Tucson Tango Festival DJs and Instructors 2011
Instructors:
Murat & Michelle Erdemsel
Maria Olivera & Gustavo Benzecry
Jaimes Friedgen & Christa Rodriguez
Varo Boyajyan & Naomi Hotta
Santiago Croce and Amy Lincoln
Vladamir Estrin and Emily Ortiz
with Special Guest Instructor: Mr. Tango…Jorge Nel
Delisa Myles
DJs:
Maria Olivera
Sabah Chammas
Paul Akmajian
Larry Richelli
Martin Rybczynski
Varo Boyajyan
Derrick Del Pilar
Tango Rapper:
Momo Smitt
Murat Michelle Erdemsel
See Video Last Year’s Performances
Murat Erdemsel has influenced large numbers of dancers with his unique perspective of dance and instruction. He maintains his teaching position for Dance Manhattan in NYC. Born in Istanbul, Murat followed his parents path to art school. He established himself as an artist before he arrived in the US to complete his Masters Degree in Painting. His art works were sold to collections in Europe and in the States. Even though he has moved from painting to dancing, it is very apparent that his classical education and knowledge of art and art history influences and enriches his ability to teach in general.
Michelle Erdemsel took her first steps in dance at the age of 6 at the world renowned San Francisco School of Ballet and continued with such greats as David Howard in NYC. Her dance experience can only be described as eclectic, ranging from modern, jazz, flamenco, hula and theatre dance. Michelle spent many years touring with famous Musical Artists such as Liza Minelli in prestigious venues like Prince Albert Royal Hall inLondon, Off Broadway theatres in NYC, Stadiums and Arenas inEurope, South America and the US. Her interest in partner dancing led her to competitive ballroom dancing and the more acrobatic style of theatrical dancing in which she garnered many awards including a North American Championship. Michelle has also been reviewed well by the NY Times as a choreographer for off-broadway productions and has assisted with choreography for the Live Televised shows Miss Universe, Miss USA and Miss Teen USA. Michelle has appeared on major network TV as well as movies, commercials, magazine fashion spreads, night club shows and theatrical productions nationally and internationally. Michelle discovered tango and traveled to learn and dance all over the US and in Argentina. Now Michelle has dedicated her life to teaching and dancing tango with her husband and partner Murat. Michelle’s
Maria Olivera & Gustavo Benzecry
Gustavo Benzecry Sabá & María Olivera are a couple of young dancers representing an authentic way of experiencing an artistic expression known around the world for its elegance, sensuality and expressiveness. Dancers of the so-called “Tango Salón”, they show this dance the way it is danced in its original ambience: the “milongas” of Buenos Aires, the Capital city of Argentina. They teach regular classes at one of the most prestigious dance halls of that city, the “Salón Canning” located in the Palermo quarter.
During 2008 and 2009 they’ve toured more than 20 cities including New York, San Francisco, Las Vegas, Boston, Philadelphia, Cincinnati, Chicago and Portland, where they got the highest ratings for their instruction in the several of the Festivals.
Besides teaching and performing, Gustavo Benzecry Sabá has written two tango-related books, the Tango Danza Glossary – Key Tango Argentino Dance Terms (Abrazosbooks – 2004, endorsed with a prologue written by Carlos Gavito and Juan Carlos Copes, and an epilogue by Miguel Angel Zotto) a dictionary containing more than 300 terms, and Embracing Tango – Techniques and metaphors between Tango and life (Abrazosbooks, 2006 – prologue by María Nieves and epilogue by Aurora Lúbiz). This last one, translated by María Olivera, is the first written approximation to the original Tango Salón (also known as “close embrace”) style, that has been danced in Buenos Aires for over a hundred years. It includes the explanation of 6 basic sequences as well as articles related to the embrace, the improvisation, the dance floor and the surrender. It is finally the first written guide to the so-called “milonga codes”, the rules of behavior and interaction of people in the context of the “milonga”.
During 2009 Gustavo produced a documentary film: “The history of Tango Dance: 1940 -1960”, edited by María. This piece contains a profound research about the way Tango developed in the Golden Years, and includes interviews to several of the living legends of that period, as well as footage of the iconic dancers who made the Tango become the social phenomenon of those two decades.
Gustavo and María have both studied from world-wide prestigious Masters such as Rodolfo Dinzel, Roberto Herrera, Dany García, Alejandra Arrué, Nito & Elba, Omar Vega amongst many others.
Jaimes Friedgen & Christa Rodriguez
Jaimes has been a full-time tango teacher for most of his adult life. Before that, he traveled from town to town with a suitcase and his guitar, sleeping on rooftops and singing songs for bus fare. A dancer of extraordinary accomplishment, Jaimes is hailed for his beautiful movement and musicality. His teaching career began early in his life, giving classrooms composed of various stuffed animals and plastic toys lessons in reading, writing, and basic arithmetic. He has since passed this responsibility on to his daughter, Ravenna, who was born in the fall of 2006.
