LLC

   LLC

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“BUILDING A BETTER WORLD, ONE TANGO AT A TIME”

TangoIntensivo™  Sessions 2012  FAQ

Q: We assume it’s best to have accommodations near the classes…what district of Buenos Aires would this be?

A: Yes, of course it's convenient if students plan to stay nearby...the classes are typically held at Villa Malcolm or Club Chalmers…both venues are in the Palermo/Villa Crespo areas. As we confirm each session, our fully registered students receive complete details, instructions, final schedules, etc. in plenty of time in advance of their trainings.

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Q: Do you have suggestions about where to stay? What milongas to attend? Restaurant recommendations?

A: Yes! Si si si! After students complete their registration for our program/s, we provide a TON of info to assist you in planning your trip. Our registration process provides each registered student with a confirmed daily training schedule, how and where to connect with us in Buenos Aires and much more.

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Q:  Can you help us find a guest house in a nice district?

A:  We can make suggestions only…your tuition does not cover professional travel assistance, but as described above, registered students receive travel resources as an added benefit to help you get started. Several of the accommodation options on our list are run by people we know personally. We've made arrangements to motivate them to make our students VERY happy if they decide to book reservations, so be sure to let them know we (Dance of the Heart) referred you.

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Q: What other travel info do you provide?

A: Once you become a registered student with our program/s, you can expect the following e-mail communications and support: private access to our “required reading” Orientation Info section, confirmed final program schedules, occasional notices alerting paid customers about airline sales or cool places to shop in BsAs or info about weather, exchange rates, etc., exclusive access to a VAST gold-mine of travel tips, recommendations and reminders to assist you with your planning - especially handy for students visiting Argentina for the first time. The Orientation webpage includes details about the following info: 

GETTING THERE - GETTING HOME

WHERE TO STAY

WHAT TO PACK

THINGS TO DO

Many people have urged us to create a book out of our Resources section, but until we do, at this time it is our ‘gift’ to all registered students.

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Q: What is the appropriate skill level your programs require?

A: As the website recommends, our programs are best suited to advanced/strong level intermediate through advanced level dancers and teachers or teachers-in-training.

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Q: I am unsure if my skill level is appropriate for these sessions. Is there a more detailed option available to determine the suitability of these sessions to make sure they will be beneficial for me at my current level?

A: We recommend for maximizing your benefit and pleasure at our TangoIntensivo™ sessions, that at minimum, leader students can execute/lead and follower students can respond/follow:

For students at a more advanced level (teachers/teachers-in-training/advanced dancers), regardless of your prowess, prepare to grow in every way – with respect to your understanding of the dance on multiple levels, increase your grasp of vocabulary, musicality, quality of connection, movement, etc. Wherever you are in your tango, expect to be profoundly thrilled, challenged, provoked and supported to move to your next level because of the deep technical and mechanical refinements and fascinating variations that you will be asked to study with FABULOUS Luciana and your staff partners!

Please feel free to contact us directly if you remain unsure but really want to register. We’re available in our private lesson studios…Luciana Valle in Buenos Aires info@lucianavalle.com and/or Deb and Brian in Boulder, Colorado tangolessons@danceoftheheart.com . If you’ve studied with any three of us in the past, please write to us…we’ll be glad to address the issue of whether or not these trainings would be appropriate for your level. We are all often bookable during international travels to tango communities and festivals world-wide. We’re happy to prepare you in advance for getting the most out of our TangoIntensivo™ sessions, including following up after you’ve taken a program, to help you retain and solidify all you’ve learned.

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Q: Given that your programs are delivered in a group class setting, what level of personal attention can I expect?

