Tucson Tango Festival returns to Casino Del Sol and celebrates their 10th Anniversary. A stellar cast of instructors, performers and DJs are scheduled to excite the Argentine Tango community visiting Tucson from across this country and from countries around the globe where people TANGO!

A free Beginners Bootcamp is offered again to engage the community of newbies who want to sample the dancing and get a glimpse of stunning dancing at the milonga on Saturday evening. To register, visit the website under the ‘registration’ tab and look for ‘beginners bootcamp.’ This bootcamp will be taught by Tucson’s Rusty Cline and Portland’s Glykeria Manis.

To register, visit: https://tucsontangofestival.com

2019 TUCSON TANGO FESTIVAL WORLD-CLASS INSTRUCTORS

Nicholas Tapia and Stephanie Berg ~ Nicholas and Stephanie have been teaching together for 5 years. They are trained in classic salón, tango nuevo, and milonguero style (US). They have performed all over the country and at prestigious venues in Buenos Aires.

Paloma and Maximiliano ~ 20 years of experience and knowledge in Stage and Salón tango style. Awards: 1st place World Tango Championship TAFISA 2008
(Busan, South Korea), 2nd place World Tango Championship 2007
(BA, Argentine), 6 finals World Tango Championship (BA, Argentine), and several 1st places in national competitions in Chile between 2001 and 2006.

Oscar Casas and Marie Roach ~ Oscar teaches with energy and humor, emphasizing concepts, specializing in improvisation always interpreting the music and respecting the character of the different orchestras. He is especially interested in the dynamics and cadencia of the dance. Everything he teaches is applicable to crowded milongas. Marie has been dancing since she was eight, continued her studies at Brigham Young U, and in 1988 she competed, performed and taught ballroom and latin dance. She discovered Argentine tango in 2003, traveled all over the U.S. and Argentina to study with masters and opened her own studio, Riolo Dance, in downtown Indianapolis.

Santiago Castro and Fernanda Valdovinos ~ Santiago is director and choreographer of Tango Dance Company and School “Libertango” and currently lives in Italy. He has 20 years’ experience touring the world performing, competing, coaching champions and teaching. He speaks Spanish, Italian, and Tango English. Fernanda currently lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and is originally from Santiago de Chile. Tango was a part of her family growing up and she ‘embraced’ it more seriously when she was 20. She learned from masters and teaches workshops and privates in the San Francisco Bay Area, San Diego, Phoenix, and Tucson and at festivals
in Albuquerque, Tucson, Valentango, and Burning Tango.

Jennifer Bratt and Ney Melo ~ Jennifer currently lives in New England and is well known for her technique and embellishment bootcamps, whipping ladies into tango shape all over the country. In 2000 she quit her ‘day job,’ and began teaching and performing, making tango t-shirts by hand, distributing a free tango ‘zine in NYC, importing tango shoes, and she created Close-Embrace.com containing articles, tutorials, and photographs she took of dancers at milongas. Ney’s tango inspiration and training came from the master couple “Javier Rodriguez y Andrea Missé” and other Argentine masters of the salon style of tango. He is an international instructor and coaches teachers and choreographers around the world.

Murat Erdemsel ~ Murat, with his former partner Michelle Lamb, were a huge influence on the growth and development of both the Tucson Tango Festival and the Tucson tango community. They were part of the first festival and although now, working separately, it will be great to have them here for our 10th anniversary. Murat will be teaching a musicality lecture and will be available for privates. Murat’s journey of dancing tango started in 1998. He was born in Turkey with Italian and Croatian roots. Murat travels 35+ weeks a year to teach, is spending more time in Lausanne, Switzerland, but calls a number of ‘bases’ his home.

Rusty Cline and Joanne Canalli ~ Tucson’s own and founders of the Tucson Tango Festival, Rusty and Joanne run Learn-to-Tango.com. Rusty Cline has danced, competed and attended more than 60 festivals and 4 trips to Buenos Aires, the vast experience of this master teacher is remarkable and varied. He has worked with more than 120 top level tango masters, 15 of which were world champion dancers. Joanne studied with Rusty, they partnered in dance, then they partners in life and were married during one of the Tucson Tango Festivals! Her focused study of the tango, learning from masters, and practice/performance, have made a positive impact on the inherent stiffness generated by a scoliosis surgery rod implant in her spine at a young age. To her surprise she is now doing moves with her body that she thought would never be part of her repertoire. The lesson Joanne has learned from this personal experience is that dance is a possibility in most anyone’s life, regardless of age or physical abilities.

Glykeria Manis ~ Glykeria has a Master’s in Dance & Movement Therapy and teaches regularly in Portland, Oregon. Trained in NYC and Buenos Aires, she’s been dancing and teaching Argentine Tango for over a decade. As an outgrowth of her training, she became aware of tango not only as an art form and social dance, but also as a vehicle to explore non-verbal communication that increases attunement to ourselves and to others. She infuses her teaching and dancing with somatic awareness, emphasizing balance, elegance, solid technique and creativity.

Casino Del Sol $119 per night + 12% tax. No resort or parking fees.
Vendors: Atelier Vertex, Tangoleva, Shoes by Yolanda, Distinctive Dancewear Design