Christa began her affair with tango as a completely incompetent beginner. Of course all beginners are incompetent at what they are beginning, by definition; that’s the freedom and pleasure of being a beginner. But Christa was really bad. The veterans of the scene thought she might not make it, despite her extraordinary enthusiasm and hard work. A few years later, she is one of the most influential dancers in the U.S. and serves as the primary inspiration for a whole generation of female dancers (not to mention keeping the guys in line). She takes great pride in the progress of her students and continues to pursue her study of dance with the same voracious appetite as when she was that wobbly, wide-eyed teenager years ago. Those who know Christa well know her to be a master of creating beauty out of anything; be it sheet metal, a beat-up old guitar, oil on canvas, the intricate movements of tango, or a friend with two left feet.
Varo Boyajyan and Naomi Hotta
Varo and Naomi met in 2006 as student and teacher in a tango class. Throughout the years they taught/learned from one another, danced and shared the passion of tango. In 2010, they started traveling and teaching together. Varo and Naomi cherish the abrazo and the connection; through their love of music and expression of creative musicality, their dance expresses the emotion, the sensuality and the elegance of tango.
Varo’s immersion into the world of Argentine Tango started in 2004 in Los Angeles, California. Over the next few years he has become an active participant and an integral part of the Los Angeles tango community. He devoted himself to becoming a skillful social dancer, mastering floor craft, musicality, and establishing connection with the partner.
TEACHING: Varo’s rapid progression and extensive knowledge has led him to being invited as an instructor for the UCLA’s Argentine Tango classes, as well as becoming permanent staff member at the “Tango Room”, one of premier Tango studios in Los Angeles. Varo has taught and performed at numerous tango and dance related events in Los Angeles and Southern California, including the recent “Flamenco Loves Tango” production at the Thousand Oaks Performing Arts Center.
Naomi was exposed to Argentine Tango while teaching salsa, swing, and ballroom dance classes at Southern California’s West Los Angeles and Harbor Colleges. Her attraction to Argentine Tango was instantaneous. In 2004, in order to further her tango abilities, she traveled to Buenos Aires, the Mecca of tango, where she spent 5 months in rigorous training and nightly milonga dancing. There she attained top-caliber techniques and absorbed the essence of tango. Her great maestros included Jorge Dispari, Carlos Perez, Fabian Peralta & Virginia Pandolfi, Francisco Forquera and Carolina Bonaventura, alongside numerous milongueros. She competed in the Second World Tango Competition Salon Category, where she surpassed more than 280 couples, ranking in the top 20 of the world. Since 2004, she has been periodically returning to Buenos Aires to maintain and further her tango skills and expression.
Naomi’s love, passion, and devotion for the dance is everlasting. She teaches and performs on a regular basis in Los Angeles as well as in other cities around the world. Her fluidity and grace are second to none. She strives to continuously explore and evolve as a dancer. Naomi’s goal is to one day become an old milonguera, expressing her life’s experiences through tango.
See Videos Last Year’s Performance
Amy Lincoln and Santiago Croce
In Their Words:
We’ve been professionally dancing tango together since 2007. We studied with and learned from master teachers of several different styles until we were intrigued and eventually seduced by the Tango Salon coming from Villa Urquiza.
In 2010 we’ve been invited to participate in the 6th edition of the National TANGO SALON CHAMPIONSHIP of Zona Norte of BUENOS AIRES where we won first place. This toke us to participate in the WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP for Tango Salon where 450 were participating and placed us 9th among 96 couples in the semi-finals and into the 40 finalist couples.
We focus our tango on the subtleties of the embrace, the elegance, the connection and the quality of movement. Instead of putting together
and collecting dozens of sequences, we challenge ourselves and our students to create steps in the moment, coming from a place of rudimentary knowledge and deep technique. We try to transmit in our dance and lessons the importance of celebrating tango from the intimacy of the embrace and the unique encounter of two people.
After traveling to the States for the first time with tango, we witnessed almost a different dance being danced. Since then our curiosities and fascination with culture, human behavior, and art have led us to investigate our teaching from a unique and important perspective. Our deep love for the traditions and origins of Argentine Tango bestow upon us a feeling of responsibility to carry on and transmit the knowledge we have.
Sensitive to the individual learning process of each of our students, we’ve developed a method of teaching which supports the student in his/her own environment. We try to create a space where the pressures to advance are relaxed and the journey of tango becomes more accessible to everyone. Though classes can be intense and challenging at times, we never lose sight of the trust our students have placed in us and the desire we have to accompany their progress.
Each class we give, whether its with 4 students or 40, is charged with motivation, focus and heartfelt spirit!
