Amherst Area Tangueros,

Click HERE for our new site and updated info.

The Amherst College Tango Club Presents:

In collaboration with the Association of Amherst Students, The Peruvian Education Initiative, Dean of Student Activities, Social Council, Programming Board, the Alumni and Parent Program, and Northampton Tango 

The Amherst College Second Annual Tango Festival

 with live music by InfiniTango

and guest dance performances and classes

by Armando Orzuza, Nuria Martinez, & Joquin Canay of Argentina

& our own Daniel Trenner & Anna Fleischer

These events will benefit the Peruvian Education Initiative. 

Suggested Donation is $15 ($10 students and seniors) for the Milonga, plus $10 ($5 students and seniors) for each class attended. Of course any additional donation is welcomed, and of course donations are not obligatory… come, even if you cannot afford to make one. Donations will be collected for the Peruvian Education Initiative.

Friday, November 4

Morris Pratt Dormitory Ballroom

6-7 p.m. Experienced Dancer's lesson for club members.

7-8 p.m. Free Tango Lesson: Complete beginner's introduction to Tango (Perfect for Parents)

Tango is the mysterious and sensual dance of the city of Buenos Aires. Join the Amherst College Argentine Tango Club, their world famous coach - Daniel Trenner, his assistant Anna Fleicher, and their special guest teacher Joaquin Canay, of Argentina by way of Ithaca, NY, for a great introduction to the art of Tango. Have fun and be ready for our Fall Milonga Dance on Sat. Evening.  

Saturday, November 5

Morris Pratt Dormitory Ballroom

6-8 p.m.

Free Tango Lessons: Complete Beginner's Tango Lesson (Perfect for Parents)

Tango is the mysterious and sensual dance of the city of Buenos Aires. Join the Amherst College Argentine Tango Club, Joaquin Canay & Anna Fleischer in this friendly introduction to Argentine Tango. Have fun and be ready for our Fall Milonga Dance at the Friedmann Room at the Campus Center following these lessons. 

Saturday, November 5

The Friedmann Room, Keefe Campus Center

Our Second Annual Fall Milonga

Come join us for an evening of dance, performance and fun. 

A Milonga is both the name of a dance, and of the social gathering where we dance.

Doors open at 7:30pm.

8-9:30 PM Class for Experienced Dancers, Pre Milonga, by Armando and Nuria. Beginners are welcome to watch.

9 PM  Live Music by Infinitango

11PM Performances by Armando Orzuza and Nuria Martinez

Dancing until after 1 AM w DJ Joaquin

Between music sets there may be some additional readings and musical performances…

Feel free to dress to impress!

Admission is free, but please make a donation to the Peruvian Education Initiative if you can.

Light refreshments will be served.

Everyone is welcome. Bring your friends and family members!!!

Sunday, November 6

The Friedmann Room, Keefe Campus Center

Time to be determined.

Come and wrap up this amazing weekend of Tango dancing at Amherst college by attending our concluding advanced lesson by Joaquin Canay!

More information available:

e-mail Alex at ajaramillo12@amherst.edu

Or visit the following sites:

The Peruvian Education Initiative:   https://www.amherst.edu/campuslife/our-community/studentgroups/peruvian_education_initiative

Armando Orzuza and Nuria Martinez

Joaquin Canay

Infinitango

Northampton Tango

Daniel Trenner

Our semester schedule has been finalized. You will find it here: Amherst Tango Schedule. Please note that starting Friday September 23rd all lesson will take place at the Ballroom in Morris Pratt unless otherwise indicated.

From now on, the lesson will be divided in the following manner:

• 6-7pm Advanced lesson - For those with more experience
• 7-8pm Beginners' lesson - Everyone is welcome

The Argentine Tango Club would like to welcome all new and returning students. This Thursday September 1st we will have two orientation lessons at 1pm and 3pm in Webster Studio 2. Although this lesson is intended for new students, everyone including upperclassmen, faculty and staff are welcome to attend. 

Our regular Friday lessons will begin on September 9th at 6pm in the Ballroom of Morris Pratt. The 6-7pm will concentrate on the regular grammar of Tango while the 7-8pm block would concentrate on more advanced technique. The complete Calendar of events can be seen here: Fall 2011 Tango Calendar

We hope to see you soon!

The first lesson of the semester will be on Friday January 28th 6-8pm at the Morris Pratt Dorm Ballroom. Come and have fun!

For complete calendar of events visit: https://www.amherst.edu/campuslife/our-community/studentgroups/argentine_tango/lessons

Mark your Calendars! In Friday Feb 12th, the Worcester Polytechnic Institute will hold their annual Valentine's Day Milonga. This will be a event with great live music and wonderful live performances. The Amherst College Argentine Tango Club will take a van for interested members to attend this event. If you are interested in coming let us know! 

Donations from the event will go towards Abby's House, an organization which provides support for homeless and battered women and children.

This is the 2015 spring schedule! Please note that not all meetings and lessons are in Morris Pratt this semester. We have a few dates in James and the Friedmann Room. Our spring milonga is scheduled for 4/18 in the Friedmann Room.

Please click the link below for details on our numerous spring events! The PDF will open in your web browser.

With the Cooperation of the Mount Holyoke Dance Department & the 
NeoTangoZone (a coproduction of TangoPulse and Northampton Tango)

All of these events are FREE of charge, except the Practica on Sat night which is only $5!

