JonD
27th-October-2005, 06:12 PM
I got a PM asking me to summarise my experience of Tango holidays for those of you who are getting addicted. I'm no expert, either on the dance or the opportunities to learn it, and I'm sure there are forumites who with more ability and experience of AT than me. However, I am lucky enough to have danced AT in Buenos Aires, the south of France, Barcelona and Nijmegen during the past year or so - oh and in Devon as well. So, here goes.
Tango Mango in Devon. Ruth Zimmerman, who runs Tango Oblivion (http://www.tangoindevon.co.uk) here in Devon developed the concept of the "Tango Mango" - see website for details. It's essentially six days where you can drop into a hall (currenly a primary school between Totnes & Paignton with a great floor) and dance Tango between 10am and 11.30pm each day. There are loads of teachers - I think there were 6 there last night - and dancers seem to come from all over the world. Each evening there is a "drop-in large group lesson" and a "bookable small group lesson" plus you can have private lessons. Totnes is a wonderfully "alternative" community and everyone is really friendly. Food appears each lunchtime and evening despite there apparently being no organisation. People just bring things and some cook - there's no obligation to contribute and no charge to consume - but, magically there are always enough good things to eat. If you ask you are almost guaranteed to find someone to put you up for the week or a few nights - even if it's just a space to put up your camp bed. If you want to immerse yourself in AT for 6 days without breaking the bank this is a good way to do it.
Tangonetta - Barcelona. www.tangoneta.com (http://www.tangoneta.com/). The lovely Gisela organises this one. The website refers to the event just gone but I think she is organising one for next September. This is four days of workshops with milongas in the evening based in Barceloneta - the district of Barcelona down by the marina and the beach. I went in 2004 when the workshops were "Tango & Drama" (with a drama teacher), "Tango & Contact" (with contact dancers), "Tango & Tai Chi" (with Jordi - a remarkable Tai Chi Master) and finally "Tango & Tango" to pull it all together. It's great fun, truly challenging, gets you thinking "outside the box" and you can swim in the Med between workshops!
Tango Valley - near Albi in the Midi-Pyrenees, France. http://www.tangovalley.com This is paradise! I've been twice and I'm definitely going again next year. A Dutch couple found this lovely house on the side of a wooded valley above a tributary of the River Tarn and decided to run Tango holidays. Accommodation is either in the house, in little huts in the woods (Julie and I stay in these cabanes - basic but comfortable) or in your own tent. When you arrive on the Sunday you dump your mobile phone, money, credit cards, keys etc., pick up your dance shoes and think about nothing other than AT for the next 6 days.
The dancefloor walls roll up so you can look out over the valley during the day, there is a grapevine growing inside the dancefloor roof, the swimming place at the river is just bliss (some people go nude but there's no pressure to do so), the food is great, the wine is cheap (€5 for the expensive stuff) - actually, the whole place is just brilliant. The teachers are amongst the best in Europe (I'd rate Oliver & Marisa as the best I've ever had) and there are a maximum of 12 couples so you really do learn lots. A total of 10 x 2 hour workshops over the 6 days, practice as much as you like and dance all night. This is where I learnt to dance AT after drinking 2 bottles of wine - although I'm not sure it was really dancing!
People come from all over Europe but English is the common language. Friends we've made there have invited Julie & to stay and dance in countries from Norway to Italy. You need to book with a partner - same sex is OK as long as one leads and one follows. Fly to Toulouse and train to Albi - Vincent will pick you up at the station.
Buenos Aires. We went to BsAs in April and spent 3 1/2 weeks there. It's great. The City is pretty bog-standard, a mad collection of old and new and very poor in some parts. People dance AT in the same way as they dance MJ here - so don't be afraid of being a beginner. Of course, there are some tremendous dancers who are amazing to watch but there are loads of folk just out for the night who aren't that skilled. We found that there is a bit of a split between "tourist milongas" and "local milongas" - our favourite was Viejo Correo which is a local one. There are hordes of teachers, not all of whom are good. The Argentine currency collapsed some years ago with the result that the average salary is about 500 pesos a month. At an exchange rate of £1 = AR$5.5 you can see that charging a tourist £20 for a 2 hour private lesson is good business - hence "everyone is a professor".
