BERLIN TANGO INTENSIVE 2018
BERLIN TANGO INTENSIVE 5TH EDITION
PROGRESSIVE TANGO INSTRUCTION + INTENSE GUIDED PRACTICE
WITH ROTATING ADVANCED PRACTICE ASSISTANTS
SAVE YOUR DATES, SUMMER IN BERLIN!
August 1 - 5, 2018
with
Kara Wenham + Dominic Bridge
- 5 DAYS- 20 HOURS
- 3 HOURS OF CLASS/DAY + 1 HOUR OF PRACTICE
- 2 MASTER TEACHERS TO GUIDE AND PUSH YOU FORWARD IN YOUR DANCE
- EXCELLENT ROTATING TANGO ASSISTANTS, OFFERING YOU FEEDBACK AND VARIETY IN THEIR LEAD AND RESPONSE.
- WITH THE BACKDROP OF ONE OF EUROPE’S FINEST SUMMER CITIES AND TANGO CAPITOLS
This year I am teaming up with Dominic Bridge for the Intensive experience. We are excited for this new partnership and have swiftly developed a language that we are excited to share with you. We will be doing the same 5-day, 20-hour intensive, all with the rotating dance assistants.
I N T E N S I V E T A N G O T R A I N I N G
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Why do our intensive?
Our Intensive is a new format within the world of tango.
The three main distinguishing characteristics that we’d like to point out are:
1) A clear pedagogy and progressive instruction for building a strong base for your dance.
2) Immersion: It has the right amount of hours of classes each day to learn new material coupled with the sufficient amount of practica hours you need to integrate what you have learned into your dance.
3) The Assistants: Rotating super advanced tango dancers and working professionals from Berlin and around Europe.
These things are great when they stand alone, but together they act powerfully on the student, exponentially raising the level of their dance. We often find that the regular format of weekend workshops does not necessarily give the student the depth or intensity that they really need in order to change their dancing on a more profound level. Simply learning sequences or steps also keeps us in the illusion that the dance is about steps rather than elements. So for us, there are no secrets.
There is only good instruction and conscious practice.
We believe that real learning requires conscious learning applied WITH training. We have put together a comprehensive and progressive program that will bring your dancing to your next level. We will give you the tools you need in order to acquire a logical way of thinking about the dance, so that you can therefore construct your OWN. We do not aim to make replicas of ourselves dancing, rather we want inspired and connected dancers to find their own authentic dance. In doing this we become not only good dancers, but also artists in our own right.
WHY PRACTICE?
Is there any skill we learn that doesn't require practice?
While practice may not “make perfect,” we know that practice makes much, much better. And that's the goal: getting to your best dance. We take endless classes and rarely do we have the chance to practice what we learn. The “Practicas” most of the time turn into a milonga (or a class). We want to bring back the art of practicing and cultivate the skills in not only WHAT to practice but HOW to practice. The goal for us is that once you finish our 20-hour Intensive you will know how to plan, implement and evaluate your own progress.
YOUR DANCE ASSISTANTS
Having your own dance assistant is a powerful learning tool. You will be partnering with a whole group of assistants who have a much higher level of dancing than you do. These people are dancers and some are teachers in Berlin and around Europe who are either working professionals in the tango scene or are obsessed advanced amateurs who dance nightly in Berlin. The assistant is there to accompany you in your process, but they, like you, are also there to deepen their process as dancers and teachers. You will be challenged to step up in the dance and to learn the dynamics of practicing. We will rotate partners in the classes and practicas, so that you will be dancing with different dance assistants and be exploring the variety of leads and follows, sensations and nuances in the dance.
COME WITH YOUR OWN PARTNER
We welcome those who would like to sign up with a partner.
This means that you will take the entire intensive with this person.
If you’d like, you may change partners at any time with other students who
also came with their partner and are willing to rotate.
THE DAILY BREAK DOWN:
First class: 1.5h 12:00pm - 1:30pm
30-minute break 1:30pm - 2:00pm
Second class: 1.5h 2:00pm - 3:30pm
LUNCH 1 hour 3:30pm - 4:30pm
1 hour of guided practice 4:30pm - 5:30pm
*We highly recommend eating a very substantial breakfast prior to the classes and bringing some snacks and a big bottle of water as it’s going to be a long day! ;-)
PRICE BREAK DOWN:
COUPLE €650 per person
SINGLE (incl. assistant) €850 per person
contact: dominicykara@gmail.com
ABOUT OUR INTENSIVE:
MORE INFO ABOUT WHAT IT WILL COVER AND WHAT TO EXPECT
Our Intensive aims to attract individuals who already understand the importance of a comfortable embrace and has a sensitive ear towards communicating with their partner. The pillars of connection, movement and music will be the primary focus points and not the steps.
We believe that if you are sufficiently advanced then you will understand that learning only steps, like volcadas and colgadas, etc… is not going to necessarily raise your level of dancing. It will only serve in executing those steps in an isolated and mechanical way. When one starts to see tango in its entirety and not just in small fragmented parts, then the whole fabric of the dance will open up to an array of endless creative options.
Our Intensive will be progressive. Each day we will start with some technique exercises for both leaders and followers and then continue to study the technical aspects of the most common elements in the social dance: connection in open and close embrace, the order of communication in the movement, walking, musicality, changes of direction, stops, turns and more. As we progress we will be integrating other movement vocabulary into the mix, but always with the intention of understanding each part of the movement. We will then have you integrate these elements into your dance right away in the practica each day after the lessons. All of this will be learned in parallel with the rhythmical structure of the music so that we can organize the movement in the music.
