It's the blue floor. The blue linoleum floor. It is so undeserving of tango dancers. Such a sensual, initimate dance. Other venues bait dancers with their wooden floors. Or better still, their "floating" wooden floor. The blue floor, the low ceiling, the four pillars that always get in the way and being on the fourth floor of a building facing the Melkweg, don't combine to make this the ideal tango venue. That's enough about the floor!
Academia is one of the oldest tango schools in Amsterdam. And one of the largest. (Aside: many parties claim to have been the first to bring tango to the Netherlands; there are many stories, many contradictions and I take them all with a pinch of salt. Actually, a handful of salt.)
They offer lessons five evenings a week, from a variety of teachers. Some schools offer lessons three or four evenings, but then always from the same teachers. While other schools might have lessons only once or twice each week. This is probably the most attractive thing about Academia: choice of evenings, choice of teachers, and a chance to have a catch-up lesson should you miss on.
It is also worth mentioning that Academia is very centrally located, has a bar, seating all around the dance floor and a nice, old fashioned atmosphere. Some venues play a mixture of traditional and modern ("neo") tango or even non-tango, but here you shoukd expect to hear only traditional tango. read more