We made sure of good teaching by staying at http://www.mansiondandiroyal.com/ in San Telmo, which is a Tango Academy owned by Hector Villalba. Hector is an utterly charming Tango Maestro who has businesses in the USA (he gave Julie and I a 20 minute private lesson as he was passing on his way to the airport). I think the Dandi is his hobby. It's art-decco gone mad, very comfortable (about 4* standard), the staff are wonderful and it has two dance floors. The regular teachers are great and they get some of the Tango legends teaching there - it's where we had a class with Gavito and you'll see the names Zotto and Copes on the web site. It doesn't get much better than that. Quite a lot of the guests are on world tours and not really serious about AT - the staff were really enthusiastic about Julie & I wanting to learn and practice. The Manager is a demon dancer and used to make us coffee, watch and offer advice when we were working on our own. The Dandi package includes airport transfers by taxi, free entry and taxi travel to/from a milonga or Tango show every night plus a 2 hour group tango class every night. Cost was £39 per night each - though you can probably negotiate that down if you speak nicely to Leandro and forego the entry to milongas, tango shows, trip to an estancia that they throw in.
Alternatively you can share a room in a Tango Hostel - complete with cockroaches (a friend of ours was in one when we were there) for about £10 per night or rent a private flat. Entry to a milonga is about AR$5 and taxi fares are typically AR$5 each way (£1 for a 20 minute ride isn't bad value). We ate out every night for about £10 each - thats 3 courses and wine. A couple of times we tried to get the bill over £20 each: we failed miserably and couldn't dance because we were so full & drunk. One waiter actually stopped writing as I was ordering and said "no - that's too much". Steak and chips for lunch will cost you about £1.75. The steaks are better than any other beef you've ever tasted. If you are a vegetarian think twice before going and don't go if you are vegan. We coped OK with practically no Spanish but it would have been helpful.
Dance shoes are about £30 a pair. I got three pairs of dance shoes and a pair of street shoes. Ladies, you must go to Comme il Faut - Julie says it's dance shoe heaven.
We booked flights with Aerolineas Argentinas. I'd fly from your regional airport to Madrid and pick up the Aerolineas flight there. Budget on about £400 for Madrid - BsAs - Madrid.
My total spend was about £1800 including gifts for my mum, shoes, a leather cowboy hat (when will I ever wear that?) and sundry other bits and bobs. We didn't stint ourselves at all on the grounds that it was a "once in a life time" thing. We're going back next October!
Wow, it has been a good year! And I haven't mentioned bringing in the New Year at El Corte (http://www.elcorte.com)'s 2 day Tango party in Nijmegen - we're doing the same this year. Their International Weeks are supposed to be superb although we've only been to the New Year thrash. I'm told that Eric Jeurissen, who runs El Corte, is the best European teacher of AT but I've never been to a class with him. He's touring the UK in December.
Another Tango Tome from JonD!
Tango Mango in Devon. Ruth Zimmerman, who runs Tango Oblivion (http://www.tangoindevon.co.uk) here in Devon developed the concept of the "Tango Mango" - see website for details. It's essentially six days where you can drop into a hall (currenly a primary school between Totnes & Paignton with a great floor) and dance Tango between 10am and 11.30pm each day. There are loads of teachers - I think there were 6 there last night - and dancers seem to come from all over the world. Each evening there is a "drop-in large group lesson" and a "bookable small group lesson" plus you can have private lessons. Totnes is a wonderfully "alternative" community and everyone is really friendly. Food appears each lunchtime and evening despite there apparently being no organisation. People just bring things and some cook - there's no obligation to contribute and no charge to consume - but, magically there are always enough good things to eat. If you ask you are almost guaranteed to find someone to put you up for the week or a few nights - even if it's just a space to put up your camp bed. If you want to immerse yourself in AT for 6 days without breaking the bank this is a good way to do it.
Tangonetta - Barcelona. www.tangoneta.com (http://www.tangoneta.com/). The lovely Gisela organises this one. The website refers to the event just gone but I think she is organising one for next September. This is four days of workshops with milongas in the evening based in Barceloneta - the district of Barcelona down by the marina and the beach. I went in 2004 when the workshops were "Tango & Drama" (with a drama teacher), "Tango & Contact" (with contact dancers), "Tango & Tai Chi" (with Jordi - a remarkable Tai Chi Master) and finally "Tango & Tango" to pull it all together. It's great fun, truly challenging, gets you thinking "outside the box" and you can swim in the Med between workshops!
Tango Valley - near Albi in the Midi-Pyrenees, France. http://www.tangovalley.com This is paradise! I've been twice and I'm definitely going again next year. A Dutch couple found this lovely house on the side of a wooded valley above a tributary of the River Tarn and decided to run Tango holidays. Accommodation is either in the house, in little huts in the woods (Julie and I stay in these cabanes - basic but comfortable) or in your own tent. When you arrive on the Sunday you dump your mobile phone, money, credit cards, keys etc., pick up your dance shoes and think about nothing other than AT for the next 6 days.
