An unfailing curiosity,
Kati & Tiha's charming and sparkling look and make them a talented and endearing tango teacher partnership.
Without forgetting a sense of optimism and artistic experimentation.
Welcome to their tango world!
What is your background?
Kati: I come from Ózd a city in the north of Hungary, but I studied in Budapest. Today I am a teacher and I help children and adults who have motor and brain problems. This is also known as the “Petö Method”, named after its inventor, a Hungarian in the 1940s. This method aims to allow a child with a motor disability to develop their functional autonomy. I worked in Stockholm as a “Conductor"for 15 years. Now I live in Budapest.
Tiha: Kati and I worked in the same institute in Sweden. I also worked as a masseur and assisted the “Conductors”.
How did your interest in dance and tango start?
Tiha: I have always been attracted to dance, but I could not practice any of it without taking lessons. Kati and I started learning in 2001, and it became more serious the following year. There was 1 important festival in Sweden - “Tango Camp”- with very good tango dancers and teachers. It was a shock to see and meet them. This became obvious.
Kati: I had always been interested in dance and I started learning flamenco during my college years. When we started our life in Sweden, I had to give up this dance but there was a tango association not too far away and we decided to join. It was also a way to get to join the Swedish community at the age when we were 25 years old. This workshop was also an opportunity to realize what this learning meant if we wanted to reach a good level: not only attend the course but also carry out exercises and practice a lot.
As for example when we went to tango festivals, we took all the lessons as possible. It was a chance to progress.
What about tango music?
Tiha: I started to appreciate this music - thanks to a friend of mine (Roby) who - when he knew that I was starting to dance tango, gave me a record of Richard Galliano playing Astor Piazzolla. That impressed me. And then I went to a store and ordered all the Astor Piazzolla CDs. It took several weeks to receive it and I was very excited. I already had the idea of dancing without being able to get started but I thought that the combination of music and dance must be something very strong.
It was during this famous “Tango Camp” festival in Sweden that this passion was confirmed. Then with the meeting of a couple of Belgian teachers, Vincent Morelle & Maryline Lefor who became our most important teacher. We followed a lot of lessons with them. This music came to our life not that of traditional tango but that of Piazzola's modern one.
Kati: It was the time when Piazzola and post-Piazzolla tango was booming.
Tango was more alternative and even the musical structure of the balls (tanda-cortina) was not always usual. I gradually discovered more traditional music - for example Carlos Di Sarli -and tried to understand this whole universe and the importance of the culture and the history of this music, of the orchestras… This happened in the years 2003.
How did you do to progress in your tango and reach a professional level, as a dancer and teacher?
Tiha: We traveled a lot to take new classes. For example, in Berlin but also during festivals, in Luxembourg, Stockholm, Brussels... During Tango weekends we could dance 10 hours a day during classes and milongas. This took up all our time and our budget as well. It was very intense, but it was our way of experiencing it. It was never a question of whether we wanted to experience this. At the same time being a tango teacher has never been a goal.
So how did it happen in this case?
Kati: It's more people around us who asked us how to do this or that figure, hold this or that posture. We also thought that if we could earn a little money just to be able to pay for everything we have invested financially in this activity it would be a perfect compromise. I danced flamenco and tango when I arrived in Sweden, but I had to make a choice because the two activities took too much time. I chose tango for the social life that we find in milongas, and which does not exist in flamenco.
Tiha: What interests me is not necessarily doing better, dancing better, being the best. It’s more about understanding tango better. It is the role of a teacher to be a tool of understanding for his students. This is what teachers like Vincent Maurelle & Maryline Lefor, Chicho Frumboli or Gustavo Naveira made us understand and which in a certain way we perpetuate in our teaching.
Kati, you explained me that you gave up flamenco for tango. In your case, have you not felt a loss of freedom when going from a dance where you express feelings in movements by yourself that you decide to a dance where you depend on a partner?
Kati: Flamenco is a dance linked to an individual performance. Except in Andalusia where it can be danced socially, this is not the case elsewhere. This notion of freedom that you mention does not exist without being defined in a framework. Our body defines us and constrains us: we must eat, sleep… and move.
For me tango is freedom. It’s the connection that makes this possible. This feeling of freedom depends on my partner, his level of dancing, and the attention that me and my partner give to each other.
