A world-class tango instructor will be visiting Kaua‘i this month, and can provide dance classes, private lessons, and preside over milonga dance parties. Susana Miller of Buenos Aires is considered one of the most prominent tango teachers in the world
A world-class tango instructor will be visiting Kaua‘i this month, and can provide dance classes, private lessons, and preside over milonga dance parties.
Susana Miller of Buenos Aires is considered one of the most prominent tango teachers in the world today.
A Buenos Aires daily newspaper, Clarin, called her one of the four most important influences on contemporary tango.
Miller’s specialty is milonguero, also called apilado, the most popular style of Argentine tango in the clubs of Buenos Aires.
Experienced and beginning Kaua‘i dancers are welcome to take advantage of this opportunity to learn and practice tango with this master.
Miller is a fun and easy-to-understand teacher who has danced and trained dancers all over the world.
This style of tango emphasizes the connection between the couple and musicality, resulting in a form of tango that flows naturally, said Maurizia Zanin, a Kaua‘i tango practitioner.
It is the most suitable style for a social dance setting where the dance floor may be crowded and couples are dancing with many new partners, Zanin said.
Because it emphasizes a connection between partners and musicality, fancy footwork or complicated patterns aren’t essential to enjoy this dance, she said.
A satisfying dance can be done simply and learned in a relatively short time, Zanin said.
This style developed in the 1940s and ‘50s in closely packed dance halls, so it is danced in a very close embrace, chest-to chest, with the partners leaning slightly towards each other to allow space for the feet to move.
Miller encourages dancers to develop their own personal and improvisational styles through knowledge of the music, space body movements.
Rather than using predetermined patterns, she imparts a basic choreographic vocabulary that allows dancers to creatively shape their own dance language.
Miller will lead group dance classes Thursday, July 15 and July 22 at the Kapa‘a Neighborhood Center, and Friday, July 16 and July 23 at the dance space behind Kauai Children’s Discovery Museum at Kaua‘i Village, Waipouli.
All classes are 7:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m.
Following the Friday classes are milonga dance parties at the dance space.
After spending four nights with this tango master, dancers will be confident and capable of dancing at any milonga dance party, or anywhere there’s a dance floor, Zanin added.
Come early to settle in and warm up, she advised.
Dancers are also encouraged to wear shoes.
For more information, please call Larry at 337-2777, or Maurizia at 635-8049.