The dancefloor walls roll up so you can look out over the valley during the day, there is a grapevine growing inside the dancefloor roof, the swimming place at the river is just bliss (some people go nude but there's no pressure to do so), the food is great, the wine is cheap (€5 for the expensive stuff) - actually, the whole place is just brilliant. The teachers are amongst the best in Europe (I'd rate Oliver & Marisa as the best I've ever had) and there are a maximum of 12 couples so you really do learn lots. A total of 10 x 2 hour workshops over the 6 days, practice as much as you like and dance all night. This is where I learnt to dance AT after drinking 2 bottles of wine - although I'm not sure it was really dancing!
People come from all over Europe but English is the common language. Friends we've made there have invited Julie & to stay and dance in countries from Norway to Italy. You need to book with a partner - same sex is OK as long as one leads and one follows. Fly to Toulouse and train to Albi - Vincent will pick you up at the station.
Buenos Aires. We went to BsAs in April and spent 3 1/2 weeks there. It's great. The City is pretty bog-standard, a mad collection of old and new and very poor in some parts. People dance AT in the same way as they dance MJ here - so don't be afraid of being a beginner. Of course, there are some tremendous dancers who are amazing to watch but there are loads of folk just out for the night who aren't that skilled. We found that there is a bit of a split between "tourist milongas" and "local milongas" - our favourite was Viejo Correo which is a local one. There are hordes of teachers, not all of whom are good. The Argentine currency collapsed some years ago with the result that the average salary is about 500 pesos a month. At an exchange rate of £1 = AR$5.5 you can see that charging a tourist £20 for a 2 hour private lesson is good business - hence "everyone is a professor".
We made sure of good teaching by staying at http://www.mansiondandiroyal.com/ in San Telmo, which is a Tango Academy owned by Hector Villalba. Hector is an utterly charming Tango Maestro who has businesses in the USA (he gave Julie and I a 20 minute private lesson as he was passing on his way to the airport). I think the Dandi is his hobby. It's art-decco gone mad, very comfortable (about 4* standard), the staff are wonderful and it has two dance floors. The regular teachers are great and they get some of the Tango legends teaching there - it's where we had a class with Gavito and you'll see the names Zotto and Copes on the web site. It doesn't get much better than that. Quite a lot of the guests are on world tours and not really serious about AT - the staff were really enthusiastic about Julie & I wanting to learn and practice. The Manager is a demon dancer and used to make us coffee, watch and offer advice when we were working on our own. The Dandi package includes airport transfers by taxi, free entry and taxi travel to/from a milonga or Tango show every night plus a 2 hour group tango class every night. Cost was £39 per night each - though you can probably negotiate that down if you speak nicely to Leandro and forego the entry to milongas, tango shows, trip to an estancia that they throw in.
Alternatively you can share a room in a Tango Hostel - complete with cockroaches (a friend of ours was in one when we were there) for about £10 per night or rent a private flat. Entry to a milonga is about AR$5 and taxi fares are typically AR$5 each way (£1 for a 20 minute ride isn't bad value). We ate out every night for about £10 each - thats 3 courses and wine. A couple of times we tried to get the bill over £20 each: we failed miserably and couldn't dance because we were so full & drunk. One waiter actually stopped writing as I was ordering and said "no - that's too much". Steak and chips for lunch will cost you about £1.75. The steaks are better than any other beef you've ever tasted. If you are a vegetarian think twice before going and don't go if you are vegan. We coped OK with practically no Spanish but it would have been helpful.
Dance shoes are about £30 a pair. I got three pairs of dance shoes and a pair of street shoes. Ladies, you must go to Comme il Faut - Julie says it's dance shoe heaven.
We booked flights with Aerolineas Argentinas. I'd fly from your regional airport to Madrid and pick up the Aerolineas flight there. Budget on about £400 for Madrid - BsAs - Madrid.
My total spend was about £1800 including gifts for my mum, shoes, a leather cowboy hat (when will I ever wear that?) and sundry other bits and bobs. We didn't stint ourselves at all on the grounds that it was a "once in a life time" thing. We're going back next October!
Wow, it has been a good year! And I haven't mentioned bringing in the New Year at El Corte (http://www.elcorte.com)'s 2 day Tango party in Nijmegen - we're doing the same this year. Their International Weeks are supposed to be superb although we've only been to the New Year thrash. I'm told that Eric Jeurissen, who runs El Corte, is the best European teacher of AT but I've never been to a class with him. He's touring the UK in December.
Another Tango Tome from JonD!