Since I start teaching tango, I was always searching for something new what could help me to improve my balance, my musicality, body control.

In time I tried different stuff apart from tango techniques and I came to one conclusion: you won’t achive new level of tango dancing without developing your body skills! Yes, easy like that. But there came a question: how to create the full complex of disciplines which will cover all aspects of body development.

Together with my friend and partner Polina Barsukova (former classical ballet dancer) we create a multi-discipline programm for tangueras which includes 4 parts: yoga, body-ballet, woman’s tango technique and leading-following practice. Why this?

1. Yoga. When we think about yoga, what we can imagine as achivement? Stretching muscules: correct. Everyday life mostly in offices makes our bodies stiff and tired, with crumped muscules. But yoga allows to warm up and stretch all group of musculs. Another goal: relaxing. True as well. When you have your breath under everyminute control, your brain concentrates only on this and the rest of the body going off control and so it’s relaxing. This actually helps stretching and makes this process easy and less painful. Third aspect we have to mention: achiving the new level of body balance. This subgect usually dicussed on regular tango classes where teachers expect student to get on the balance but very few of teachers showing  easy excercises to create your own body balance. And yoga is just about it. Inner and outter balance. And the last but not the least: bulding a trust to partner. How? Using a couple of yoga exsercises. Trusting to your partner – one of the weak part of relatioship in tango couple (speaking about Russia now, but I preasume, the situation not much different in another countries). And so we have to be able to build it up. Summary: developing balance, trust, ability to relax and new level of stretching body muscules – BIG plus for developing new level in tango techniques.
2. Body-ballet. This tool has similar goals with yoga but also it’s taking care of estethics of body movements. The beauty of the body is one of my precise points I always care about a lot when I’m teaching. Beauty of steps, emrbrace, posture, legs, feet work, heads – I find it very important and prefer to point on it from very start of beginners classes. And so body-ballet is exactly what can help students to train it. Also it’s serious physical training which makes muscles stronger and more flexible so difficult elements like boleos, piernasos, ganchos can be done easily. And as it’s a physical action – it helps to keep yourself in good shape 🙂
3. Woman’s techniques. Classical and new-created exersises to develop step techniqes and adornos performing.
4. Forth and most unusual part: leading-following practice. The idea of this practice is to put dancers in unusual roles, let them lead-follow and feel their own mistakes and buggs in the familliar role and develop own ways to fix it and impruve in general. Also we took a close look to connection in embrace and mechanics of using body torsion.

We already had 2 courses of seminars, all consist of 2 full weekends with classes lasing 3h.

We’ve got fantastic feed back. All participants were inspired to work on themselves, saying they will explane their partners what they discover on classes and will call them to take part in following seminars.

To be honest with you, my fellow reader-tanguero(a), I was delighted and got a pure joy of sharing my knowledge and create new ways of explanation. Not only students learned on this course but myself as well: like teacher, like performer, like leader and follower as well. Everytime I explane something I discover some new point of subject! And this is beautiful neverending story!

Wonderful way of living tango!

Happy me

P.S. Hope you enjoy my story and if it gave you points to think and keep working on your own perfection, I’ll be even more happy But if you have questions – do ask me here https://www.facebook.com/yana.nikolayuk