The main institution that teaches "academic Tango" in Buenos Aires is what was formerly called IUNA (Instituto Universitario Nacional del Arte) and whose name was recently changed to UNA (Universidad Nacional de las Artes). That is the major university in Buenos Aires for the arts (music, visual arts, dance, etc.), and has a program that includes Tango within their dance division. It considers Tango pretty much as "another Argentine folk dance" albeit a special one, and while you can specialize to a smaller or larger extent in Tango vs. Folklore, it's clear from the syllabus at the link below that these are not the type of Tango classes that people on this list go to Buenos Aires to take.
http://formaciondocente.una.edu.ar/contenidos/473-profesorado-de-arte-en-danza-mencion-en-danzas-folkloricas-y-tango-plan-de-estudios I'd be curious to know if any of the well-known Tango dancers (current or former) were graduates of this program, and how much do they credit this program for their Tango education. But this article isn't really about UNA, but rather about another institution that exists in Buenos Aires, no doubt unbeknownst to most people on this list. It is one that is informally called (even by themselves) "La Universidad del Tango" but more officially "Centro Educativo de Tango Buenos Aires (CETBA)." It's the only recognized(?) educational institution entirely dedicated to the teaching of the Tango that I know of. But it's an odd beast with some self-contradictions. For example: 1. It isn't clear to what extent they have official recognition (whatever that means in the unregulated Tango environment), even as an educational establishment. They offer a 3-year program that seems to be similar to the UNA offering (combining pedagogy with theatre, make-up, theory, history, educational psychology, costumes and of course dancing). You can check out the curriculum here: http://cetba-uni.blogspot.com.ar/p/tango-danza.html 2. The well-known Rodolfo Dinzel (of "Los Dinzel" fame) seems to be one of the founders, and the "Dinzel Method" is featured prominently in the curriculum. So you may think this is a commercial venture to publicize the Dinzel method and the Dinzel Academy but no, Tango University is public and free (as all public universities are in Argentina)! Eric Dinzel (the son, I gather) seems to be the only Dinzel presence there. If it's not state-funded, it's not clear who's funding it. It's not a huge campus by any means, but it's a building, or at least part of one, with some land around it, staff and so on, and has a budget that would clearly need some non-trivial bill-footing. 3. It doesn't seem very mainstream. I found out about it only because an Argentine friend with whom I dance occasionally proudly announced to me one day that she was "going to Tango University" with the intention of completing their 3-year program, and seemed indeed to be going there for evening classes, and some daytime ones, several times a week. She was a pretty good dancer to start out with, but the only change I've noticed in her dancing since is an uncomfortable-to-me stiffness in her hold that precludes a close embrace. It's not for the better as far as I'm concerned, but no doubt comes from the performance focus of the curriculum. Since then, at least two others I've danced with who identified themselves as studying there have exhibited this same stiffness. 4. In addition to the 3-year certificate program, they have free classes open to the public in all sorts of aspects of Tango, including several on Tango music, a couple on other historical social dances that influenced the Tango, and so on. You can check out that list at http://cetba-uni.blogspot.com.ar/p/talleres-2012.html Perhaps I should go check it out one day. I did go once to check out a seminar on "PsicoTango" that I was invited to attend as I had volunteered to translate a section of the PsicoTango book, but that didn't leave me with any more clues on ... "The Strange Case of Tango University." Shahrukh _______________________________________________ Tango-L mailing list [email protected] http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/tango-l
