Tango Is Not a Resolution. It’s a Practice.

Every January has a particular energy. 

Not the loud, champagne-soaked version of “New Year, New ME!!”—but the quieter aftermath, when the noise settles, and you’re left asking what actually deserves your time.

You don’t start Argentine Tango because you want to “get in shape,” fix yourself, or reinvent your personality in thirty days. People arrive at tango when something has shifted; when they’re ready for depth, presence, and a kind of focus that can’t be rushed.

Tango is not an end goal. It’s a practice.

A practice of listening, first and foremost to yourself, your own balance and timing, to music, to another person. Remembering, or maybe learning for the first time ever, how to ground yourself. A practice of learning how to walk and breathe, something that I am sure makes you snort and roll your eyes, but something that tango walk tests time and time again. 

A practice of returning, over and over again to the walk. To the embrace. To the breath.

This is why tango tends to find people at transitional moments. After a breakup. After a long stretch of putting themselves last. Or sometimes simply at the beginning of a year, when the old ways no longer quite fit and the new ones haven’t taken shape yet.

In tango, there’s no finish line. No graduation where you’re “done.” There’s only refinement, repetition, and discovery.

And contrary to what many beginners fear, you don’t need rhythm, coordination, a partner, or a background in dance to begin. Tango is not fast. It is not performative. It rewards curiosity far more than confidence, and patience far more than ambition.

What beginners actually need is rarely what they think they need.

They need patience and kindness for themselves. They need time to remember how to put themselves first and how to listen to another person at the same time. And most importantly, they need time to understand connection, which is so easily forgotten in today’s maddening world.

If tango has been quietly tapping you on the shoulder this January, consider listening. Not as a resolution to conquer, but as something to return to—weekly, imperfectly, honestly.

Happy New Year! To new beginnings.