For those who will be opting to have a personal dance assistant, you will be rotating regularly with the other dance assistants, so as never to adapt too much to only one lead or follow.
At the end of each day of classes, we will make a review (which you may film) that covers the days topics and exercises. During the practicas we will cover principles to help you develop the capacity to plan, implement and evaluate your own progress. This will include exercises one can do alone and together, modes of communication, and concepts with which you can objectively use to later analyze your dance.
TESTIMONIALS:
Participant
Ning Wang: Switzerland
Intensive 20hrs Berlin 2015
“I'd like to take this opportunity to thank both of you once again for the amazing work and great efforts you've put in the intensive workshop! I enjoyed so much the inspiring journey of discovering and rediscovering my body, my movements, and my tango with you as well as the others from the group! Thanks too for building up a loving and caring community, with whom not only I shared a great time, but also became new friends! :)”
Assistant
Katrin Urwitz
Intensive 20hrs BA 2014 + 40hrs BA 2015
“I’m taking the opportunity to thank you for your work. I enjoyed assisting your seminar and I like the way you teach and the good energy you create with your group. The advancement of the participants was very notable, and it was great to be able to take part in their progress. I also grew in this process. I thought this intensive was more dynamic than last year’s and the musicality aspect added a great dimension to it for participants and assistants alike.”
“I’m taking the opportunity to thank you for your work. I enjoyed assisting your seminar and I like the way you teach and the good energy you create with your group. The advancement of the participants was very notable, and it was great to be able to take part in their progress. I also grew in this process. I thought this intensive was more dynamic than last year’s and the musicality aspect added a great dimension to it for participants and assistants alike.”
Assistant
Ellie Mutter
Intensive 20hrs Berlin 2015
“I wanted, before too much more time passed, to write you to thank you for the tango intensive. It really was a terrific experience and I'm so grateful that you invited me to participate. I feel that I really got a lot out of it and enjoyed working with everyone there!”
YOUR TEACHERS:
Dominic Bridge + Kara Wenham have developed a method of teaching that allows the student to make sense of his or her body movement and how it relates to the connection shared between partner and music. When the connection of the couple is in sync with the movement and music (*When the movement is begotten through the connection between partners and music*), then the entire dance comes alive. We can better access and develop our creativity and expression. Known around the world as teachers with exceptional presence, generosity and effectiveness, Dominic and Kara will profoundly improve your dance while inspiring your latent creativity.
For us, these intensives have become the model of teaching that we prefer most. Weekends can be great and packed with a lot of material, but we seldom have enough time to see what the students do with this material. The Intensive affords us that luxury. Having continuity lets us see progress, and this is very gratifying for both student and teacher alike. We feel that you will agree that after these 20 hours there will be a deepening in both your knowledge and capacity as a dancer, and perhaps also more importantly, your enjoyment of the dance.
For more info/bios/videos on them please visit:
INTENSIVE LOCATION
La Caminada TanzStudio
Press the “Caminada" bell to open first gate. The studio is all the way in the back on the ground floor.
SOME RECOMMENDATIONS
PLACES TO STAY:
While we are not organizing your accommodation, we’d like to make some suggestions
for places where we think you’d like to stay. The classes will take place in Kreuzberg though we still have yet to get confirmation of the exact location. We think staying in the Kreuzberg area will make it easier to be close to the intensive.
Accommodation Hostels:
www.diefabrik.com - Die Fabrik in Kreuzberg
www.grandhostel-berlin.de - Grand Hostel in Kreuzberg
www.pegasushostel.de - Pegasus hostel — Friedrichshain
www.three-little-pigs.de - 3 little pigs — Kreuzberg
www.circus-berlin.de - Circus Berlin — Mitte
Another option is to rent an Airbnb place and share it with other participants.
TRANSPORTATION:
BVG - Berliner Verkehrsbetreibe Subway/Bus- Find all public transport info and calculations. (and in English!) BVG supports all airports and train stations with great time schedules. Berlin has an excellent public transport system 24 hours and check out for tourist or day passes.
BERLIN BY BIKE
Berlin is great for biking, especially in the summer. See an excellent route planner for cyclists here.
It finds optimized routes according to the cyclists preferences.
And here's an article that will get you sorted on renting a bike here in Berlin.
GETTING INSPIRED:
Apart from all the great cultural things one can do in Berlin, there is of course nightly tango dancing in beautiful venues all over the city. Some are in classical Berlin dance halls, others in outdoor venues along the river and the list goes on…
Here’s the main Berlin Tango webpage that lists the nightly milongas. You’ll be wanting to go out and dance but just make sure you save energy for the next day of classes. ;-)
https://tango.info/berlin/
PAYMENT AND PURCHASING YOUR TICKETS TO BERLIN:
If you would like to participate in our intensive please contact us at: dominicykara@gmail.com
Once we know, we will ask for your €300 deposit to hold your spot in the intensive. We will need to start booking the assistants as soon as we know you are definitely coming.
You will be put on our participant list and WHEN we achieve our minimum number of participants, we will give you the go ahead to purchase your plane tickets and to pay us the full intensive fee.
If you know you'd definitely like to come, please don't wait, contact us now so everyone can purchase the plane tickets and make accommodation arrangements as soon as possible. PLEASE DON’T BUY YOUR FLIGHT UNTIL WE GIVE THE GREEN LIGHT.
Our cancellation policy:
3 weeks or less before commencement date, 0% refund.
3-5 weeks before commencement date, 25% refund.
5-8 weeks before commencement date, 50% refund.
More than 8 weeks before commencement date, 100% refund.
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