The Manual of Tango
"Technical bases for all styles and levels"
About Julio Mariño
Julio Mariño is an Argentine tango dancer and teacher with 28 years of experience starting his career when tango resurfaced in the 90's to become the popular dance we know today. Born and raised in a family of engineers, he switched gears and dedicated himself to the art by dancing from the age of 15. Julio absorbed the techniques, traditions and essence of tango from a very young age. He was chosen as a dancer by the ACETA program funded by the Ministry of the Nation, to train and learn from the most important milongueros such as Portalea, Carlitos Perez, Toto, Horacio Godoy among many, many others, with the objective of transmitting the knowledge of these outstanding figures to future generations. In his 28 years of experience as a dancer he has gone through the styles of tango show, salon, new and milonguero. As a teacher committed to tango, Julio has developed a sequential, progressive and organic teaching method that prepares his students for all styles, because it is based on the very fundamentals of the dance, and his pedagogy aims to transmit these fundamentals by adapting his teaching to the individual needs of each student. But above all, Julio is passionate about promoting the most important aspect of tango; the emotional connection. Creating a comfortable and gentle embrace, and opening the hearts and minds of his students to connect deeply with other people is his main mission.
Since 2008 Julio was a pioneer in introducing tango from Northern and Eastern Europe to Russia, traveling twice a year and establishing a school in Ekaterinburg. As an experienced director, producer and choreographer, he introduced tango to many new people around the world. In 2013 Julio organized the first Eurasia Tango Festival including the first traditional tango and tango show competition, in addition to seminars, milongas and tango shows in the big milonga and in the theater, with the renowned Color Tango Orchestra. In 2021, after publishing the Manual de Tango, he received the support of the Ministry of Culture of the City of Buenos Aires (Metropolitan Fund for Culture, Arts and Sciences) to translate it into English so that this knowledge can reach people all over the world. Likewise, in 2021 it received another funding (PRODANZA) to produce audiovisual material related to the Tango Manual in order to disseminate its content through educational videos.
Teaching
"When I was just beginning to dance, the teachers used to show the figures and hope that we could copy them. This is how tango was taught. Today we can drastically speed up the learning process by understanding how the body works and how movements are created". JM
Due to his experience as a student, Julio developed his own teaching method aimed at achieving excellent technique in the most logical and effective way possible. His teaching is organised in a line of natural progression, so that the more advanced movements are not taught until the fundamental movements are correctly integrated. After all, we can't run before we learn to walk, can we? Your students gain a complete understanding of the technique, avoiding or eliminating vices and bad habits, allowing them to learn more advanced techniques in a simple way by applying the basic movements they already know. In this way students can gain a full understanding of how technique and tango movements are an interconnected language. This pedagogy is developed from an understanding of anatomy and the mechanics of body movement. Students will understand how movement works, how it is created, what muscles are involved and how it should feel, making tango feel more organic and natural. One of the focal points is Julio's ability to find the specific problems of each student. Sometimes it can be tension in the body, physical problems or simple confusion between technique and style. Julio takes care to provide each student with a clear and logical learning path based on their needs and difficulties. In addition to this, he teaches his students how to practice individually, with essential exercises in the development of tango. In his personalised style of teaching Julio works in parallel with the physical, emotional and psychological development within tango. Learning tango can be demanding, shocking and even frustrating. Julio adapts to the demands of each student. Time is often a key ingredient in learning tango! Dance in general, including tango, brings significant health benefits, but also some risks. Julio's teaching method aims to develop movement habits that protect your health, both in the spine, neck, shoulders, knees and feet. Today much of the discussion about tango in the world is about style. Julio's philosophy is to develop a strong technical foundation that allows students to make their own decisions about which style to choose based on a thorough understanding of tango techniques. The priority is to understand how the movement develops rather than how it looks. The style will then be a choice that can be made after having the necessary technical tools. Julio is an expert in teaching both social and professional dancers. He has trained and assisted many dancers and teachers as well as beginners and social dancers who simply wanted to develop their tango. Julio has taught teachers and holds special seminars for this purpose. His students teach all over the world and some have established their own schools.
Photos and videos
