Today marks 10 years since teaching our first class as Urban Tango Nights!
A lot has happened in those 10 years…
We started out with a just Friday evening class in Ice Bar on Wind Street…
Now we run two classes a week in the Talesin, a monthly workshop and milonga in Machen, with two international festivals, plus other special workshops, events, performing and guest teaching throughout the year.
We’re really happy to have started so many people on their tango and dancing journey, by holding fun and friendly classes and also running numerous Tango in a Day Courses and Six Week Beginners courses. We also love all those who have been regulars over the years. We want to thank everyone who’s been to any of our classes and events over the past 10 years, we wouldn’t be here without you!
We are super proud of our amazing teaching team, which now numbers 6! They have been amazing over the years teaching in classes and helping us run events. Huge thanks to Sarah-Jane, Tara, Ben and Amelia.
We would like to say thank you to John for passing on the baton to us back in 2016 and allowing us to be part of the history of tango in Swansea. We would also like to thank all the venues we have been resident in over the years, and those who hosted our events.
We have achieved a huge amount over the past 10 years, even with a pandemic in the middle!
We’ve guest taught and DJ’ed around the UK, from Skipton in the north to the Isle of Wight in the south and lots of places in between. Plus we’ve gone international, DJing in Germany. We’ve loved connecting with people in all the places we’ve taught, DJ’ed and danced in, and we’re glad to have formed partnerships with other tango clubs to begin workshop and DJ exchanges so lots of tango communities can benefit from new experiences and learning. Thank you to everyone who has invited us to teach or DJ in their community.
We started off hosting monthly guest teacher workshops, then added live music, then we stumbled into running festivals! So far we have brought you seven Welsh International Tango Festivals, starting out as a Festive Extravaganza, and we’re looking forward to the eighth edition this year. Two Tango Nuevo Festivals, starting out as a Nuevo Weekender, with a third this August. We’ve had two Spring Festivals, and two Welsh Tango Showcases. We held a film premier in 2019 of Secret Tango Stories. We have also run Teastyles and Freestyle Revolutions to bring dancers of different styles together. We have also had our Create Milonga’s in Swansea, and workshops and Milonga’s in Machen. Thank you to all the amazing teachers, musicians, DJs, stall holders, caterers and attendees who have been part of our events, you make them the amazing events they are.
We have also run and been part of so many charity events. We did a lot of work with Discovery, a charity based at Swansea University, donating proceeds from our Peppermint classes and also the proceeds from our two Freestyle Revolutions which brought together numerous dance schools to showcase their dance styles and enjoy a day of dance. We’ve also done performances at a Discovery Valentines lunch for seniors, charity dance nights, and the Bellydance-a-thon with Fat Chance Belly Dance. We’ve also been on Swansea Bay TV to promote the charity events we’ve been involved with.
We have also jointly produced a number of concerts at Lower Machen Church, having amazing tango bands playing their music in an equally amazing venue, with tango performances, and attendees dancing in the aisle.
We have been lucky enough to dance in some fabulous Swansea venues. We performed at numerous salsa nights in Swansea including in the Brangwyn Hall and the top of the Meridian Tower. We are also pleased to have been invited to perform Tango for the Iberian & Latin American Society of Wales IberoLatinXpression project showcase three times, including in the Swansea Grand Theatre Arts Wing and the Glyn Vivian Art Gallery, and also for the Platinum Jubilee International Celebration of Food in Llanelli. We have even performed outside in the Marina Market and the Swansea Learning Festival. We’ve done taster workshops and performances at Swansea Arts Weekend, the Swansea Carers Centre and also at a WI Argentina event. We also taught Chacarera to school children, and performed some Tango demo’s as part of their learning about Argentina and Patagonia. We also worked collaboratively with the Swansea University Musicians Society to run an introduction to Tango workshop for the musicians, followed by dancing to music performed by the students.
Thank you to all those who have invited us to teach or perform for you, we love bringing tango to you.
As we said earlier we had a pandemic in the middle of our ten years but we taught all the way through COVID online and kept our community dancing; running weekly classes and connecting with dancers outside Wales who wouldn’t normally be able to attend our classes. We also held two online Come Together Milonga’s with guest teaching and live music and two Create Milonga’s. We also ran hybrid classes and in person meet ups when the rules allowed. Chris also joined the team at NeoTangoTV DJing online. Thank you to those who joined us during COVID, we felt proud of being able to offer a space to dance and connect in a very strange time.
We’ve also attended many events as dancers around the UK, and taken members of our class along with us as part of Tawe Tango Travels. Opening up our members to different experiences dancing in other communities. We have also had social events with our dancers down on the beach, out for dinner, and to the theatre to watch Tango Passions at the Swansea Grand Theatre.
Thank you to everyone who has joined or supported us over the past ten years, we really appreciate it, and we look forward to the next ten!
Chris & Alison
Urban Tango Nights 