Tango E14 is a chance for people to get together to develop and improve their Tango skills. It is run by Tony Lane who has been learning and dancing Tango for twenty years and is still learning.  He has taught in the UK, China, New Zealand and other countries.

Assisting is Anita van de Watering, a trained teacher of dance, who brings her sound physical knowledge and discipline to the group.

Tango is a journey of exploration. You never stop discovering, but it is helpful to get to a point where it is enjoyable for both partners. From then on Tango can be developed as much or as little, as quickly or as leisurely as suits each person for the rest of their life.

Tango is not just sequences of choreographed movements danced by highly skilled dancers, it is a language of communication that can be enjoyed by anyone. So we learn how to transmit and receive information through our embrace, connection, movement and rhythms, and to pay full attention to each other. In simple words, we learn to lead and follow. Some dancers like to reverse roles to enable them to better understand that process, but in any case, a good leader should know how to ‘invite the follower to move and then follow that movement’.

We learn to dance in couples, together to the music, in the space available, whilst at the same time respecting the other dancers.  We cannot have fixed choreography, so we have to learn to improvise early on. We encourage our students to go to a variety of Tango activities. To understand how to dance Argentine Tango you have to dance Argentine Tango. The more you listen to the music and learn to immerse yourself in it, and focus on your partner and yourself and the actions and reactions you can achieve together and can do that socially in a crowded room of other dancers, the better you can get. There are many teachers, many styles, and many ideas, but sooner or later you have to find your own ‘Tango’. This takes a long time. Going to different teachers and different milonga’s is definitely worthwhile, and there are lots of opportunities in London.

We can’t list them all here, but ‘Queer Tango’ on Mondays nights, ‘Tango Terra’ on Thursday nights, Social Corrientes on every other Saturday evening are just a few of those worth mentioning. ‘Tango E14’ on Saturday afternoons aims to provide friendly, comfortable, economical, accessible and affordable opportunities to share and develop your Tango skills and understanding. At £7 for a normal afternoon, or £15 with a visiting teacher we are very good value. Occasionally there are special Tango Festivals in London with well known Argentinian Teachers or World Champions. Such festivals are interesting and worth going to once for the experience, but they are usually rather expensive. Eventually, most people realise that show dancing or competitive dancing is quite different to social dancing. After all, is said and done you have to just do it; you have to put the time into it. Just remember  Social Dancing Argentinian Tango is not a blood sport. Nobody has to get hurt. Nobody needs to feel they are winners or losers.