Level 3

Nov - Dec 2026

Level 3 Course Dates:

6 Wednesdays : 7.30pm - 8.30pm: Nov 4, 11, 18 |Dec 2, 9. 16

(No class on Nov 25)

Theme : Musicality and Adornos for Tango

Dec 16 is our special party night! 🎄🥳🍾🎉 The final class of the year will be a Mini Milonga, so you can dance with students from both levels and practice what you have learnt this term. Afterwards, come and celebrate the festive season with us over a meal and/or a drink at The Old Commodore Hotel, just across the road. We’d love to see you there!

Dress theme: Festive! Wear something sparkly or in festive colours, and get into the spirit of the night.

Lesson 2 : 11 November (Preview)

In Lesson 2 we continue our focus on dancing to rhythmic tango songs. The moves we used in Vals work very well here too, because, as in Vals, there is minimal time to pause. That leaves little room for ornaments at Pradas or Sandwiches, or for wide-angled moves such as wide Forward Ochos to end Giros and Medialunas.

The song we will focus on is Pampa by D’Arienzo. It has very clear phrasing, and understanding phrasing is essential to good musicality as a tango dancer. This song can be found in Sophia's Tango (Trad) or find it on Youtube (see below):

Lessson 1: 4 November

In Lesson 1 we focused on very rhythmic (staccato music). The song we danced to was El Gran Hotel Victoria by the Orquestra of Juan D'Arienzo.  We looked at the places in this song to do adornos, and the moves we used included:

Double time Parallel Cross with Resolution

Ocho Cortado

The video below contrasts dancing Ocho Cortados to melodic songs (e.g. Di Sarli) to rhythmic songs (e.g. D'Arienzo)

Tango Music - for practicing 

Spotify 

Check out Sophia's Spotify lists:

Tango (Trad) Best for practicing musicality - walking to single, double and half time.

Tango (Neo) contemporary songs (good for practicing technique)

Vals (Trad)

Milonga (Trad)

Here's a link to help you better understand tango music for dancing

Good habits for tango dancers

• 'Steel vs spaghetti': Your standing leg is like steel - dynamic, strong and grounded, your free leg is like spaghetti: light and loose without tension.

• Your free leg hip is loose and level (this removes tension from your free leg)

• Never lock your knees: Your standing leg knee is softly flexed (not locked) - this gives you better contact with the floor.

• 'Collection' - Thigh or ankle (as you prefer) connection as you walk

• Push off the floor as you walk - to make your walk more dynamic.

• Look forward as you walk (down diagonal is fine but don't look straight down at your feet as this distorts your posture.