About us

May we tell you a little about Argen (David) and Tina (Liz) and the Tango Tribe philosophy?

Tango Tribe

Tango Tribe is an idea and a website.

It was also a dance studio during the years 2017 to 2020. With the lease ending during the COVID-19 pandemic, we closed the studio and began work on this course.

Tango Tribe is based on the idea that we improve our dance and our life experiences by sharing. Different styles of Argentine Tango and altogether different styles of dance enrich our own dance. Our understanding of Argentine Tango can enrich other dance styles and movement arts. In the world's cultures, sharing knowledge and culture enriches us all.

The Tango Tribe website is where we share our enthusiasm plus some knowledge and experience of good practices in dance, Argentine tango, learning, teaching, and coaching.

Video and transcript

English transcript

- Hola, friends. Please allow us to take a few moments to introduce ourselves. We thought it'd be nice. We've been spending all this time and you might learn a little bit about us personally. My IRL name, in real life, is David.

- And I'm Liz.

- I come from a background of computer entrepreneurship, hardware, software networking, and mostly software development which is putting together different ideas and making them all work as a whole. I loved it. I still love it. It's an opportunity to explore and learn, and things are always changing at an incredible pace. I always said, “It's a wonderful field to be in “if you like change and learning.” And I feel the same way about Argentine tango. It was such a challenge to learn it, when I first was introduced to it. And then to try to decide, what is the system? What is it behind it that makes this dance work?

- I started actually teaching dance in 1999 and then was just doing ballroom and country and swing, doing all the partner dances, and then in 2004, I was introduced to Argentine tango from my instructor and just absolutely fell in love with the dance, fell in love with the improvisational nature, quite frankly, the complexity of the dance and the difficulty of the dance. It's one of the most subtle, but yet communicative dances I think out there. And I just fell in love with the actual challenge of the dance itself and has been doing it ever since.

- My dance background started back in the 80s when my wife got an introductory lesson to a Fred Astaire Studio and that first step to the music, I just fell in love. And we did everything, all the smooth dances and rhythm dances and swing dances. And then following that, I did a little bit of everything, from even belly dance. But then I was so busy with work, I had a long period where I wasn't dancing and when I retired, I returned to dance. I was doing something different every night of the week and Argentine tango for the first time. After the first year, it was tango every night of the week, because that was the dance that captured me. I like to say, “If I had started with Argentine tango, “all my other dances would've been so much better.” But if I'd started with the tango, I probably never would've learned all those other dances.

- You are correct. You probably would not have. And so when the pandemic came, much like all of you guys probably felt, we also missed our love and our craft and working together. And when David brought all of his experience of all of the new things and new ideas and creations, and told me he wanted to apply it to the act of learning Argentine tango, I was intrigued. I was absolutely on board. And you're seeing the culmination of lots of outside training, lots of different modalities and different ideas and studies and just your education in lots of different arenas really coming together and getting applied to the dance itself, which I think is pretty cool.

- Well, thank you. I am so grateful to Liz for joining this project with so much energy and enthusiasm. Where I am driven by the next new thing and flights of fancy and learning, Liz has that too, but she also has focus and drive. So she worked to make this project a reality, taking all of the ideas and making them something real. Thank you.

- Oh, my little butterfly. Yes. It's been my pleasure. And we really hope that you guys have enjoyed our time together as much as we have enjoyed creating this learning system for you.

- Thank you.

- Yes. And we have exciting things to come for you in step two, so we look forward to seeing you then. And just like always, until then.

- Abrazos.

Transcripción en español

- Material final. Sobre nosotros.

- Hola, amigos. Dennos un momento para presentarnos. Pensamos que eso sería bueno. Hemos estado pasando todo este tiempo y será mejor que sepan algo sobre notros. Mi nombre en la vida real es David.

- Y yo soy Liz.

- Tengo un trasfondo en emprendimiento informático, hardware, redes de software, y principalmente desarrollo de software que se trata juntar diferentes ideas y hacer que todas funcionen como un todo. Me encantó. Todavía me encanta. Es una oportunidad para explorar y aprender y las cosas siempre están cambiando a un ritmo increíble. Siempre decía: “Es un campo maravilloso si te gusta el cambio y el aprendizaje.” Y siento lo mismo por el tango argentino. Fue un gran desafío aprenderlo cuando lo conocí por primera vez. Y luego tratar de decidir cuál era el sistema. ¿Qué hay detrás que hace que esta danza funcione?

- Empecé a enseñar danza en 1999. y solo hacía baile de salón, country y swing, todos los bailes en pareja y luego, en el 2004, conocí el tango argentino gracias a mi instructor y simplemente me enamoré del baile. Me enamoré de su naturaleza improvisadora, de la complejidad de la danza y la dificultad del baile. Creo que es uno los bailes más sutiles pero comunicativos que existen. Y simplemente me enamoré del desafío del baile en sí y lo he estado practicando desde entonces.

