We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Kirill Miniaev. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Kirill below.

Kirill, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. How did you learn to do what you do? Knowing what you know now, what could you have done to speed up your learning process? What skills do you think were most essential? What obstacles stood in the way of learning more?

In 2013, my wife and I moved back to Kansas City from the East Coast. I had lived almost my entire life in Kansas City, but after 4 years away (and no longer living with parents), I was ready to experience the city in a new light. So, one weekend, my wife and I were invited by friends to a Latin/South American Culture Appreciation Festival at the Johnson County Library. Apparently, there was going to be a performance of Argentine Tango, a dance I was really curious about, when it came to couples dances and dancing in general. Honestly, that first performance wasn’t anything special. In fact, I expected much more from the dance…how little did I understand back then.

What did catch my attention was that the couple were Russian-speaking, and since I came from a Russian family, I was eager to meet others who also spoke Russian. A few weeks passed, and my wife insisted on going out dancing. I agreed on one condition: we would go learn Argentine Tango specifically. So we started, and stopped, and started again for a few months. Eventually the challenge and complexity of the dance, and enjoyment of spending time doing something outside of the house transformed us into consistent fixtures at weekly group lessons. As months went by, we became obsessed with the dance and getting better and better.

And then our teachers dropped a bomb-shell. They were moving to Florida, permanently. This was just 1.5 years into us learning the dance, when we felt we still knew barely anything. But this was a good kick for us. We had to take the learning process into our own hands if we wanted to keep going. We could no longer just show up, and expect to be spoon-fed learning.

We began to travel to other cities and learn from other teachers. We began to bring ideas back to our community in Kansas City, and share them with other students and dancers, and over time these students began looking to us as teachers. One day, we found ourselves no longer regarded as students in Kansas City, but as sought-after teachers and valued members of the community as a whole.

As I look back on our journey to where we are today, I value most that our teachers correctly taught us HOW to understand this dance, and how to LEARN this dance. Even though we didn’t learn nearly enough from them in the beginning, knowing how to learn enabled us to continue teaching ourselves and identifying the correct ideas that helped us grow over the years. Our only obstacle to learning faster was time commitment. We had and still have full-time jobs, and a growing family, which limits how much time we can invest into our craft.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

My wife (Sophia Miniaeva) and I, teach authentic, social Argentine Tango, as part of a larger community of dancers in Kansas City. Our goal is to share our craft with others, and to hopefully inspire them to try the dance and, if we get lucky, become as obsessed as we became over our journey. We believe that Tango provides an opportunity for people to share deep, intimate moments with others, which enrich the human experience and balance out our often lonely and socially-obsessed lives.

In your view, what can society to do to best support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem?

I once read that we don’t do enough as a society to value “the arts”. Schools often underfund arts programs, diverting money to sports instead. Yet, when humans look for entertainment, or mental support, or emotional beauty, they turn to what? The arts: music, dance, images, videos. So if we don’t support the next generation of creatives, and we stymie the creatives active now, what will society turn when it wants to be entertained or emotionally stimulated? Arts are critical, and they exist without additional monetary value. They are some of the earliest hallmarks of humanity. They cannot be measured purely by “return-on-investment”. They must be supported as a pillar on which society supports itself and grows.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

Seeing the light come on in a students eyes, to see them becoming obsessed with uncovering new ideas and getting better. To see them grow over time and become valued and respected dancers in our community.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://tangomatiz.com

Image Credits
Photos were taken by Kenny Johnson (https://www.kennyjohnsonphotography.com/)