Special classes

• Tango is considered by health care professionals to be an ideal exercise to benefit social, mental and physical well-being across the ages.
• Dance targets 6 main areas considered to be important for high quality of life and successful aging:

1. physical exercise
2. social satisfaction
3. spirituality and mindfulness
4. cognition
5. meaningfulness
6. emotional health

• Tango is good for cardiovascular health: Intensity can be modified to ensure that it is an endurance exercise. Indeed, in Argentina, Drs. Ricardo Comasco and Roberto Peidro1 have shown in a hospital setting that Tango can be used to improve cardiovascular fitness in persons who have had a cardiac incident or a heart attack.Tango increases mobility, balance, stride length and core strength.
  These changes have been demonstrated not only in healthy individuals, but in those at risk for falls by Dr. Patricia McKinley and colleagues, as well as persons with Parkinson’s disease by Drs. Madeleine Hackney Phd and Gammon M. Earhart, in persons with visual impairment by Dr. Hackney, and, in a case study, for a person post-stroke.

Tango induces a state of flow and spirituality.

Flow is a state of mind where the action is so pleasurable that you want to do it again and again and do not want to stop. This feeling has been expressed by the following groups:

• Elderly at risk for falls: («Oh when I hear that music, I just want to dance, dance, dance»)
• Parkinson’s disease: («Other treatments do not engage me, I don’t know why. They do not catch my body or my mind. It is like eating without spices. There is something missing. I stopped going to other treatments, but for Tango, I am never absent.»)
• Self-diagnosed depression («I wish I could dance all day every day»)
• Visual impairments («Once the music starts, and I begin to dance, I do not want to stop; I feel young and whole again»)

Spirituality is often expressed in terms of tango as a holistic activity («In this program they do not only take care of our bodies, they also take care of our spirits. While we dance we are people…. not sick people»).

Mindfulness is improved.

In a series of studies, Drs Pinniger, McKinley and colleagues have demonstrated that Argentine Tango helps individuals focus on the present and the task at hand, due to the importance of the step execution. This factor is so strong that the enhancement of mindfulness with tango has been shown to be greater than meditation or resilience training.

A metastudy on the effectiveness of tango in Parkinson Disease patients:

https://bmcneurol.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12883-015-0484-0

Tango is for many of us connected to melancholy. This does not have to be at all! On the contrary, in our team-building workshop we learn to walk with each other with a lot of fun and openness, to listen to each other, to engage with each other, to accept and trust. It is not necessary to form classical dance couples with women and men. The roles can be reversed or it can all be men or women.

The leadership course of a different kind. This course for (aspiring) leaders is not about theory. We learn to lead in practice, to listen, to take on other problems, to support, to make decisions and to give direction in an accompanying way. We will learn the power of non-verbal communication and recognize what makes a clear, clean approach.

Kids:

Learn in a playful way to engage socially, move elegantly and develop sensoric empathy (be gentle to your dance partner). Enjoy the community and preparations of minishows we put up together. We offer workshops and regular classes for schools and organizations.

Teenies:

Develop body positivity, self confidence and elegance. Interact with real people, detox from social media. Learn social skills in a safe, loving environment.

In today’s world, it is becoming increasingly difficult to integrate and make friends in a natural way. Oftentimes we are under time pressure and do things in writing or online, which does not require direct human contact. Especially for introverted or shy people, people with linguistic barriers or for migrants this is a big problem. In this tango workshop we learn to listen, to walk together, to adapt and respond to each other and to communicate in a different way. We work on interacting with others and build social connections.

We train advanced dancers in efficient tango teaching. Our current teachers in training are assisting us in group classes and take over private classes in split abos, together with full time teachers.