Siempre Tango Ottawa, established in 1999, is Ottawa’s first and longest-running Argentine Tango school. We are devoted to teaching and spreading the word about social Argentine Tango in Ottawa and Gatineau.
NEWS: Tomás Howlin (Montreal / Buenos Aires) will be visiting Ottawa for 2 weekends, April 30-May 1 and May 7-8. Workshops, a special presentation, and a special edition of La Capital… come join us! You can see the schedule and the registration form HERE.
Are you interested in finding out about our upcoming classes and events?
Keep scrolling down to see our upcoming Weekly Classes!
The Latest News: Review and Study Sessions for Tomás’ Workshops will take place on May 5 and 12. Fustrated with forgetting workshop content? Let’s change that! If you weren’t able to come the workshops because you have obligations or because you got sick, catch up with us!
How does a lab differ from a class? Students will tackle different concepts from different angles and perspectives, and they will have time to practice rather than just absorb information passively. This class will be a mix of technique, figures, and musicality. There will be a lot of talk and experimentation between students as they figure out this thing we call leading and following.
If you can attend only one tango class a week, make it this one.
This class is for you if you are a complete beginner to tango or you have not danced for many years.
You’ll learn:
about creating a great tango embrace,
your first figures,
a brief bit about the history of tango and its cultural context,
and how to be a good tango citizen!
The two hours will be split into learning time (explanations, demos) and practicing (and learning how to practice for retention). All students will learn both roles from the beginning.
Venue: 61 Main Street
Price: $80 per person for 4 classes. As this is a progressive class, no drop-ins.
We are offering a 10% discount on this beginner series to anyone who living in Centretown, specifically to those living in the Red Zone. As a Centretown resident in the middle of everything, I know how difficult the February 2022 occupation was for many people. It was amazing to see the sense of fight and mutual support that the Ottawa community showed. THESE are the people I want to see in our tango community!
Tango 103 Sundays from 6 to 7:15 PM, May 29, June 5, 12, 19
Prerequisite: Tango 101 and 102
In this class you will continue to develop your social tango skills!
You’ll learn:
how to create pivots for ochos,
how to catch your partner’s feet to create paradas (stops),
simple musicality for tango.
Your class fees include entrance to the Sunday Práctica, so you can stay and practice what you have learned.
If there is space in Tango 101, and you would like to take Tango 101 again, you can do so for free!
Venue: 61 Main Street
Price: $100 per person for 4 classes. As this is a progressive class, no drop-ins.
By popular demand, I am creating a progressive class for intermediate dancers. This will take place on an uninterrupted stretch of Thursdays!
The content will be progressive in nature and there will be more of a traditional class format for the first 45 minutes. The latter part of class will be more of a Lab.
We’ve covered a lot of ground during Tango Lab, but the Improver Series will be an opportunity to fill in some holes in your knowledge when it comes to social tango. The embrace, lead and follow, walking technique, pivots, turns, and musicality will all be addressed, as these are the issues that make the most difference for dancers of all levels.
This class is open to advanced beginners and up! If you have not danced in a while, this is an especially good choice for you. If you are learning the opposite role, this is a good choice for you, too!
Venue: 2 Daly Avenue
Price: $100 per person for 5-class series. Drop-ins ($25) allowed only at the teacher’s discretion.
Francis Caron established Siempre Tango in 1999, as Ottawa’s first school dedicated exclusively to Argentine Tango. Over the next 20 years, he and his wife brigitte, with the help of a growing teaching team, would grow the Ottawa tango community into a thriving presence in the local social dance scene.
When Francis and brigitte decided to leave Ottawa in 2019, they bestowed Siempre Tango to Jewel and her teammates.
As the current team navigates the later stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, we continue Siempre Tango’s legacy of bringing people to tango and bringing the best of tango to Ottawa, Gatineau, and the National Capital Region.
Team Members
Jewel Aldea (Team Leader)
Jewel grew up playing tennis, eventually playing at the Division I level. She left tennis to commit to her studies, so when Argentine Tango found her in 2006, she found a place for her inner drive to run wild. She had some years of intense learning, some of not dancing, but always continued learning about tango music.
