not mean that we have a fixed approach. Far from it, in fact. We are continually developing our teaching methods by:
We have chosen to adopt the pedagogic teaching system created by Rodolfo Aguerrodi (El Chino) for the content of the regular courses that we give.
In essense the courses are taught in 3 stages:
We are continually looking for the simplest and most accessible way to teach each.shtmlect of tango.
The aims of the intermediate drop-in lesson on Tuesdays are to:
Tango Teaching Qualifications
Stephanie, Mike, Sam, Annette & John are now the proud owners of "Teachers of Dancing" badges that say we are "bona fide teachers of established pratice and reputation", all thanks to the UKA (United Kingdom Alliance - for dance drama and exercise).
What this means in practice is that we went through a day of dance teaching assessment, and observation (while we taught 3 hours of tango course class). We now have public liability insurance for teaching tango in the UK and most other countries of the world.
We were quite impressed with the UKA dance teaching assessor, and he gave us some good positive feedback about how we could improve the classes. He assessed our teaching in these areas:
Leaflets about other tango events
If you want to put out leaflets about other tango events at one of the regular milongas (such as Tuesday evening) then please ask the organiser first. This is only polite and you will usually get a "yes".