Meet Leng Tan, East Midwood Jewish Center’s Israeli dance teacher

September 1, 2015 By Lore Croghan Brooklyn Daily Eagle

Three cheers for Brooklyn multiculturalism! Leng Tan (dressed in red), the daughter of immigrants from Hainan Island, China, is an expert on Israeli dance. Eagle photos by Rob Abruzzese

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Mazel tov, Leng Tan.

The shayna maidel (which loosely translated means “lovely lady”) who teaches Israeli dance at a Conservative Jewish synagogue in Midwood is the daughter of immigrants from Hainan Island, China.

It’s just one of those things, a fundamental fact of Tan’s life: She loves Israeli folk music.

“The melodies call out to me,” she said in an interview before stepping onto the parquet floor of the East Midwood Jewish Center’s ballroom for her Sunday night classes. “It makes me feel exhilarated.”

After a first career as an I.T. specialist at business-data analytics firm Dun & Bradstreet, Tan teaches Israeli dance full-time throughout the tri-state area.

“I strongly believe Jewish and Chinese people have a lot in common as far as tradition and family values and education are concerned,” she said.

Teaching Israeli dance is her dream job. She’s working in a field she loves and deploying her skills to attain success as a female entrepreneur.

This is a story of Brooklyn multiculturalism, which by the way was written by a Catholic from an Irish-Polish-German family and photographed by an Italian-American.

Tan, who speaks English, Hainanese and Mandarin, gets her share of double-takes. “You’re the Israeli dance instructor?” people ask her.

But for those who take classes from Tan, whose teaching style is simultaneously high-energy and very patient, her devotion to this Middle Eastern art form makes perfect sense.

“Dance is the common denominator,” said Sheepshead Bay resident Mary Sabat.

Since Tan got started in 1992, she has taught thousands of students to Cut Footloose — as the Kenny Loggins song goes — with dances like “Sham Harei Golan” (which means “The Golan Mountains are There”) and “Seret Hodi” (“Indian Movie”), which incorporates moves from Bollywood films.

She has “fond memories” of international folk dance from Public School 261 in Boerum Hill, which she attended when her family lived on nearby Dean Street, she said. They later moved to Sheepshead Bay.

At Brooklyn College, where she majored in special education, she learned Israeli dance during a one-credit course in international folk dance.

“I took it very seriously,” she recalled. “I got an A from a very tough college professor, Ruth Schoenberg.”

Tan still keeps in touch with the professor, who has offered her encouragement over the years.

Tan’s expertise in Israeli dance comes from 18-plus years of study with renowned choreographer Moshe Eskayo at the Shorefront Y in Brighton Beach, among other places. At his dance camps in the Catskills, “I would dance until I couldn’t feel my toes,” Tan said.

Tan, who now lives in Stamford, Conn., shared stories of her immigrant family’s years in Brooklyn.

Her father, who arrived in the late 1930s, served in the United States Merchant Marine during World War II.

“He would watch torpedoes whizzing by, narrowly missing him,” she said.

Later, “he was ‘matched’ with my mom” by a cousin of his, Tan recounted. At the time, her Hainanese mother was working as a seamstress in Singapore. Their marriage certificate identified her as a “spinster” though she was just 26 years old.

Tan’s dad worked for many years at a Harlem luncheonette he co-owned and put his three kids through college.

Tan’s students at East Midwood Jewish Center — a stunning Ocean Avenue synagogue listed on the National Register of Historic Places — are big fans of hers. They clapped to the beat and kick-ball-changed with verve during their Sunday evening with her.

“She is outstanding for her love of Israeli dance and her love of Israeli culture and her wonderful ability to impart that love and teach the dances,” Flatbush resident Tsipora Baer said during a break from the dance floor.

“She came highly recommended,” Randy Grossman, East Midwood Jewish Center’s co-president, said of Tan. “She has a following. She connects with all age groups.

“Because it’s Israeli folk dance, it helps strengthen students’ connections to the Jewish homeland.”

Also, it’s great exercise that doesn’t feel like exercise, Tan said. During her three-hour teaching stint on Sunday, the Fitbit tracker on her wrist buzzed, alerting her that she’d taken 10,000 steps that day — the equivalent of five miles of movement.

Her favorite art form benefits the brain, too.

“Dance is a secret weapon against aging,” Tan said. “It helps deter Alzheimer’s and dementia. You have to learn and retain the sequence of the steps.”

See www.ctisraelidance.com for further info on her dance classes.