Jose Espinoza is the BEST Tango teacher you can find anywhere!!
Why? Because, he has a well structured curriculum that allows you to build your fundamental technique. I love how strictly he abides his teaching philosophy such that if he is approached by students that just want to learn flashy moves, he will politely tell them that the student is not at an adequate level to be doing those moves. And it is not that he will never teach you spectacular moves (because I have started to learn them as I progressed) but he presents them to you only when you are ready. And everything he teaches you, even the simple crosses, he will teach to dance it with such finesse and elegance.
Another reason why he is a great teacher, is because he is simply funny and charming. I've had a lot of hard time going through my Ph.D at UCLA and I always looked forward to tango lessons. I loved my lessons because they were informative and fun. If you do something well he will saying something weird like, "~ you are ALL THAT plus a bag of CHIPS!!?." He believes that when people dance, the most important thing is to have fun. And he really delivers that well.
Thirdly, unlike any other tango teachers, Jose will give you a teaching of tango music history, tango culture, and etiquette. He was the first teacher to teach me the "cabezeo," which is a traditional way that men ask women to dance by eye contact in Argentina. There are also other floor craft etiquette to be aware when you go dancing at the milonga parties and he will teach them all to you.
But the best thing about him is his approach in dancing. Every student he meets he will teach you the elements of dancing, and he mentions that the most important thing in argentine tango is your dance partner. And this points to the leaders role in ensuring that their lady looks and moves beautifully all the time on the dance floor. This is exactly the reason he doesn't teach people that are not ready to do some difficult step, because he knows that the student will not be able to safely execute the move without sacrificing the beauty of the follower. And I really love this kind of old school mentality that Jose has. (Which apparently is also shared by the traditional tango dancers from 30's-80's :) ).
There is more that I can write, but I will finish this review here. From being a beginner dancer in September 2015, in about 4 months by December 2015 Jose taught me enough to do this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WNrJBjoauFI
Off course, there are a lot of mistakes made by me in there but you could see that he dances in a way to hide some of the mistakes away. I took about 1-2 private lessons a week and used his taxi dancing service every week.
Oh yes, he also serves as a taxi dancer that you can hire per 2 hours to go dancing at milongas. And he WILL make you look good for sure :) read more