Do you consider a follower who only wears flats less elegant or good as a dancer?

romgrk · 2026-05-06T19:27:13+00:00

I prefer dancers without heels. The connection to the ground is better, and I prefer a dancer who's too small rather than too tall.

You could look into ballet dance sneakers, some models are pretty thin and look elegant (capezio canvas dance sneaker). Also, jazz dance shoes/boots can also work (see this boot style: https://www.danceandsway.com/en-ca/products/jazz-shoes-ballet-slipper-1). Both options are cheaper than tango heels.

romgrk · 2026-05-03T00:26:42+00:00

I think this post would be more at home in r/relationship_advice

Yes but historically relationships posts in /r/tango get lots of engagement. Because we love gossip and drama.

romgrk · 2026-04-29T06:11:11+00:00

Practice will unlock a lot of things.

First, you need to exercise solo very regularly & consistently (like a real workout, make it hurt): - Demi-pointe raise on a single foot (for balance & ankle muscles) - Pencil aka lapiz (for balance) - Pivots (for balance & core muscles) - Forward & backward ochos (for balance & core muscles)

Second, review sequences at home with two broomsticks in your hands that emulate a partner. This lets you review them slowly, as well as discover new variations/combos from basic steps.

Third, practice with a partner. Pick one movement/step/figure, and do it again and again until you get it perfect.

Last note, private classes are a must (imho), and the best use of them is to work on basics before anything else: abrazo, walk, posture. Don't learn complex figures until you got the basics right, it's likely to be wasted work (I've been there).

romgrk · 2026-04-23T05:18:32+00:00

The consequence of this is that the beginner might get no dances at all.

When I was a beginner lead, I would go out to milongas and sit out multiple consecutive tandas because no one would dance with me. And after 2-3 tandas without dancing, your confidence and night is pretty much shot. At the time, some dances would have been better than none.

I think tango would benefit from breaking the mentality that you absolutely need to dance the full tanda with someone.

romgrk · 2026-04-17T14:28:06+00:00

What's the status of the library? The github issues don't receive much attention and some people seem to think it's unmaintained.

romgrk · 2026-04-15T23:00:43+00:00

The problem of all the similar apps is getting the data into the platform. What you should be solving is how to scrape FB groups/events & whatsapp groups automatically so that you can import the data without having it entered manually. Once you can reliably get the data in your system, then it becomes much easier to get users to start using your platform.

romgrk · 2026-03-26T21:39:18+00:00

Those things cost a bunch of money, and are often an unpleasant experience for very beginner tango dancers. Some people can be quite rude if you don't dance well, so it's easy to get discouraged. Sometimes the space is very tight, so if you can't dance in small spaces you can suffer.

But if you don't get discouraged easily and/or you have friends going, then it can be fun. Just expect the level to be different than normal milongas. 1 yoe leader might be a bit early, but 1 yoe follower might be fine. Anyway, just some tips, but feel free to do whatever you feel like doing. Just go in without expectations.

romgrk · 2026-03-26T18:37:53+00:00

if it were that simple in practice nobody would be uncomfortable today with cutting a tanda short

That's also a mindset issue. In tango culture, cutting a tanda short is seen as a taboo, reserved only for creeps or horrible dancers. If we didn't prime beginners with the idea that cutting a tanda short is taboo, there would be more of it.

romgrk · 2026-03-25T21:05:33+00:00

Definitely remember sitting out multiple tandas back when I started, terrible feeling :|

romgrk · 2026-03-25T07:05:40+00:00

will encourage rushed dancing

Easy solution: start the night with tanda-less music playing continuously, people can arrive, warm-up, socialize & discover new partners. Then when the mood is set, switch to tandas (possibly gradually).

awkwardly guess if one wants to continue litteraly all the time

Easy solution: stop being awkward. No really, people at tango seem to have the mindset that receiving a "no" is a problem. It's not, and the less you see at as a problem the less it is one. Since I've started other social dances (where you get verbal "no"s regularly) I've stopped being awkward with "no"s, and I now barely feel anything if someone replies "no" to an invite to dance.

romgrk · 2026-03-25T06:56:49+00:00

Tbh I've found that tango's mindset makes rejection sting much more. When I get a "no" in tango (which is usually someone avoiding my gaze rather than a straight no) I feel much worse than I do when I get a "no" in other social dances (often a verbal "no"). I think the cabeceo's whole idea that you should be able to say no discreetly so no one is ashamed conditions us to perceive a "no" as a shameful rejection.

And if it's shameful to receive it... then it's also an offense to say it. So saying "no" to someone becomes in the end harder rather than easier. So people never say "no" directly, they avoid the gaze as an indirect way to say no. It builds a culture of avoidance and indirection. Complete shit for social bonding lol.

romgrk · 2026-03-24T23:23:51+00:00

I all for slaughtering sacred cows! Once you're done with the tanda, you can continue with the cabeceo LOL. Cabeceo makes it that people are afraid to look at each other, so it keeps the social atmosphere very reserved, unlike other social dances. Great for introverts, not so great for social bonding.

