Author: alecoyung

Diego Lanau and Alejandra Saravia are returning to the Bay! Diego and Alejandra teach simple tango figures as a way of helping students improve their technique. They emphasize good posture, walking, and contrabody disassociation (twisting) to create a smooth, beautiful dance. They are also beautiful to watch!

Diego Lanau is from Argentina and began studying tango in 1997. In 1999, he joined the Mora Godoy group in Club Almagro, where he met his first tango partner, Natalia Arcidiacono, with whom he started teaching in 2001. Diego participated in a variety of tango competitions and was a finalist in the 2004 Tango World Cup. Starting in 2006, Diego traveled to various cities in the USA to teach and perform. In 2009 and 2010, his travels expanded to Europe, where he taught and performed in Italy, Spain and France. He returned to the Bay Area in 2010 and 2011. In April 2013, he performed at ATUSA (Argentine Tango USA Championship and Festival). In March 2015, he was a judge at the local championship in Los Ángeles. In 2017, he performed at Buenos Aires City Hall and Club Atlético Boca Juniors (the most emblematic soccer team in Argentina). In January 2018, he participated in TANGO SALON EXTREMO in Buenos Aires. In March of the same year, he was a judge at ATUSA in San Francisco. Currently, he continues to teach and perform in Buenos Aires as well as the United States.

Alejandra Saravia is originally from Bolivia, and has also lived in Argentina and the United States. She started to dance ballet and practice gymnastics at the age of 4. In 2008, tango became part of her life. The greatest influences on her dancing are three of her favorite teachers, the world-renowned dancers Alejandra Mantinian, Moira Castellano and Pablo Veron. Alejandra performed tango for the first time the same year that she started dancing, and has been teaching and performing in the US since 2008. She has also taught in Bolivia (2018), Italy (2019), and Chile (2019). At the end of 2019, she began her partnership with Diego Lanau, with whom she teaches in San Francisco. Together they have a long and varied experience dancing tango and teaching to students of different levels and cultures. They are both professional tango dancers and milongueros, with a broad spectrum of literacy in the dance in all of its complexity.

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Astrid Weiske is one of the pioneers of open-role dancing and is an internationally respected teacher in many tango communities worldwide, well known as a dynamic female lead and a gifted teacher. She has been dancing Tango Argentino for over 25 years, and since 2005 has been teaching in Berlin and accepting invitations to teach all over Europe and the world. 

She has developed strong sensitivity in leading, great creativity in improvisation, and playful musicality, which stand out as key elements in her dance. Astrid is also recognized for her skills as a follower, which greatly expands her knowledge and understanding of the dance.

In 2011, she founded the first International Queer Tango Festival in Berlin, which has earned a reputation as the world’s largest queer tango festival. 

Her exploration of the many styles of tango, from the classical to the experimental, as well as other dance forms like contact improvisation and modern dance, have led her to believe that there is no “one” Tango. She believes in a creative, liberating variety and connection of ideas, movements and technique, while always referring back to the roots of Argentine Tango. She promotes that fusion to reduce boundaries, allowing people to connect and communicate with each other and find their own expression in the dance.

David Orly-Thompson teaching is clear, concise and great for foundation elements as well as advanced moves. Learn advanced tango elements utilizing seamless and sensual transitions from open and close embrace. Each week the class learns and analyzes multiple elements of the dance, how to lead and follow, and understand the structures involved. A fantastic class to help you reach a deeper level and understanding of the dance. David teaches at various venues around the Bay Area and offers private lessons.

With a dance background in Modern dance, Contact Improv, Swing and Blues, I fell in love at first embrace with Argentine Tango at my first milonga, in 2006. A few years later I moved to Buenos Aires to study intensively, dance, sing and soak up Tango in its birthplace. During more than two years there, I studied with some of today’s best dancers and teachers.​ After Argentina I moved to New Zealand, where I began teaching and performing Tango, including on behalf of the Argentine Embassy and on tour to Samoa representing Argentina.

Since moving back home to the San Francisco Bay Area in 2015, I have been teaching private classes from my home studio in North Oakland and group classes around the Bay Area including at Athletic Playground with Homer Ladas, and at Alma del Tango; and I have been performing Tango, both dancing and singing. I was a company member of the all-women’s Tango Con*Fusion from 2016-2019, and I have preformed with the dance company in Buenos Aires, Berlin, and New York City, as well as around California.

