This is my private tuition e-tango setup. And this is fascinating.

Adapt, adapt is the key word – I’ve started to give e-private tuition at the beginning of March 2020, to some students in the U.K. and abroad. At first it felt odd – at the beginning of the year, I wouldn’t have thought giving online private tuition would have any appeal. But, being forced to stay apart, brought a few surprises with e-tango.

I was in for a big surprise…

First, I found every student to be so attentive and focus on the details, willing to repeat a move several times to make it perfect – in contrast with, in a person-to-person context, they preferred to do it just a few times and quickly come back to the pleasure of dancing.

Some also told me it was surprisingly interesting (they thought it would be less exciting than in embrace), and gave them the homework they needed as they faced isolation or quarantine. A few already took from these lessons their lunch tango training.

And this is what perhaps astounded me the most – the fact online private tuition often feels more intense than dancing in a face to face environment. My students told me they felt they had a true workout in the end. Perhaps, because things get so precise, they need to have a high level of concentration. The result is astonishing- in many cases, the learning is not less but at least equal compared to a face to face context. Also because I need to prepare more solo exercises, the student goes away with things they can practice over and over until they feel perfect.

Not your usual tango lesson

Of course something is different – since there is no actual body contact, both teacher and student need to develop the relationship in a unique way. Because we cannot embrace each other, as a tango teacher I need to rely on visual clues much more than on the body movement and axis transfer feeling I usually rely on when dancing with a student. I found myself focusing profoundly and asking more questions to my students, on body mechanics, building a puzzle piece of the body. As a consequence, the clothes the student wears is suddenly important – as I need to see body lines, alignment, knee flexion and so on.

Also, followers taking private tuition cannot rely on the teacher for their balance, so it enables them to truly focus on their technique, and makes them develop a new awareness of where their axis is, how it moves, and which muscles are important in the transition between one leg to the other.

Naturally, couples taking private tuition online are still able to rely on each other, so the tuition doesn’t feel so different than their usual lesson.

Another challenge was the size of the screen at first (using a mobile), but using a laptop greatly reduced that challenge. So if you are taking private e-tango tuition, your laptop will be your best friend.

Also, as an added bonus, we ended up also exploring musicality and talking the music itself more, which is something that doesn’t always happen in a face to face context.

So yes, I was quite surprised. Confinement, isolation might be the perfect occasion to work on these technical details you never had the time for. Extraordinary times, with extraordinary impact when things go back to normal. Who knows, we might see a global jump in tango level worldwide.

You might wonder- How does it work? Simple – Skype, WhatsApp or FaceTime.

Back to my shoes, laptop and ballet bar now- starting a session soon. I wish you a happy day of tango 🤗.
Bruno & the team at Tanguito

A last word
If you would like to give us a hand in these times of crisis, the best is to try e-tango for yourself, and book an e-lesson, and have an amazing e-fun with e-tango! Alternatively, donations are also welcome, until we get back to normal and can reopen the tango school, its weekly classes and milonga :).

And if you would like to hear about our latest online classes and posted videos, connect be WhatsApp: send your first and last name to +44 7891336565 to be added to the list. Thanks!