Jorge Nel Joins Tucson Tango Festival
Jorge will be teaching a milonga workshop at the festival!! You must catch this fabulous instructor/performer in person. I assure you it will change your milonga dancing for ever!!
Jorge Nel Giraldo, professor of physical education and dance in his country of Colombia, he is considered one of the best instructors of tango dance in the United States since he has been teaching and dancing for over 30 years.
The city of Miami has given him a proclamation naming the 15th of May as
“Jorge Nel Day” for being the pioneer of tango in Florida.
He has participated in films dancing tango, one of the films is Random Hearts with Harrison Ford, another film with Celia Cruz and Al Pacino. Jorge directed his own dance company, Tango Fever, for over 10 years.
He was the last dancer acting alongside Libertad La Marque, diva of the Hispanic cinema and Jorge was one of the first tango entrepreneurs to start the Tango Festivals in the United States.
At present he is considered one of the best salon tango dancers in his country and is currently well recognized in the United States as one of the best Milonga dancers in the USA.
Emily Ortiz and Vladimir Estrin
From LA Vladimir and Emily are important instructors on the LA scene. You will be happy we invited them!
Emily Ortiz-Gorcie started developing her passion for the tango at 5 years old, recalling Carlos Gardel’s breath-taking voice over her Argentinian father’s record player on Sunday afternoons. Once she grew up and learned the art of the Argentine Tango, she realized her true passion for the dance. Emily has performed tango exhibitions in several cities around the world in places such as Puerto Rico, Mexico, Greece, Hungary, and Spain. In 2008, Emily performed to the music of Astor Piazzolla on the world famous stage of the Hollywood Bowl alongside the Los Angeles Philharmonic.
In Buenos Aires, Emily has studied with many great maestros including Carlitos Perez, Gabriel Misse, Javier Rodriguez, Geraldin Rojas, and Milena Plebs to name a few. In 2009 and 2010, Emily had the honor and pleasure of working with and assisting Maestro Pablo Veron, star of the award-winning film ‘The Tango Lesson’. Emily has also assisted renowned maestros such as Raul Bravo, Ricardo Barrios, Jorge Firpo, Eduardo Capussi, Hugo Patyn, and Graciela Gonzalez “La Leona Del Tango” for festivals and workshops in Buenos Aires and the United States.
Emily has also worked behind the scenes as Executive Producer and Dance Company Manager with Natalia Hills’ production company, Tangueros del Sur, and their production, “Romper el Piso”, which was featured in New York’s City Center as well as the Vail International Dance Festival and received outstanding reviews in the New York Times.
In May 2010, Emily co-founded Tango Smith and produced the Santa Monica International Tango Holiday, aka “The SMITH”, an annual international tango dance and music festival in Los Angeles which attracted hundreds of dancers from all over the country, and featured professional dance couples from Argentina and U.S. based tango musicians. In 2011 Emily will be directing a new tango festival in San Juan, Puerto Rico which will debut in October 2011.
An acclaimed Argentine Tango Instructor, performer, organizer, and producer, Vladimir Estrin, has been an integral part of the LA’s tango community since 2001. His detailed approach to tango education, in-depth understanding of both leader’s and follower’s roles and techniques, kinesiology and musicality, have earned him great respect among the students and the peers.
Originally from Russia, and growing up in a very musical family, Vladimir has been exposed to the sounds of Tango from the earliest age. After taking his first Argentine Tango lesson, he knew that he had found his passion.
In 2001, Vladimir founded www.TangoAfficionado.com – International Online Tango Resource, that has become one of the most visited Tango-related websites in the United States.
Currently Vladimir is a full-time Tango instructor, and runs the Argentine Tango program at the 3rd Street Dance studio in Los Angeles, California.
He continues to advance tango education, as well as promote local and international instructors and performers in Los Angeles, Southern California and United States.
Delisa Myles
Delisa Myles, M.F.A., is a professor of dance at Prescott College where she focuses on dance as an avenue for personal inquiry and a communicative pathway for connections between people and environment. She is a founding member of Human Nature Dance Theatre and has been choreographing and performing in Northern Arizona since 1992. She is a certified yoga instructor and meditation practitioner. Delisa has been dancing tango for five years and teaches with her partner Earl Duque in Prescott, Flagstaff, Jerome and Sedona. www.delisamyles.com
Morning warm up and stretch will focus on gently opening, relaxing and rejuvenating the body for long days and nights of dancing. Particular attention will be focused on the spine feet, and shoulders. Please wear clothing that allows you to comfortably sit on the floor.
Sabah Chamas DJ
Sabah got addicted to Tango in the late nineties. It started with dancing and now it includes being a DJ.
Tango music occupies my thoughts and energizes my spirit and I am in constant search for good music. Although I try to vary the music I play, I am heavily influenced by the style of dance in Buenos Aires as well as the music played at the milongas there so feel free to call me old fashioned.