Saturday, Dec 7th

4:30-6:30 at Kendall Gym Studio 2 (Mt Holyoke Dance Department)

Music Workshop with Mari Black, violin, and Tilly Kimm, Piano; of Orquesta Sin Trabajo

"Take It Apart and See How It Works: Tango Music from the Inside"
How often do you get to be up close and personal with live tango music? How often do you get to pick the musicians' brains and find out how they are creating that musical experience? Now's your chance to do both! Come join seasoned tango musicians and arrangers Mari and Tilly for a tour through the inner workings of tango music. No lofty musical jargon or long-winded theoretical explanations; instead, we'll use examples from our favorite Golden Age songs to investigate the underlying structures of the music and then explore the ways different musicians play within these structures to create different moods, colors, and stories -- what we all know as the "complexity" of tango. All levels of musical and/or dance experience welcome -- just bring your ears, your questions, and your curiosity as we dive into the layers of tango music!

7-10:30 PM TangoPulse Tango Practica at Studio Helix, 150 Main st. Northampton (moved from its usual Sunday time)

Sunday, Dec 8th

All 3 Sunday events at: Seelye Dorm Lounge, 129 South Pleasant Street, Amherst. At the NW corner of the junction of Rte. 9 and rt.116. Park on the Amherst Green!

12 Noon - 1:30 PM- Tango Beginners Dance Workshop with Carlos Moreno and Tilly Kim

This one insane move will completely change your tango

In this workshop, we’ll explore rhythms and techniques to spice up even the simplest moves. We’ll focus on a super-secret challenge move that will take your dancing to a new level (that sounds fake, but it isn’t).

1:30 PM - 3 PM Intermediate Workshop with Carlos and Tilly

Tango illusions: Sacadas and drags

There are at least 48 distinct sacadas and 36 simple drags (yikes!), all of which create a characteristic illusion of sparring with the feet. Using the basic tango turn as a foundation, we’ll explore just a few of these combinations.


6-10 PM Amherst Fall Milonga with Live music by Sin Trabajo and dance performances with Carlos and Tilly.

Come on out and have some fun with us!

Everyone who collaborated and attended the Spring 2012 Milonga,

On behalf of the Peruvian Education Initiative (PEI) and the Tango Club, we would like to thank everyone who helped make this a very successful weekend for Tango at Amherst College and the Pioneer Valley. This marked the second collaboration between PEI and the Tango club this year.

The Milonga was beautiful, and the entire weekend was- in our minds- a great success!There was a nice turnout and we raised over $600 in donations for PEI. The money we raised is enough to pay for a month and a half’s tuition for all three of our sponsored students in Peru.  So, really PEI and the Tango club cannot thank you enough for helping us in our mission to combat the cycle of poverty in Peru.

We had a great time planning and organizing the Milonga! We hope each of the attendees enjoyed it as much as we did! 

Thanks again for all your support,

Laura Zaccagnino '12 and Alex Jaramillo '12

"I have been dancing for almost as long as I have been walking.  No dance has impacted my life more profoundly than Argentine Tango.  This story begins at Amherst College in January of 2007 when I attended my first Argentine Tango class with Professor Daniel Trenner.  That February I transferred to a University in Connecticut but returned every Thursday through Sunday to attend Professor Trenner’s local classes on Thursday nights, Friday classes at Mount Holyoke, and Friday evening lessons at Amherst Tango Club.  The following semester I transferred to Umass Amherst.  Over the next four years I continued to take every series and an independent study offered by Professor Trenner at Mount Holyoke, Smith, and Amherst College.  During this time I assisted Professor Trenner in his highschool, university and local classes.  In the Spring of 2009 I co-taught my first tango class with two of Professor Trenner’s other assistants for a special event at Smith College.   

While living in western Massachusetts I encouraged several friends to take classes with Professor Trenner.  For many, tango continues to be a part of their lives.  Aine Banfield, Marie Broadway, and Guillermo Ortiz, for example, continued on to organize the Hampshire College Salsa Rueda and Tango Club.  The club has been going for two and a half semesters and participates in a dynamic collaboration with Amherst Tango Club. 

I have remained in touch with several of my classmates from Professor Trenner’s early classes including the very first intersession class at Amherst College.  I have danced with and visited with professor Trenner’s students in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Boston, Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, and Buenos Aires. 

I am currently a grad student at Columbia University and I am involved in the Columbia & Bard Tango Club.  After graduating from Umass in 2010 I continued to feel a strong connection to the social tango scene in Western Massachusetts.  I have returned for local monthly dances and special events including every Mount Holyoke College and Amherst College Milonga weekend.  Most recently I was in town for the Amherst College Milonga Weekend with Rebecca Shulman March 9-11, 2012.  While there I enjoyed seeing old friends, meeting new friends and networking with past and present Amherst students.  Through Professor Trenner’s Argentine Tango Classes myself and numerous other Five College alumni have formed a strong connection to both local and global tango communities.  

Professor Trenner’s Argentine Tango classes are an extremely valuable source of social, dance, technique, and performance opportunities. It has been wonderful to watch the Amherst Tango Club grow into such a flourishing community that serves so many five college students and teaches them skills that they can continue to use wherever life leads them next."

-Erica Roper, Five College and Alumni Member of the Amherst College Argentine Tango Club 2007- 2012

"The Argentine Tango Club was an essential part of my Amherst experience. As a bumbling UMass student welcomed into Amherst College society, I found solace in the kind group of dancers. A modest club with an uncertain future, I took it upon myself to help bring it to campus-wide success. A year and two semesters of Co-Chairing with my good friend Alexis Jaramillo later, with two Milongas under our belt, that success was realized to a degree that surprised even my wildest dreams. Since my depature to Boston a year ago, Alexis and his team - led by the kindhearted, fun, and extremely experienced instructor Daniel Trenner - have continued the tradition and built a name instantly recognized by the average Amherst student, countless Five-College friends, and many non-student dancers throughout the valley. 

 

But beyond all that, Tango was fun. I'm blessed to have been a part of the club. Thanks, guys."

 

- Kevin Lutz, Ex-Chairman