Jewel started taking classes at Siempre Tango whem she moved to Ottawa in 2015. She began teaching in 2016, working intensively with Francis Caron in both tango and the Alexander Technique. She found that establishing deeply efficient and pleasurable movement habits leaves one free to enter the flow state that lies at the heart of joyful improvisation. Her classes emphasise the physical techinque needed to explore tango’s leading and following, and ways to navigate mental “game” of tango.
As a dancer, Jewel is well-known for her playful musicality. She gladly dances both roles.
Marcel Laurin
Marcel is a dynamic dancer who is credited with being one of the founders of Ottawa’s tango community. After learning ballroom and club salsa, he started learning Argentine Tango in 1997, traveling to Montreal for classes. He and his late wife Daniele Lacroix started teaching in Ottawa and brought in well-known teachers to give workshops for the small-but-growing tango community. Once Francis Caron moved to Ottawa and established Siempre Tango, he asked Marcel if he wanted to join the team, and, as Marcel puts it, “Here we are, just a ‘few’ years later!”
Tiniko Natsvlichvili
Tiniko started Argentine Tango in Ottawa in 2010 and was hooked immediately. She immersed herself by taking local classes and attending tango events in North America, Europe, and Argentina. She began organising locally in 2014, and then moved to Buffalo, NY, organising events there for 4 years before returning to Ottawa. Her most well-known event was the annual ESO! Buffalo Tango Marathon, which brought 200 people together over a weekend to celebrate tango. Tiniko’s been teaching since 2015, and joined the Siempre Tango team in 2019. In her classes, she focuses on applying students’ natural movement, which best allows them to express themselves through tango, and she addresses creativity, musicality, technique, and connection to oneself, one’s partner, and the social scene.
Tiniko enjoys bringing the community together and empowering dancers of all levels to make the most out of their tango journey. Besides teaching at Siempre Tango Ottawa, she also hosted Milonga Querida twice a month on Saturdays up until the beginning of 2020.
Former Team Members
Francis Caron (Founder)
Originally a musician, Francis began dancing Argentine Tango in 1994 and established Siempre Tango in 1999. His engaging musicality, humour, and eye for detail were highly influential on the growth of Ottawa’s tango community. Francis and his wife brigitte left Siempre Tango in 2019 to begin a new adventure. He is now a teacher and assistant director at the Montreal School of the Alexander Technique. Francis continues to visit Ottawa occasionally to teach both tango and Alexander Technique.
brigitte Caron
As a teacher of the Alexander Technique, brigitte came to tango with an inquisitive mind and a subtle understanding of the relationship between quality of movement, intention, and communication. She was Siempre Tango’s head co-teacher alongside Francis from 2003 to 2019, and established the Ottawa School of the Alexander Technique in 2014. She is now the head of the Montreal School of the Alexander Technique, which opened in 2020.
Mary-Ellen Hurd
Mary Ellen began dancing Argentine Tango in 2000, and taught with Siempre Tango from 2002 to 2019. She became a certified Alexander Technique teacher in 2019, and you’ll occasionally see her mischievous smile at Ottawa milongas.
Edited: May 12, 2022 Jewel speaking. I took a couple of days to recover from the whirlwind of the last two weeks, and wanted to wrap up my thoughts on Tomás’ latest visit: Tomás and I really didn’t know what to expect in terms of turnout. As much as we don’t like to point this …
We are pleased to re-re-open, and in a very real way this time. Not only are we starting up the Sunday Práctica and having our first Milonga La Capital of 2022, we are also holding our first group classes since 2020. COVID-19 Protocols Let’s get one thing out of the way: We will require all …
Thank you for your responses + The “Why” of this survey The feedback was overwhelmingly positive and I appreciate the kind words of encouragement. It was necessary to give people a forum to share what they think and what they need to feel safe during these pandemic times. Thank you to each of you who …