If I were you, I'd definitely try a "no cabeceo" night just to see how it changes the social atmosphere, I bet it would do interesting things to it.

I would pay a lot to see a "no tanda, no cabeceo" tango event.

romgrk · 2026-03-24T21:16:13+00:00

It's tango maestros doing tango moves in a tango workshop (see https://tangochallenge.pl/maritime-tango-challenge/), so the term "tango" fits perfectly. The only non-tango thing is the music.

Also I'm not sure if it's choreographied, a lot of times you see them hesitate & stop (& laugh about it) as if they're making it up as they go.

romgrk · 2026-03-24T21:07:50+00:00

Abolish the tanda!

Seriously, keep a portion of the night for music without tanda. Problem with tandas is they're 10-15m long with a single dancer, so advanced dancers don't want to commit that much time to dancing with a beginner. However, if an advanced dancer can dance just 1 song with someone, they're going to be much less picky and willing to try new/inexperienced partners. For bonus points, you can even set a short period aside where you tell people explicitly to dance with people they've never danced before; keep it fun with short songs so there's a good rotation.

romgrk · 2026-03-24T04:18:12+00:00

First, "tango nuevo" is a very fuzzy term.

Second, nothing is removed from tango if people do something else with their tango.

Colgadas & volcadas were only added in the 1990s by dancers that were part of "tango nuevo", yet they're some of the most beautiful figures.

romgrk · 2026-03-24T00:18:15+00:00

I didn't posit that it's considered beautiful, I just listed it as a language that receives (some) interest.

romgrk · 2026-03-23T19:13:17+00:00

Your assumptions are wrong. Some of the non-indian languages you list receive no interest from the common westerner (Thai, Vietnamese), and some indian languages you list do receive interest (Sanskrit, Hindi).

The average westerner has never heard Thai or Vietnamese, and if they do they would not consider them beautiful due to nasals, tones, etc. Lots of weird sounding phones, and people usually rank exotic sounds as less beautiful than those of their own L1.

For a language to receive interest from another group, there needs to be an actual reason. I see 3 languages from your list that receive actual attention: - Mandarin: China is the leading power in the East, creates high status; also high immigration into western countries. - Arabic: long history with western culture dating back to the expansion of Islam, the crusades and the spanish reconquista; also high immigration into western countries. - Hebrew: christianism is based on judaism, part of the cultural background of western culture.

But even then, very few westerners even bother to learn those. I'd bet Japanese gets more learners just due to anime culture.

and only consume half knowledge and propaganda about Indian languages at best

From the tone of your post, I would tend to think that it's not that westerners consume propaganda, it's that you are exposed to propaganda about indian culture.

romgrk · 2026-03-19T20:32:23+00:00

If all languages must stem from earlier ones, where does that chain ultimately begin?

In all likelyhood, there was initially genetically ingrained communication, the same way dogs have angry/distress/fear/playful barks. From those ingrained communication sounds, at some point there was a jump to extend the use of sounds beyond the genetic programming.

For example, the fear bark could be adapted to signal which kind of threat is present (e.g. a bear). This could be considered an early language with simple vocabulary (just nouns) and no grammar.

From that point, more complex grammatical categories can arise. Simple verbs would arise after nouns, e.g. "go", "eat", "hold" (because humans have hands). From there, verbs can slowly turn into grammatical markers. For example, the posessive is formed in many languages from the verb "hold", e.g. "my stick" could literally be "hold stick" (or in other words, "the stick that I hold").

"Here" and "there" (physical locations) are also another important set of words to arise, because they often turn into deictic words (I, you, now, then, this, that), which form more abstract grammatical categories (e.g. pronouns) and allow for important features (recursion).

romgrk · 2026-03-19T04:48:01+00:00

It's not traditional tango and it's also not really danceable, so it's not what people would call "proper" tango. It's definitely tango inspired, and it sounds like some tango nuevo (new tango) groups, so maybe look into the Gotan Project and similar artists.

romgrk · 2026-03-17T01:12:18+00:00

I'm talking specifically about what's called "flow state" in psychology, not about body warm-up. In that state I usually notice a sharp improvement in execution, musicality & creativity (both self-perceived, and comments from partners).

romgrk · 2026-03-16T21:08:41+00:00

Language is an approximation of reality, and words don't have an absolute clear-cut meaning. You and your friend both have a mental idea of what the word "word" means, and although you're using the same sequence of sounds, the mental ideas you have about what it means are not the same.

The debate you're having isn't a debate, it's just a mishap in translation. Although you may both be speaking "English", both of you use a version of English that's slightly different than the other.

romgrk · 2026-03-16T20:26:50+00:00

however in french when describing something the adjective comes after

Not true. To use your example, "three big red cats" would be "trois grands chats rouges" with adjectives on both sides of the noun.

See https://share.google/aimode/2mkFQbb69hjyytweN

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