Tango - a hobby that turned into a lifestyle

Tangotangent is one of the most prolific Argentine tango schools in Romania, founded in December 2005 by Daniel Mandita, Amalia Iscu and Gilbert Iscu. The founders don’t see the activity as a business, but rather as hobby that sheds color into their lives and unwinds them at the end of an exhausting day.

“Each one of us, teachers, or founders, have jobs during the day. The success of our club lays in each personal involvement in the club’s activity and in the joy of improving this dance together with our members in every class,” said Gilbert Iscu.

Giving the experience he has in public relations, and heading a PR agency, Natural PR, Gilbert Iscu took over a part of the management tasks: promotion, communication, public relations, organizing corporate events and teambuildings that use tango to unwind and to tighten team relations. However, he involved in teaching process, together with his wife, Amalia Iscu and Daniel Mandita.

The three founders discovered late 2004 an Argentine tango class that was held at Amsterdam Café at that time. They attended for one year the tango classes, and saw that tango can be more than a dance, but art, inspiration, or even a way of life.

“At the end of each lesson, together with Dan and my wife Amalia, we sat and talked about the class we had just attended, about what we had learned and shortly after, we talked about our approach on how a tango lesson should look like, we had new ideas to teach tango,” Gilbert Iscu said.

Late 2005, they decided to open the first Argentine tango club. Dan Mandita was in charge with teaching programs, structured for beginners at first, and Gilbert Iscu together with Amalia Iscu took over the organizational tasks: a website to present the school, printing cards and public relations tasks.

Name and location were found relatively easy. Dragos Balea, with Salsa Galaxy offered them the opportunity to teach tango three days per week – Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays in his studio – Euro Dance Studio on Lipscani road. Thus, after three weeks since the first serious talk, they organized the opening party and in the fourth week, they launched the first classes – most of the attendants were enthusiastic friends who came in their effort to support them, rather than in the purpose of learning tango.

At this point, Tangotangent has over 100 members grouped in two: beginners and intermediate.

“Practically, all that mattered in opening this Argentine tango club was the desire, the deterrmination and will to teach tango in the way we approached it, in the way we imagine it should be taught, and not the material investment,” Gilbert Iscu pointed out.

Translated and adapted by Camelia Oancea.