3 Surprises To Expect In Your First Tango Class

Recently I brought a great friend of mine to her first tango class. She loved it, but it wasn't what she was expecting. Why is that? Well, there were 3 main reasons, which I'm listing below. In your first class you'll notice that:

1. Tango isn't as romantic in the first lesson as it appears in performances or on TV. My friend said in the beginning of the class she was so focused on learning the steps, connecting with & following her partner that the romance of the dance was the last thing in her mind. But by the end of the hour she felt like she was getting the basics down well enough to feel like she was finding a tango groove.

2. Tango is more challenging than expected at first. My friend felt that since the professionals make it all look so easy that it would be easy for her, too. Well, it wasn't easy at first, but she did an awesome job of catching on quickly & by the end of our hour she was doing a number of moves with style.

3. The close embrace is, well, close. If you're thinking about trying tango for the first time you should know that most people dance in either an open embrace or a close embrace. The open embrace is typically used in what is called Nuevo Tango and it's very easy to adjust to because you're dancing with your partner nearly at arms length. But then there's close embrace, which is tango's other option. I'll always remember my introduction to close embrace because it was the first Argentine tango lesson of my life. The class started and a woman I'd never met before leaned forward into a close embrace with me. Although I liked it, I thought it was a little forward on her part given that we'd just me. Little did I know that this was normal and exactly what the close embrace is supposed to be--close. Now that I've been dancing tango for a bit I can tell you that I prefer close embrace most of the time, but it takes some time to to get used to it.