Pre-Intermediate Argentine Tango — Ultimate Tango School of Dance
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ACCESS THE SCHEDULE - REGISTER FOR YOUR CLASS!

Learn Tango as life philosophy
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PRE-INTERMEDIATE TANGO CLASSES

SUNDAYS 4 - 5:30pm
REGISTER HERE!
(SINGLE CLASS REGISTRATION - HERE)
Consider participating in SHORT SEQUENCES, TANGO LAB & PRACTICAS - Che Tango!, Chiquita, Journey.

The pre-intermediate level presents essential details and elements that are often considered 'common sense'. Things that seem obvious to Advance dancers but took years for them to master, secrets that you are supposed to know or somehow figure out on your own, are what you will learn in our pre-intermediate courses.

EACH PERSON MUST REGISTER SEPARATELY!

PLEASE NOTE: The pre-intermediate level consists of 4 series that keep rotating. You can take the series in any order. It is important though that you take them all.

LOCATION

All classes are held at 349 Washington St, Malden, MA 02148.

For those driving - plenty of FREE parking is available on the left side of the building.
For those using public transportation - 2 min walk from Oak Grove Orange Line stop.

 

PRE-INTERMEDIATE ARGENTINE TANGO COURSE

WHY PRE?
Pre-Intermediate

Once you dance Tango for a bit you start realizing that Tango is an extremely rich language of non-verbal communication. And just as with any language - the more you learn, the more you know, the more interesting it becomes.

 
 
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Behavioral 'curiosity'

If you ask any of the advanced students what level they are, they say proudly 'intermediate'. In fact, if you ask a teacher what level they consider themselves, they would also often answer: 'intermediate'. There is ALWAYS so much more to learn.

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Painless transition

The PRE-Intermediate course was born to smoothen the transition between Beginner and Intermediate levels and introduce all the missing but necessary tidbits of information that are required at higher levels. You are not a beginner anymore, but now you are sure you want the Tango.

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Can I skip Beginners?

You are ready for the pre-intermediate level if you already know all elements taught in the BEGINNER TANGO COURSE. Please make sure you read through the Beginner syllabus to reconfirm with yourself that you know it all.

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Our method

The material is precisely organized to allow maximum progress.

PLEASE NOTE: The levels are fluid. They are simply checkpoints. We will push you up if you don’t belong to this level. You don’t even have to ask. We are paying attention.

PRE-INTERMEDIATE ARGENTINE TANGO COURSE

What WILL
YOU Learn

The pre-intermediate level consists of 4 series that keep rotating. You can start at any moment and take the series in any order. It is important though that you take them all.

SERIES 4

Focus on musicality

MAY-JUNE 2025

The Fundamentals of Musicality

Discover the heartbeat of Tango and dance with the music, not just to it.

This immersive pre-intermediate Argentine Tango course is your gateway to understanding Tango musicality in a whole new way. If you’ve ever felt the beat but weren’t sure what to do with it, this is for you.

We’ll break down the essential tools that help dancers not only hear the music but truly respond to it. You’ll explore the rhythms and phrasing that make Argentine Tango such an expressive, emotional, and thrilling dance.

Through practical, feet-on-the-floor exercises, you’ll learn how to modify familiar sequences to reflect the music’s phrasing, so you don’t just follow choreography, you interpret it.

This course is about becoming a musical dancer:
One who listens, responds, and expresses.

You will learn:

🎵 Time, Double Time & Half Time - How to move faster, slower, or not at all - and why it matters.

🎵 1 vs. 3 – Discover why some beats carry more weight than others, and how to use them for dramatic effect.

🎵 Counting Tango Music - Should you count to 4, 8, or 16? You’ll find out what makes the most musical sense.

🎵 Off-Beat, Contratiempo & Syncopation - Learn to play against the beat and add texture to your dancing.

🎵 Pauses & Phrasing - When to pause, how to phrase your movement, and how to create tension and release.

🎵 Cadencia - Explore the natural rise and fall of Tango, and how it shapes your steps and your feeling.

SERIES 1

Focus on cross-system

SEPT-OCT 2025

Deciphering parallel and cross-system

A parallel system is when a partner’s left leg works in front of your right, and your partner’s right leg walks in front of your left. Cross-system allows the right leg to walk with the partner’s right leg and the left leg with the partner’s left leg. Everything is possible in tango!

The little twist of cross-system introduces an infinite amount of possibilities as a spatial relationship between partners is changed and modified by adding or suspending just one step.

Just walking in a parallel system gives 4-8 possibilities. Adding a cross-system generates an additional 4-8.

We will be deciphering parallel and cross-system. When and how does the system change, and what are the consequences. How to smoothly transition from one to the other. What figures become possible once the cross-system opens up for us.

By mastering cross-system, you are opening the door to never-ending possibilities. No other dance uses cross-system, opposition, and circular lead to that extent. Welcome to the secret world of Tango.

READ MORE HERE

You will learn:

*Understanding the difference between parallel and cross-system.

*Getting into cross-system: weight change, additional step, or suspension.

*Leading self versus leading your Follower.

*Walking outside partner left, outside partner right, and transition between the two (all in cross-system).

*Back crosses and forward crosses during the caminata/walk.

*Basic to the cross in cross-system.

*Sample variations and modifications of basic to the cross.

*Baldoza in cross-system. Possibilities.

*Musicality: double time.

SERIES 2

Focus on ochos and pivots

NOVEMBER - DECEMBER 2025

CROSS versus OCHO
PIVOT versus TURN

We will be learning about pivoting action, forward and back rotations, and torsions – how to distinguish between them, when to use them and how to execute them.

This is the course that makes all the difference in the world in your understanding of all the tango moves. Rotations, pivoting, spiral, isolation, decoupling, and delay in the movement are all the topics that even most advanced dancers work on and struggle with all the time.

Take the time know to understand them to save yourself hours and hours of trouble later. Welcome to the secret world of Tango. The doors are ajar.

You will learn:

*Cross versus ocho – what’s the difference.

*Forward and back crosses, and ochos.

*Opposition and spiral movement

*Pivot and axis of pivot

*Difference between contra body movement and spiral

*Simultaneous ochos

*Isolating Lead from Follow

*Ocho cortado

SERIES 3

Focus on molinete

JANUARY - FEBRUARY 2026

PLEASE NOTE that this class is held at
349 Washington St, Malden, MA 02148

The basic structure of Tango language

Molinete and its mantra-like repetitiveness create a basic structure for Tango language and all tango steps. You may hear it being called the code of walking or the code of Tango.

You want to be sure you know and understand the difference between open and cross step and you can recite in your sleep the mantra of back - forward - side - back - side - forward - side, from any starting point forward and backward.

Weight change plus 3 directions on each leg plus 2 pivots on each leg are the basic structural element of Tango and the absolute necessity for improvisation. This series will help you out with controlling the precise direction and distance/length of the steps as well as the amount of pivot.

Deciphering connection, making lead, and follow more clear and precise that’s our goal for this series.

You will learn:

*Open step versus cross step.

*Difference in leading weight change and side-step.

*Consequences of replacing weight change with the side-step.

*Leading continuous side step – is it possible?

*Isolating lead from Leader’s step.

*Forward-Side-Back – Tango mantra.

*Adding pivot to each direction – possibilities.

*Mixing directions in any possible configuration as an intro to improvisation.

PRICING

In-Person Course

$99 / per person - 8 weeks course

AFTER PRE-INTERMEDIATE ARGENTINE TANGO COURSE

HOW WILL
YOU LOOK?

Pre-Intermediate students improvising after completing 3 series of Pre-Intermediate Argentine Tango course.