Paul Akmajian
Paul has been dancing tango since 1998 and teaching for the last six years. His love for the music and travels to Buenos Aires led him to begin building an extensive collection of songs and become a DJ. He has been a steady in DJ in Albuquerque for almost 10 years and in the last five years he has DJ’d at festivals around the country including Denver, Seattle, Chicago, St. Louis, Phoenix, and the Tucson Tango Festival. Paul has also DJ’d for numerous special events and milongas in Los Angeles, Seattle, Phoenix, Tucson, Salida, CO, and Santa Fe, NM. As a DJ, Paul strives to keep everyone energized and dancing by playing the best, most familiar, time-tested and dancer-approved music from the Golden Age of Tango.
Varo Boyajyan DJ in action!
Varo’s DJ Bio
As an avid dancer himself, Varo has a deep appreciation for the tango music as a crucial part of the overall milonga experience for each dancer. As a DJ, Varo strives to create a musical atmosphere that inspires the dancers and connects with them on the emotional level.
While DJ-ing, Varo is always connected to the dancers-either by observing the energy and the interactions of the dancefloor, or dancing in the middle of it. In addition to selecting good tango songs, Varo pays detailed attention to the structure of the playlist.
Varo comprises the tandas and the relationship of tandas to each other in a way to establish a harmonious flow of the energy, and to develop emotional-energetic contrasts with a tasteful climax and rise that resonate within each dancer.
Varo regularly DJ’s at milongas in Los Angeles and Southern Calfornia. He has DJ’d along with Otros Aires and Narcotango. Varo is also invited to DJ at festivals all over the US.
“Derrick Del Pilar took his first tango steps in Buenos Aires in 2006. After half a year’s immersion in the birthplace of tango, he returned to the University of Arizona and began to dance locally, and also attend festivals around the country. After completing his B.A. in Creative Writing and Spanish Literature, he spent two years in the San Francisco Bay Area, where he earned an M.A. in Latin American Studies (with a focus on 20th century Argentina) from Berkeley, and also managed to dance almost every night in one of the U.S.A.’s largest and most diverse tango communities.
As a DJ, Derrick strives to fulfill two promises: to the dancers, to pull them out of their seats with thoughtfully arranged tandas; and to the Golden Age musicians, to let their music shine with the best fidelity recordings available. He has kept people dancing at popular venues in the Arizona and the Bay Area, and also in his hometown at the 2010 Chicago Mini Tango Festival.
You can read Derrick’s translations of Golden Age tango lyrics and listen to the best dance versions at http://poesiadegotan.wordpress.com.”
Larry Richelli Tango DJ
Larry loves Tango!
He started the tango community on Kauai HI. He was a DJ at the first 3 Maui tango festivals. Now living in Southern California, dancing and DJing all over the southland. From El Encuentro in Los Angeles to Milongas in San Diego and Palm Springs including the Tango Mundo tango Festival.
Larry’s fondest DJ moment. At a milonga on Oahu, HI. It was during the running of Forever Tango. At about 11pm the great Carlos Gavito and three other couples from the show came in to dance at the milonga. After about an hour, Carlos came up and complimented me on the music and shook my hand… Wow.
“My passion for tango stated 5 years ago. I was on Kauai and someone called and said that there was a demonstration of tango going on. Well, I went but it was already going on. As I was walking across the grass with a full moon above I got into range where I could hear the music and I just stopped with goose bumps all over…I had heard this music before. It was when I was a child staying with my Italian grand parents.
It hit me right in the heart! From that day on, tango has been about the music for me. The music of those old masters is the heart of tango. Watching videos of Anibal Troilo (Gordo Pichuco) and others leading their orchestras makes my hair stand on end. I feel so privileged being able to hear their music and enjoy dancing to it. This is one reason that dancing to alternative music is something I just can’t enjoy…that golden age music is the heart and soul of tango for me.”
Socially Conscious Hip Hop Artist Momo Smitt fell in love with Argentine Tango in October of 2009. With an extensive background in music but no experience with partner dancing of any kind he quickly jumped head first into studying, enjoying, and writing music about the dance.
“From the hole there formed a hold in tango/ Gotta grab and master this craft of the soul/ Gotta open my own/ To this deepest abyss of bliss/ I’ve gotta find it, at least just an inch of it.” He raps in his song titled “A Hold In Tango” a powerful track detailing the heartbreak leading up to his discovery of tango as well as his frustration and success making the transition from open to close embrace.
Dancing for many hours everyday and performing his original “Tango Raps” at various festivals around the U.S. he shares his enthusiasm with a childlike innocence through clever rhyme schemes and danceable rhythms.
Momo will be performing during the Saturday Alternative Milonga.
Tucson Tango Festival Flier
Tucson Tango Festival Flier
Thanks to Judy Miller all of our guests were welcomed as they arrived!!!
