Len Naidoo
Tel: 079 673 6266
Email: Len.Naidoo1@gmail.com
Location: Simon’s Town Methodist Church Hall, 6 Chapel Ln, Simon’s Town
Group Class: Monday’s 7:00 to 8:30 pm
Practica: Wednesday’s 7:00 to 9:00 pm
What I teach:
Tango is dance of two people walking to tango music in embrace with one leading and the other following improvised variations of the walk. A simple description, yet anyone who has tried to tango will start asking the same questions:
- How do we stand better?
- How do we embrace better?
- How do we walk together?
- How do we vary the walk?
- How do we improvise?
- How do we lead and follow?
- How do we move to the music?
- How do we dance with other couples in the same space?
These are the questions I answer in my classes. I focus on the fundamental technique of the tango and the principles that underly the dance. The technique of the tango builds on our very own intuitions of how we walk and stand in everyday life. While the tango has evolved organically in a social environment where a multitude of different influences have shaped it and continue to shape it in its evolution, there is an inherent logic, common sense, and rationale to the tango because it is a dance of walking based on natural movement.
I take a first principles approach to teaching the technique of the tango based on natural movement. More specifically I teach:
- The fundamentals of standing
- The fundamentals of walking
- The fundamentals of partnership
- The fundamentals of musicality
- The fundamentals of floor craft
The style I teach is Salon Tango. Salon Tango is a social form of the dance, danced at the milonga. The Salon tango of today has borrowed judiciously from many earlier styles of tango. It has sought to find the middle ground between the intimacy of the embrace and the possibilities of movement. Therefore, it is easy to understand how this style of tango is becoming arguably the most popular social style of today. The closeness of the couple is both experientially and visually captivating yet at the same time tango dancers want to challenge themselves to be more expressive, and dynamic in their movement.