Hats off...

...to tango organisers! As in so many things, if their work is well done, you don't see it. If you see all the hard work, then the result can look laboured. The same is true in dancing!

This occurs to me as I'm involved in getting together some workshops this weekend. Emails have gone out, and Tango-uk alerted. So if you are in London, I hope you can come along to Carablanca on Friday night, and on Saturday June 5 to The Room, 33 Holcombe Road, Tottenham Hale, London N17 where there will be two workshops, between 11 and 1 and between 1.45 and 3.45. A single workshop will be £20, and the price for both is £30. If you are interested, please email me (address on the right side of the page) as we need to keep numbers about the same.

Mimi Santapá grew up observing her father, Mariano Leotera, teaching the tango dancers of his generation. He developed a methodical way of teaching tango, and Mimi witnessed many great dancers pass through his workshops, including the late Carlos Gavito, and Juan Carlos Copes. When Mimi teaches she reminds us often: “These are the things my father taught me, with a few things I added through my own understanding of the body.”

She teaches dancers of all levels in Buenos Aires, and emphasizes walk and body position to result in a dance that looks and feels effortless. Too often tango is taught merely in terms of foot positions, but the position of the whole body in the lead up to a position of the foot can be really important. I've written about her a couple of times before: the entries are here, here and here

Mimi doesn't dance so much these days, but there is a video of her with one of her students at El Arranque in Buenos Aires. I've embedded it before, but I think it's well worth watching again.



Video thanks to Tangoyte.