A Puro Tango

Just called to gather some information about her classes. She sounded very rude. It was as if I was asking her for a kidney.

Linda Valentino is a great, Great Tango Dancer and a wonderful instructor of Argentine Tango, as well as an important member of the Tango Dancing Community. Her classes are excellent, really fun and totally succinct. Everyone should experience this fantastic teacher !!

Linda Valentino is a gem to the tango community.
She is 1 of 3 ladies I have met in tango (this number includes instructors from argentina and that I have met on my journey) that I trust with teaching a man how to lead. If you’re looking for stage tango and looking to perform on dancing with the stars, linda is NOT your teacher. But if you are seeking your inner confidence, if you value elegance, linda can help you manifest these characteristics in your life through tango. Why spend $ 1000s of dollars on therapy? Learn how to hold another person and communicate sincerely through tango. It’s alot cheaper and ladies respect a man who can dance.

I’m addicted to tango. I’ve danced practically every day over the last two years. I’ve made an effort to take a class with or go to a milonga or personally dance with or observe the students of every major teacher in Los Angeles.
Linda Valentino is the most experienced close embrace social dancing tango teacher in the city. Her progressive approach and love of teaching and desire for you to become a good milonguero style dancer is second to none.
I also feel that I must address what I see as an unfair critique of Linda posted on this site. I know and take classes with the teacher the reviewer is lavishing praise on. I respect and appreciate her and her teaching partner. The tango style they teach is not close embrace traditional milonguero style as practiced in Buenos Aires. It’s a gender neutral open embrace nuevo tango style. Comparing the approaches used to teach these diametrically opposite styles is comparing apples with oranges.
As regards to the reviewers criticism of Tango Mio, LInda’s milonga on Tuesday nights at Candelas Night club on La Brea. This is not the most cliquish milonga in town. Its a relatively beginner friendly milonga for a milonga that has the better dancers in town. Every beginner dancer sits and waits for dances. Even better dancers don’t get all the dances they want. Learn how to cabaceo more effectively. Read Alej’s guidelines on the Tango and Chaos website.
Bottom line is the proof is in the pudding. The current US Salon champion learned to walk under Linda’s instruction.

In the shadowy world of the local tango teaching community — and by extension the tango itself — one can find oneself trapped in experiences that ultimately prove counterproductive. Tango, unlike many other dance forms, is highly influenced by the vision and biases of the instructor. There’s no one-​size-​fits-​all orthodoxy that govverns how tango is introduced or taught.
Having been involved in the dance for upwards two years, I have seen my fill of good and not-​so-​good instructors. I have been truly blessed, though, to have been affiliated with and influenced by A Puro Tango and its founder Linda Valentino. I started taking classes with Linda back in early 2012, and am profoundly pleased with the progress I have made under Linda’s influence. This coming from someone who had no background whatsoever and two left feet in their genes. I have progressed to the point where I have no problem dancing with anyone, anywhere, anytime and anyplace.
Linda’s teaching style can be described wtih one word — foundational. Pure nuts and bolts mechanics and their underlying foundations. To some, this might prove to be a bit unfulfilling early on in the tango journey. Many quit when it becomes apparent that tango is not an add-​water-​and-​stir learning experience… when one comes to the reality that they won’t be dancing at the milonga after a couple of lessons. It took me about six month to become milonga ready and get my feet wet for real.
But Linda’s wisdom and dispense of the same has been like that great reference guide or college textbook that sits on your bookshelf — something that you constantly find yourself going over again and again. Seeing new wiisdoms and perspectives after the fact where you originally couldn’t see in the moment (given delusion, frustration, or whatever other blockage may have gotten in the way).
It never ceases to amaze me how sage Linda’s wisdom and foundations prove to be!
Yes, Linda can be a bit tart at times, but name one instructor, professor or other human source of wisdom, that is wholeheartedly committted to the betterment of the world for which their knowledge contributes to, who isn’t!!!
If one is willing to set their ego aside and approach tango with a true beginners mind and spirit, the experience with Linda will live and fulfill far beyond the time she is directly involved with it.
In retrospect, I couldn’t have picked a better instructor to start my tango journey with than Linda. And she still is a vital source of wisdom, counsel and (yes) criticism as I continue my journey. I am forever grateful to her and look forward to a tango journey with Linda and A Puro Tango that is beginningless and endless!

Let me preface this by saying that some people learn well from Linda. I am not one of those. My year with Linda was very discouraging. In my experience, it seemed to be harder for a woman to learn from Linda than a man, because she seems to focus the bulk of her teaching time on the men. I think Linda can sometimes unintentionally be a bit harsh in her verbal corrections to students. I watched a guy — one of my earliest tango friends who came for about 3 months, after several strong reprimands one night — slowly walk out the door after class. He never came back.
In my experience, the milongas seemed cliquey and a bit unfriendly, which made for frustrating and unhappy evenings for me. Guys I knew and danced with at class did not ask me to dance at the milongas. I would dance 1 – 3 tandas in 4 hours of a milonga. Other women I knew had the same experience, and many left. In all other dances I know (and at other milongas), more experienced dancers dance some of the time with less experienced ones, so that they can get better and — as one guy told me – «to help the tango/​dance world grow bigger». Does not happen at Linda’s milongas. Overall, I was so frustrated by my experience, that I quit tango. I was convinced that I was either too stupid or too klutzy to learn to dance tango well, and that no one would want to dance with me.
A year later, I took a couple of 8 week series at Caltech, with Mitra Martin (from Oxygen Tango). To my surprise, in just a couple of weeks, I could dance so much better! Now I dance at milongas. Tango is fun again. A tango friend had told me for months that I should try other tango instructors and milongas. She was right. I didn’t at the time. I do now. Recently, I went back to one of Linda’s milongas. The atmosphere was the same: cliquey, I didn’t dance — so I left, and don’t go to those anymore.
Note: This was MY experience — yours may be different; yours may be better. There are a lot of instructors out there, and they have different teaching styles. Certain ones will click or not click with you. If you don’t feel quite right with one, or feel frustrated, don’t wait a year as I did — do yourself a favor and try someone else.

If you want to dance like people in Buenos Aires, study with Linda. She teaches techniques, styles, interpretation of music, the whole package of how to dance as a milonguero/​milonguera. She also has beautiful tango music in town.

I think I’m in love. I’ve taken 1 class with Linda but I’m going back next week to buy a 10-​class pass for $ 135 (each individual class costs $ 15). I’m a beginner but when I dropped in on a Friday night class most of the people there were so nice and welcoming. The night I went there was a slight gender inbalance (3 – 4 more women than men), but I think it can go either way.
A tango dancer I’ve met said that Linda teaches the best fundamentals. By the way, Linda’s Hollywood location is at Hollywood Dance Center, 817 N. Highland (major cross street Melrose).

I have taken classes with Linda in Pasadena for a few months now. She is tough and takes no bullshit, which I love. She gives you a lot of freedom and is pretty hands off with the teaching. Just so you’re clear, she teaches the types of tango you can actually dance socially. Don’t expect and dips, lifts, or deep bends that people usually think of when they hear tango. Classes can get full, but it’s just really enjoyable.