tangobootcamp

[mringer]

Their website says: (in part)

the beginners 2 day weekend will usually contain the following elements:

- Walking and Tango Music (salida + musica)
- Tango Embrace (abrazo)
- Tango Balance + Weight Transfer (balanceas y cambios de peso)
- Basic 8 Step (basico)
- Forward + Backward Steps +Pivots (ocho para atras + ocho defrente)
- Leg displacements and interruptions (sacadas)
- Leg sweeps + throws (boleos)
- Stops and Drags (paradas + arrastres)
- Sandwich steps (sanguchitos)
- Turns + half turns (giros + media giros)
- Leg hooks (ganchos)
- Changes of direction + bounce steps
- Connection, improvisation, embellishment
- Putting it together
- Milonga dancing
- Musicality + phrasing
- Tango Music history

This seems a lot for ~~10--12 hours teaching, I am afraid that I might
simply forget it all. Please has anybody in this Forum gone
as a total beginner? What was your experience?
Did you emerge able to do all these?

Thank you for your advice.

 

[Mladenac]

Their website says: (in part)

the beginners 2 day weekend will usually contain the following elements:

- Walking and Tango Music (salida + musica)
- Tango Embrace (abrazo)
- Tango Balance + Weight Transfer (balanceas y cambios de peso)
- Basic 8 Step (basico)
- Forward + Backward Steps +Pivots (ocho para atras + ocho defrente)
- Leg displacements and interruptions (sacadas)
- Leg sweeps + throws (boleos)
- Stops and Drags (paradas + arrastres)
- Sandwich steps (sanguchitos)
- Turns + half turns (giros + media giros)
- Leg hooks (ganchos)
- Changes of direction + bounce steps
- Connection, improvisation, embellishment
- Putting it together
- Milonga dancing
- Musicality + phrasing
- Tango Music history

This seems a lot for ~~10--12 hours teaching, I am afraid that I might
simply forget it all. Please has anybody in this Forum gone
as a total beginner? What was your experience?
Did you emerge able to do all these?

Thank you for your advice.

basic 8 step is outdated method

Definitely overwhelming for a beginner

 

[ArbeeNYC]

This seems a lot for ~~10--12 hours teaching, I am afraid that I might
simply forget it all. Please has anybody in this Forum gone
as a total beginner? What was your experience?
Did you emerge able to do all these?

For a weekend bootcamp it makes no sense. The contents represent several years of training if you want to get them right. Bootcamps (we have them, too) mostly cover the absolute fundamentals of the abrazo and the walk, some music interpretation (finding the beat, etc.), and the salida, cross. All the other stuff is intermediate or maybe even advanced, depending on how you approach it. Who is presenting this?

 

[TTanguero]

Yeah, that's just silly. I'd look for something which focuses on walking, rebound turns and maybe ochos.

 

[JournalInTime]

That's crazy for a weekend!

I was involved as an accompanier/assistant for a weekend-long tango boot camp for a few years. It started on Friday evening, continued through Saturday, and ended early on Sunday evening. There were lots of breaks. Officially, it was 16 hours of instruction.

It covered the embrace (very open, so I use the term loosely); the four changes of weight (together, leader-only, follower-only, and contra); front, side, and back steps in parallel system; linear balanceos (rock steps); ochos (forward and backward); the cross (cruzada); linking ochos to the cross; and simple tango musicality (SSSS and SSQQS). That was already too much, and we rarely covered it all. If by some miracle the group was unusually good, the teacher would add the basics of paradas, mordidas (sanguchitos), and barridas (arrastres) as a bonus.

Turns (all kinds, even basic walking turns) were considered too advanced. Games with the free leg (boleos, ganchos, enganches, etc.) and invasions (entradas, sacadas, etc.) were considered not just too advanced but also unsafe for people at this level. Embellishments were deemed simply pointless, because nobody would have the necessary control. Milonga and valse were seen as complex enough to need their own boot camp.

And honestly, none of the teachers believed they were creating dancers. They saw this as a recruiting tool for bringing the attendees back for real lessons later.

 

[Naddrin Kentlar]

That's crazy for a weekend!

I was involved as an accompanier/assistant for a weekend-long tango boot camp for a few years. It started on Friday evening, continued through Saturday, and ended early on Sunday evening. There were lots of breaks. Officially, it was 16 hours of instruction.

An 16 hour boot camp on walking only would be an event that would really be useful Do they exist ???

 

[JournalInTime]

An 16 hour boot camp on walking only would be an event that would really be useful Do they exist ???

I doubt it. It isn't like people who already dance tango don't propose that, but you can't sell it to newcomers. The ONLY thing that sells is steps, steps, and more steps – the showier, the better. People want to go from zero to Dancing With the Stars in a weekend. Tell them "tango is basically walking" and they'll be walking, all right . . . right out the door.

