Dance Cafe

Boasting impressive and comprehensive dancing backgrounds, Colin Mandell and Terri Taylor excitedly share their enthusiasm and skill for dance with anyone who wants to learn – especially those who want to have a bit of fun along the way!
Teaching out of FITPOD and at their Salt Rock home studio, Colin and Terri’s Dance Café  offer a range of genres including Ballroom, Latin, Flamenco, Salsa, Argentine Tango, Barre, Bachata, Kizomba, Wedding First Dance and Line Dancing.
Always a laugh-a-minute, Dance Café private sessions are high energy and fun and the focus is more on enjoying the social aspect, rather than getting every single step exactly right.
Originally from Johannesburg, Colin grew up with a renowned ballet teacher as a mom. “I grew up in ballet theatres and always loved the music … and dating the dancers,” laughs Colin, who eventually married and had two children with a famous ballet dancer.
Colin only started his dancing career later in life though, after his time in the army. Realising he had a natural talent, he did a ‘crash course’ in ballet before joining the UCT Ballet School. He then danced with the CAPAB for seven years where he became a successful soloist.
Colin joined the Playhouse Dance Company in Durban in the mid-eighties and eventually retired from show business and returned to Johannesburg to teach. This was when he joined the Fred Astaire Dance Studio franchise and discovered social or ‘partner’ dancing. He quickly became a senior instructor. It was there that Colin also ended up meeting his partner, Terri.
Having done ballet, modern and tap dancing from an early age, Terri stopped dancing when she developed asthma in her matric year. Years later, while working as a financial secretary, Terri saw an advert for the Fred Astaire studio. “I thought it would be a good way to start dancing again and a nice way to meet people.”
It was not long before Terri’s natural talent shone through and she, too, became an instructor.
Going on to open and run various studios together, the couple started Dance Café in 2007, and quickly became one of the top dance studios in Johannesburg. At the end of 2020, after the first COVID wave, they moved to Ballito and started teaching at FITPOD.
Social dancing is a great way to keep fit while having fun and making friends and, rather than focussing on one particular genre, Colin and Terri offer a range of different dance styles at Dance Café.
Eager to grow social dancing, especially amongst previously disadvantaged youth, the couple work with a local, faith based NPO in Groutville and have raised funds to take dancers to compete around the country. They also employ a group of five young men a few times a week to partner with their students because there is always a shortage of leaders. “We love that we are using dance to open up the world to these youngsters and bridge the cultural divide at the same time.”