Stephen and Mardi fill a special role in the local tango teaching community. If you're looking to learn the newest, flashiest moves or all those fancy steps you've seen in the YouTube videos, they probably aren't the best choice for you. However, if you want to learn how to dance tango socially in realistic situations (i.e., crowded), connect with your partner and the music, and really enjoy doing it, you should definitely check them out. (Take a look at their website to see some videos demonstrating the style of tango they teach.) They have given a lot of thought to how to teach tango in a gradual way that develops good long-term habits and is easy to catch on to, even for those of us who aren't choreographically gifted (yeah, that would be me). They focus on how to make things work well for both the leader and the follower and explain things very clearly.
In their classes, they always give plenty of time for everyone to try things out and they are very good about going around from couple to couple and helping everyone individually. Since they both can lead and follow very well, each of them can step in, try things with both students, and help out with anything you are having trouble with. They are always very open to questions and give thoughtful and detailed answers. They spend a lot of time on teaching how to do things well (they definitely focus on quality over quantity) and cover different contexts in which you might use a particular technique, adapting to the ability level of each class. Also, as a musician, I really appreciate that they frequently talk about the music and musicality and how that relates to your dancing.
Another important thing they do is to talk about how to safely navigate the dance floor without getting killed or killing someone else (not as easy as it sounds), as well as all those "unwritten rules" about How Things Work at the dance that most teachers just seem to assume you will magically know (they certainly weren't obvious to me...). They are especially good about letting beginners know what to expect when they start to go out dancing and they try to get a group of their students to all attend the same dance from time to time.
I have taken classes and private lessons from Stephen and Mardi for quite a while now (hmmm, coming up on a year); private lessons are a particularly good deal, since you get feedback from both of them. As a teacher myself (not of dance), I am pretty picky about how people teach (they say teachers make the worst students); I can say without hesitation that Stephen and Mardi do a great job teaching tango and communicating their enthusiasm for the dance. I really enjoy their classes and they're both very easy to get along with. (And let's face it, their prices are some of the most reasonable around...) read more