A: Because students are partnering with and rotating to our trained staff, as a customer, you receive better than 1 on 1 attention. We also place a limit on the number of students we admit per session in order to place the focus on YOUR improvement. There are so many factors contributing to this singular point…YOUR IMPROVEMENT…the level and quality of instruction from Luciana…the skilled dancers who are hired to partner with you so you can work at YOUR highest level…that we’ve structured the program to include daily review over a period of 5 consecutive days to facilitate integration…that the programs are staged in Buenos Aires…that for the price of one trip down to Buenos Aires, you can opt to take a minimum of 2 programs within 2 weeks for maximum immersion, etc. etc.

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Q: Does the partnering change through the week? Or are you with the same person for the whole week? 

A: You will rotate every tanda or so, to another partner on our staff. Each student can expect to dance with each staff partner sometimes several times during the day and/or over the week of the training period based on our systematic rotation approach we utilize during the workshops.

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Q: I’ve scoured the world of tango, but your offering is unique. How did you come up with your program?

A: Our inspiration for developing this program was based on our own desire to continue pursuing our fullest potential as dancers and teachers by training with dancers better than us under the instruction of the best teachers in the Argentine tango world...for us, Luciana Valle is among the best of the VERY best.

It's hard to describe until you experience it for yourself, but for most customers, it's a dream come true situation. The main complaint is that the program ENDS. However, like life, we can't please everyone every time, so we urge you to talk to TangoIntensivo™ alumni because we think the best advertisement comes from past customers. We consistently sell out our programs and we think it's because we're deeply committed to student growth by basing our programs on pure quality - bringing you, the student, the best teacher, partners, training curriculum and setting available.

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Q: How many hours total can we count on? What is the program schedule on a daily basis? 

A: 20 hours total: typically we go Monday through Friday, morning session from 11am to 1pm, rest/lunch break, afternoon session from 2 to 4pm

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Q: What is the difference between the A, B, C and D sessions?

A: First, a little history…at the close of 2010, after delivering 26 successful week-long sessions, Luciana reorganized and expanded her material at the intermediate/advanced level into four distinct programs: "A", "B", "C" & "D". At the close of this year, with the expanded programs successfully launched, we’re now up to 31 successfully delivered week-long sessions in under eight years and still going strong!

About the differences between the programs…it’s all in the topics covered. The level is the same (intermediate/advanced) in all four sessions. This means you don’t have to take “B” before “C” or “D”. However, if you’re new to these programs, we recommend taking “A” before ANY of the others, especially for those unfamiliar with Luciana's approach. As before with this expanded reorganization, most people will benefit from taking the "A" program before taking "B", "C" and/or "D". If your only option is to register in our “D” session (as an example), there is no pre-requisite. You should not feel, for example, that “D” would be above your head until AFTER you take “A” or “B” or “C” or all of the above. In each session, you will be oriented to the language used to approach the material, and whoever you are dancing with will work with you at your current level. Sometimes we wonder if we should have named the sessions “Red”, “Yellow”, “Green” and “Blue” so people would not put so much weight on the current A/B/C/D sequential nature of the programs. Our hope is that you’ll enjoy one or all four so much, you’ll simply repeat them as often as possible…not unlike bringing a good car in for regular oil changes and new tires after it delivers so many miles of (hopefully safe & fun!) service!

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Q: There are two prices on the website. One is for $655 and another is for $725. How long is the lower tuition rate of $655 available?

A: The $655 price is our early bird rate to encourage students to register months in advance of the session/s they plan to attend. In general, the early bird rate expires three months prior to the start of each individual week-long session. The web-site registration page will have specific deadline dates listed to help customers with their plans.

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Q: Will we be attending milongas in the evenings? 

A: That is up to you...again, this is not part of the program/not covered in the cost of your tuition. We provide a state of the art TANGO TRAINING program that focuses exclusively on your improvement. You are free in the evenings...but it’s very common to make informal evening plans with your fellow students. We provide options for social/networking opportunities once you register for the program. During the week of a given session, there are multiple opportunities to connect with fellow students to socialize and social dance outside of class time.

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Q: What are chances of a program being cancelled?