I work frequently with the queer tango community. I teach regularly at Abrazo Queer Tango in Berkeley. In July 2018 and 2019 I taught and performed at the Berlin Queer Tango Festival with Tango Con*Fusión. In April 2019 I performed at La Milonga Re Queer in Buenos Aires and in September 2019 I taught at the New York Queer Tango Festival and performed there with Astrid Weiske from Berlin. In April 2022 I taught and at Conexion Miami Queer Tango Festival and performed there with Phi Lee Lam from New York, Astrid Weiske, and Gaston Olguin from Buenos Aires.

As a classically trained singer, I was drawn into the music of Tango along with the dance. I have been singing Tango since 2012, both in Buenos Aires and in the United States, and  currently perform around the Bay Area, most frequently as a duo with guitarist Scott O’Day.

I return to Buenos Aires every year where I co-lead a Tango immersion retreat, BA. Tango Evolution, with maestro Sebastian Arrua. As one of the BA. Tango Evolution hosts, I bring with me my skills in Tango – dancing, teaching, and singing; languages and translation; organization and planning; as well as my experience integrating myself into the Tango life of Buenos Aires.

Learn more at www.mirabarakat.com

Mira’s February series at La Bruja

Ayano Yoneda is a well known and beloved tango instructor who has taught in the SF Bay Area for many years. She teaches regularly on Monday nights at the Beat in Berkeley, and DJs frequently at milongas all over the Bay Area. She is especially known for her work with Felipe Martinez organizing the San Francisco Tango Marathon at the most extravagant venue in the Bay Area, and for teaching tango at Stanford University, also with Felipe Martinez.

Ayano leads and follows and is a beautiful dancer to watch. Her classes emphasize proper technique, to make dancing comfortable and enjoyable for leaders and followers. She focuses on movements that are useful and appropriate for social dancing. She has studied extensively in Buenos Aires, and spends many months traveling internationally each year to teach tango. Catch her while she is here in the Bay!

www.felipetango.com

Since 2007, Jonas has been teaching classes regularly and DJing at tango events around the United States and beyond, in particular highlighting at the Taiwan Tango Marathon, San Diego Tango Festival, Austin Spring Tango Festival, DC Tango Holiday Marathon, the Southern California Tango Championship, and Nora’s Tango Week, and many other wonderful milongas throughout his travels.

Xiaomin began her tango journey in 2013, training to compete in the Argentine Tango USA Championship and was a semi-finalist in the Escenario Tango category as a first-time contestant in 2014. After immersing herself in dancing socially for a few years, Xiaomin began teaching and performing (improvisation and choreography) in 2016.

Jonas and Xiaomin met each other on the social dance floors of the Tango community in the SF Bay Area around 2014, and became life partners shortly after. They have been teaching together since 2017, hosting the All-Nighter milonga and Monday Practica at The Beat since 2018, and managing SF Loves Tango since 2019. They are known for teaching beginner classes and the milonga, a fun and playful form of tango! They most recently taught classes at the YWCA Berkeley/Oakland, the Argentine Tango Club of Berkeley, and Abrazo Queer Tango.

Visit their Facebook page and follow them on Instagram for the latest updates!

Info on Wednesday classes at La Bruja

Anahí Carballo is a queer tango and folklore dancer, choreographer, teacher, and director originally from Cordoba, Argentina. In addition to teaching tango and folklore since 2014, she is the founder, director, teacher and choreographer of Tango Entre Mujeres, an all-women’s tango school in Buenos Aires. A highly sought-after DJ, Anahí plays music at various folklore events (peñas) and milongas throughout Buenos Aires.

In 2019 Anahí was the Provincial Champion of Women’s Malambo for the district of Buenos Aires. Anahí also holds a university degree in folklore with a specialization in tango and Folkloric Dance from the National University of the Arts (UNA). She is a tango instructor at the Tango Educational Center of Buenos Aires (CETBA) and the folklore instructor at the Interamerica Confederation of Dance (CIAD.) Anahí has also studied contemporary dance, ballet, urban dances, modern Cuban dance, and Afro-Contemporary dance. She also has a degree in History of the City of Buenos Aires from the University of Buenos Aires (UBA.)