 

[opendoor]

..I am afraid that I might simply forget it all.. advice..

Hi ringer, of course you will forget, we all do so. The aim of tango is, that the cerebellum can automatize moves unconsciously. That takes years. Up to that point the frontex of your brain has to memorize moves actively in detail, but that consumes a lot of bandwidth. With other words its unpleasant.
But its ok to go through all the possibilities and moves at a weekend and then forget it all again. But at least you will remember what will be your concern the next years.

 

[itwillhappen]

Boot camps were developed to test candidates for special forces and to purify prisoners by military drill practice.
As a leader: you can find out for yourself whether you can reject stress and also dance comfortably under a "friendly fire". And it could really be a relief to forget everything afterwards.
As a follower: I would definitely avoid to be a punching ball at such an event.
As a romantic couple: I would think twice about it and discuss it well with each other.

 

[opendoor]

..As a ..couple..

So wise, itwillhappen!

 

[JournalInTime]

The aim of tango is, that the cerebellum can automatize moves unconsciously. That takes years.

This is super-important.

People used to show up saying they "learned salsa" in six weeks and expecting the same from Argentine tango. Well, I doubt they really learned salsa in six weeks, but it's possible that they were able to go out and dance it well enough after that much time. That doesn't work so well for tango . . . traditionally, the start-to-first-milonga apprenticeship lasted three years, and while I don't think it's necessary to wait that long, nobody much dances tango as well as they would like before years have passed. A boot camp just won't do it.

As a follower: I would definitely avoid to be a punching ball at such an event.

As a leader inserted into an unbalanced boot camp (three times as many women-who-wanted-to-be-followers as men-who-wanted-to-be-leaders), it was rough. A total beginner follower does as much harm or more to a leader as any leader does to a follower. Especially if that follower shows up in heels and has never danced in heels. Particularly if that follower has seen too many dance TV shows and has decided for herself that every step has to involve whipping her free leg in the air . . .

As a romantic couple: I would think twice about it and discuss it well with each other.

All the men-who-wanted-to-be-leaders showed up as part of couples. The arguments started before we even reached the halfway mark of the event. I wouldn't recommend tango boot camp as a "romantic couple activity" to anyone whose idea of "romantic" is not "highly competitive and stressful."

 

[TTanguero]

Plus it's a lot of work for the organisers to remove blood from a wooden floor.

I've done exactly one class with my life-partner; we both decided not to repeat the experience ...

 

[JohnEm]

Their website says: (in part)

the beginners 2 day weekend will usually contain the following elements:

- Walking and Tango Music (salida + musica)
- Tango Embrace (abrazo)
- Tango Balance + Weight Transfer (balanceas y cambios de peso)
- Basic 8 Step (basico)
- Forward + Backward Steps +Pivots (ocho para atras + ocho defrente)
- Leg displacements and interruptions (sacadas)
- Leg sweeps + throws (boleos)
- Stops and Drags (paradas + arrastres)
- Sandwich steps (sanguchitos)
- Turns + half turns (giros + media giros)
- Leg hooks (ganchos)
- Changes of direction + bounce steps
- Connection, improvisation, embellishment
- Putting it together
- Milonga dancing
- Musicality + phrasing
- Tango Music history

This seems a lot for ~~10--12 hours teaching, I am afraid that I might
simply forget it all. Please has anybody in this Forum gone
as a total beginner? What was your experience?
Did you emerge able to do all these?

Thank you for your advice.

This looks like the Decadance TangoBootCamp.co.uk
I have nothing good to say about it - it is best avoided
unless you crave the experience, whatever that experience may be.
Since you are asking the question I don't think that is the case.

I know local dancers from the area who are saddened at the thought
of what the Decadance organisers have done to Tango in Brighton.
I could give you a personal experience but it is a long time ago and
may not be relevant now. But the list of elements is not encouraging.

 

[newbie]

Their website says: (in part)
the beginners 2 day weekend will usually contain the following elements:
- Walking and Tango Music (salida + musica)
- Tango Embrace (abrazo)
- Tango Balance + Weight Transfer (balanceas y cambios de peso)
- Basic 8 Step (basico)
...
This seems a lot for ~~

Possibly the organizers want to make it look "action-packed", "bang for your buck" and so on.
To achieve that, they trigger all the "+" like in Windows Explorer, to make the tree look wider.
For instance, the Basic 8 step has walking, it's done on the music, needs the partners to be in a tango embrace and to have enough tango balance to take steps, therby completing cambios de peso.
And if the teacher just adds "Ok now let's do it with some music. Plegaria by Fresedo, 1940. And keep it all in the LOD please."
then three more items get covered as well:
- Milonga dancing
- Musicality + phrasing
- Tango Music history

 

[opendoor]

..do ..Plegaria by Fresedo.. and.. covered.. Tango Music history

To our audience here on DF: Plegaria is the tango of death