About Tango Essence
Tango Essence had it's first beginnings in 2011. Many people then dancing tango in Swansea wished for a class dedicated solely to traditional tango. So with the encouragement and support of friends and others who also wished to learn, Tango Essence was set up by Paul and Philippa. For the first few years the class was based in St.Helen's Cricket club, then as numbers grew it moved to Trinity Church, Sketty Park. Paul also introduced tango classes at Swansea University and ran classes in Mumbles and Aberystwyth. In 2016 Paul's family and work responsibilities meant he had to step back from teaching, so Boyd and Rebecca took over as the main teachers.
Encouraged by the popularity of the classes and the growing number of people in Swansea dancing traditional tango, we started a regular Sunday afternoon milonga attracting dancers from Cardiff, West Wales and Brecon as well as the Swansea area. We've now held nearly 40 of these events which are known for their friendly inclusive atmosphere, great music, and fantastic chocolate cake!
Over the years we have also brought top level visiting tango teachers to Swansea for workshops and classes, and plan to continue doing so when it becomes possible.
Meet The Team!
Tango Essence is a team endeavour. We created it out of our passion for tango, and to further our wish of growing a thriving, viable and high quality tango community in Swansea. As the teaching team, we offer our time and experience for free. All the income from classes and milongas pays for hall rentals, equipment, increasing our music library, and covering website and advertising costs. Any remaining profit subsidises events with visiting teachers brought in for the benefit of the whole Swansea tango community.
The Tango Essence team are all qualified and experienced teachers in various fields in our professional lives, and bring a commitment to creating a fun and safe environment for learning in which each person can develop at their own rate.
Boyd and Rebecca
Our Argentine Tango journey began with Tango Essence in October 2011. We were addicted right from the start and became part of the teaching team in January 2016.
We are passionate about tango. Our teaching style is very relaxed and informal and our aim is to develop the skills of our dancers within a friendly and inclusive setting.
We are committed to continuing learning, which we do both by dancing a lot with other experienced dancers, and from workshops and lessons with professional tango dancers. Our love for tango has taken us to International tango festivals and tango events in Spain, France, Italy, Austria, Holland and all over the UK. We enjoyed a wonderful visit to Buenos Aires which was unfortunately cut short when the pandemic began. We’ve also attended numerous workshops with some of the best professional tango teachers in the world including Jenny and Ricardo Oria, Natalia Aguero and Agustin Venturino, Horacio Godoy, Sebastian Arce and Mariana Montes, Sebastian Achaval and Roxana Suarez, Roberto Herrera, Steve Morrall, Murat Erdemsel and many more.
We like to think that the knowledge gained from our international tuition and our friendly style of teaching has contributed to the growing success of Tango Essence.
Philippa
I was initially drawn to tango through my love of traditional tango music, and first went to classes in the late 90's on visits to London. I assisted Paul in setting up Tango Essence, bringing in my understanding of teaching movement skills from many years of training and experience as an Alexander Technique teacher and Feldenkrais practitioner. My role at Tango Essence is now threefold, as part of the teaching team, as DJ for our milongas, classes and practicas, and in taking care of the behind the scenes work of newsletters, publicity, and website. You can read more at my website 'Being in Movement' about my work as a movement teacher.
Our Approach
“Tango is about feeling and sensitivity, otherwise you are just doing gymnastics. You can do all the steps but it has to have the feeling and sensitivity of authentic tango.”
At Tango Essence we aim to help people develop all the skills they need to become good dancers and to enjoy social dancing. Our emphasis is on providing a sound basis of good technique and musicality. We teach a full repertoire of all the movement vocabulary commonly used in tango all around the world. Our classes are friendly, fun, inclusive, welcoming and non-competitive. We have many dancers with years of experience coming to our classes and events who are generous in offering help and support to newer dancers.
We encourage our students to widen their experience by going to other classes and milongas locally and by travelling to tango events and workshops further afield. Have a look at our links page for just a few suggestions.
“Our venture into the world of traditional Argentine Tango has provided us with a social, musical and dance experience like no other. The unpressured and supportive style of the Tango Essence classes provides a relaxed learning environment that embodies the traditional style of dance with emphasis on enjoyment and social interaction.”
“Guidance on balance, posture, musicality and coordination, together with the opportunity to dance with partners of differing backgrounds, abilities and ages helps to develop levels of empathy, understanding and courtesy that we so often find missing in our everyday lives.”