- Mi formación en danza comenzó en los años 80 cuando mi esposa recibió una lección introductoria en el Fred Astaire Studio y simplemente me enamoré de ese primer paso a la música. E hicimos de todo, todos los bailes suaves y los rítmicos y los de swing. Y luego, después de eso, hice un poco de todo, incluso danza del vientre. Pero estaba muy ocupado con el trabajo y no bailé durante mucho tiempo y cuando me jubilé regresé a la danza. Cada noche hacía algo diferente, y por primera vez, tango argentino. Después del primer año, todas las noches era tango porque ese fue el baile que me cautivó. Me gusta decir: “Si hubiera comenzado con el tango argentino, el resto de mis bailes habrían sido mucho mejores”. Pero si hubiera empezado con el tango, quizás nunca hubiera aprendido los demás bailes.

- Estás en lo cierto. Probablemente no lo habrías hecho. Y así, cuando llegó la pandemia, al igual que muchos de ustedes quizás se sintieron, también extrañamos nuestro amor, nuestro oficio y trabajar juntos. Y cuando David trajo toda su experiencia de todas las cosas nuevas, sus ideas y creaciones nuevas y me dijo que lo quería aplicar al acto de aprender tango argentino, me intrigó. Estaba totalmente de acuerdo. Y están viendo la culminación de mucho entrenamiento externo, muchas modalidades, ideas y estudios diferentes y tu educación en muchos campos diferentes reunidos y siendo aplicados al baile en sí, lo que creo que es genial.

- Bueno, gracias. Estoy muy agradecido con Liz por unirse a este proyecto con tanta energía y entusiasmo. Me impulsan las cosas por venir y los vuelos de fantasía y aprendizaje, Liz también tiene eso, pero también tiene enfoque y motivación así que trabajó para hacer realidad este proyecto, tomando todas las ideas y convirtiéndolas en algo real. Gracias.

- Ay, mi pequeña mariposa. Sí. Ha sido un placer. Y realmente esperamos que ustedes hayan disfrutado nuestro tiempo juntos tanto como nosotros hemos disfrutado crear este sistema de aprendizaje para ustedes.

- Gracias.

- Sí. Y habrá cosas emocionantes para ustedes en el paso dos, así que esperamos verlos ahí. Y como siempre, hasta entonces.

- Abrazos.

David Phillips

Hi, I'm David, and my game name is “Argen”.

One summer ages ago, my mother wanted to learn how to knit, so she checked out a book on it from the library. But she just couldn't understand it, so I read it and then taught it to her. I always love to learn and share what I've learned.

I was deep into a career in computer technology when I was introduced to ballroom dance in the early 1980s. I loved it immediately and found it a welcome break from the stresses of an entrepreneur. I've danced a lot of Smooth, Latin, and Swing dances. Plus, non-ballroom, partner and non-partner dances, and even Belly dance. Everything from Argentine tango to Zouk.

When I retired, I returned to my love of dance, too long neglected for the demands of business. That first year it was a different dance every night of the week, including starting Argentine tango. After that first year, it became Argentine tango every night of the week.

Struck by the challenges of the dance – physical, mental, and emotional, I began studying not just the dance itself, but also mind-body connection, teaching methodologies, learning strategies, sports coaching, and more.

My studies of Argentine Tango have included these specific teacher training courses:

Tomás Howlin, Tango-Learning 1 and 2, 2014, 2015
Minnesota Tango Teacher Camp, 2014, 2016
DanceAbility International Teacher Certification 2015
Caminar Abrazados International Tango Teacher Training in Saarbrücken, Germany 2016-2017
ProDVIDA Bronze, Silver, Gold, and Platinum with High Honors 2016-2017 (with Liz!)

I love teaching. It stimulates my creativity to reach students in ways that speak to them. It stimulates creativity in my own dance. I feel that we don’t learn deeply until we teach ourselves. I hope to guide students and now players of the Game of Argentine Tango through experiences, experiments, ways of thinking, imagery, modeling, and more—as well as dancing, of course.

Liz Diana

I am Liz, and my game name is “Tina.”

I am an introvert who somehow, in 1999, wound up dedicating my professional life to the super-extroverted role of dance instructor.

I taught all the ballroom, Latin, and swing dances, and for the past ten years, I have concentrated on teaching the Argentine tango. Along the way, I could use my business management degree for studio management, including my own studio at one time.

I love to dance. It brings me happiness and a sense of accomplishment. The teaching adds to my joy! From Day One, as a little kid, each day coming home from school, I lined up my stuffed animals on the fireplace hearth and taught them everything that I had learned that day.

My business management side is a nice counterbalance and support for what I've wanted to accomplish on the artistic dance side.

When I dance the Argentine tango, it benefits from my drive to plan, work hard, and achieve results. At the same time, it takes me on a moving meditation, away from real-world concerns. In dance, there is surrender to the music and the partnership, balanced against our initiative to respond with individual contributions.

Thank you!

We are grateful for this opportunity to share our love for dance, the Argentine tango, learning, and relating to others in positive ways.

the Game of Argentine Tango

Everything is a range of possibilities