Tiha: It’s a question of polarity. How information circulates in the tango couple during the dance. The intensity of this information may be very different depending on partners.
Kati: I like how Tiha talks to our students about this notion of polarity: if there is a leader with high intensity, he needs a follower with the same intensity for it to work. The role of the follower is also the one who inspires the continuation of a movement. It is also a way through your body to be understood by the person who will give the impulse. It's a great satisfaction when you succeed in influencing your partner's dance and when you finally say to yourself: “that's it, he understood me because he adapts to who I am with the information I give him”.
When you returned to Hungary, how was the tango scene in Budapest?
Tiha: In Stockholm, we already led our dance studio. We had kept in touch with the main tango communities in Budapest. This is why in 2013 we had the opportunity to work with Andrea Pirity & Laszlo Budaï starting the “BTC school” (Budaï Tango Club) together. Then after about 3 years, we joined the “Tango Factory” with Gabor Novak. Unfortunately, this place was sold, and we had to find another location. So we created our own danse studio where we are still.
Kati: A this time not very few structured schools existed, particularly because of real estate price. Everyone tried to rent places or rooms in spaces dedicated to dance, but this did not create a community. Today there are more spaces with better established places which ensure continuity in the teaching and practicing of tango dancing. Without that, it’s very difficult when you have new ideas to find suitable places.
Tiha: Today we teach mainly here and much less in Sweden which is perfect for our animals, dogs, and cats that we also take care of! You can live in tango and teach it and have a regular life: it is something I wouldn’t have imagined 20 years ago!
As a teacher, what would be your advice for a beginner?
Tiha: Work and watch less tango videos!
Kati: The difficulty in tango begins when students do not understand the amount of work necessary to put into practice before getting something out of it. Anyone can do it, but it takes a lot of work to achieve it. What a teacher can provide are tools. Then it’s up to everyone to make them their own to make something that suits them. Unfortunately, this is what people sometimes forget when watching videos while trying to copy. Even in the way of dressing we sometimes find people wearing the same clothes, the same beard... same thing for female dancers.
Tiha: Students need to understand is that if you learn tango or even anything else, it makes you change. So, the goal is not to stay the same person but to desire this change. If not, then it's just a repetition of what you already are. It's cosmetic. Some people may not realize this when they start tango. In most cases these changes are positive. But basically, they must want – they must accept – that they are going to change.
Kati: Last advice for learners: be curious and maintain your curiosity. It happens that people after a few years of practice think they have found their tango. If they conform to this without looking further, without looking for something else then they will close themselves off and no longer open to anything else that they do not yet know.
Are you implying that tango is also a form of change therapy?
Kati: Yes, it can be but above all learning is a questioning of oneself, of what one really can. “I want to go take lessons, but I don't want to make an effort” ... “It's too difficult and I haven't had the positive feedback I expected during my learning…” or “I haven't been able to dance with the people with which I wanted because they didn't want...” As a learner this is also what we must face to change attitude.
Tiha: What defines your own success is the sum of the difficulties you face to achieve it: efforts, resistance, failures…
Are there particular words to describe your teaching?
Tiha: I believe it is our ability to adapt to our students. We have so many tools that we can implement to help people change.
As someone who has lived abroad for a very long time, do you think there is something special about tango attitude to Hungarian dancers.
Kati: I think so, but it’s mainly the fact of being Hungarian that makes it different. We feel that people are more stressed in Hungary. I have the impression that there is greater sadness than elsewhere, and ultimately greater difficulty in taking pleasure, including in learning. This is what I noticed compared to other countries where I was able to teach.
Tiha: This is what I would call Hungarian anxiety.
Kati: I also think that there is something linked to the place of Hungarian women in tango. As a follower they do not want to show off, refusing to feel equal to their partner and ultimately behaving a little in a self-effacing manner. How to showcase yourself, no longer be passive? what attitude should you have during a milonga to attract an invitation? You must take it like a game and therefore it is also a learning experience to learn how to play it. This has to do with Hungarian society and the traditional codified role of women. The place of women – and their equality – is still an important issue in Hungary.
Any plans?
Kati & Tiha: We already provide our teaching, organize tango camps as well and the milonga (Milonga Dió) we host each Monday. It is towards improvisation theater that we will invest more in the future with numerous scheduled performances. We started tango at a time when it was still underground. It is with the same state of mind that we also approach improvisation theater now.