A:  While we cannot guarantee, cancellations are extremely rare. Our refund policy in the event of a cancellation is listed on-line as follows: "In the unlikely event of cancellation of any TangoIntensivo™ sessions, registration fees will be refunded in full."

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Q: What happens if I get sick or have a professional or personal emergency and have to cancel my trip? Do you provide refunds?

A: Our reimbursement policy is on-line, under the PayPal buttons as follows:

"Refund Policy: Fifty percent of the Registration Fee will be refunded if a refund request is received by four weeks before the start of the first day of a given session. No refund requests will be accepted after this deadline. However, if you find your own replacement or if we are able to fill your spot from a waiting list, refund requests (less $20) will be honored at any time. Refunds will not be generated until AFTER payment from your replacement has been confirmed. In ALL refund cases, PayPal fees are not refundable after your initial payment has cleared."

We urge students to consider purchasing travel insurance to buffer the impact just in case you are confronted with unexpectedly having to cancel your trip.

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Q: How do I reserve a place in a specific program? Can I simply email my reservation? Or call you? Do I contact Luciana directly to register?

A: We have two offices supporting our programs. One is located in Buenos Aires under Luciana’s direction. The other is in the USA through Dance of the Heart in Boulder, Colorado, under Brian & Deb’s direction. Our USA office handles all student registrations and financials. This means you’ll be interacting with Brian & Deb exclusively during your registration process which will include keeping you updated with all the information you’ll need prior to your training.

Full tuition payment is required to reserve your place in our program/s. After we receive payment, we respond generally within 24 hours to confirm your reservation. If we're sold out, your payment will be refunded in full (minus PayPal fees if you paid on line). Assuming we have space to accept you and you are at an appropriate level in your dance skills, you will receive e-confirmation and we will proceed with your registration process. You are always welcome to call our USA office (303-938-0716), but we have a stream-lined process that will deliver everything you’ll need via e-mail.

While an email or phone call is useful to express your intentions, we cannot reserve your space without your payment. This is due to several factors. We spend months in advance of each session booking the space, preparing the material, booking the appropriate number of Argentine staff to partner you, confirming and securing registration details with each participant, etc. We also impose a limit on the number of students we accept per program. As a consequence, if we accept reservations without payment and that reservation cancels, another student we may have turned away who was prepared to commit, loses the opportunity.

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Q: What payment options are available to register for your program ASAP?

A: Typically we accept payment via credit cards (PayPal) or personal checks from US banks. We also accept cash and because we attract customers from Europe, we likewise accept bank transfers. For payment arrangements through PayPal or bank transfers, please be prepared to cover any associated fees.

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Q: What specific steps do I take to register/pay for tuition based on your 2 most popular options (personal US check or on-line PayPal payment)?

A: Registration Instructions are below for both options.

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Option #1: Pay for your tuition by personal (USA-based) check (steps 1-5):

Step 1: Please make your (USA-based) check out to "DoTH LLC" or "Dance of the Heart LLC".  We offer an early bird discount on tuition that totals US$655 ($655.00) per person per program. To be eligible, simply snail mail your payment BEFORE our early bird discount deadline (listed on our website by individual session). Otherwise, regular tuition is US$725 ($725) per student per program.

Step 2: Please include a 'student info' note (see below bullets) with your check as follows:

Step 3: Mail your check and "student info" note (see Step 2) to:

Step 4: Directly after you complete Step 3 and drop your envelope in the mailbox, please send an email to tangolessons@danceoftheheart.com informing us your check is in the (snail)mail and please include the 'student info' from Step 2. Upon receipt of your email, we will immediately proceed to our registration list and reserve a place for you in anticipation of receiving your check.

Step 5: As soon as we receive your check, we'll send an e-confirm notifying you about your e-registration process.

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Option #2: Pay for your tuition by credit card via PayPal (steps 1-4):

 

END OF FAQ PAGE

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