FESTIVAL
The 6th London International Tango Festival
The Academia Nacional del Tango (UK) would like to announce that the 6th London International Tango Festival will take place at Porchester Hall, London W2, on 18th - 20th November 2011.
Please watch this space for further announcements.
Osvaldo Zotto: 1963 - 2010
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It is with profound regret that the Tango community has heard that Osvaldo Zotto, one of the top Tango dancers of Argentina and the world, passed away on the 8th of January 2010, in his flat in Boedo, Buenos Aires. I was deeply upset as I have known Osvaldo for the last 20 years, and he was the star of our recent Festival. I and the participants of the 5th London International Tango Festival were able to enjoy his wonderful performances, his charming personality, and his jokes. He was the heart of the whole Festival, lighting everyone up with his good humour and friendship, a real "compadre" to us all. He has given us wonderful moments we will treasure. |
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We were very honoured to have him perform in the 5th London International Tango Festival, and we will soon be releasing (within a week, we hope) the DVD where people will have the opportunity to see his wonderful performance with his partner Gisele Avanzi. He brought thousands and thousands of people to the Tango through his "Asi se Baila el Tango" Videos and DVD, his performances throughout the world and his teaching, and to many students he was their idol. The Academia Nacional del Tango (UK) and Las Estrellas Tango Studio would like to express to his brother Miguel Zotto and all his family our deepest condolences on their terrible loss. Takis Kalogroulis 11/01/10 Photos taken at the 5th Festival by Andreas Schroeder |
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One of the many visits of Osvaldo Zotto and Lorena Ermocida to the Milongas at Las Estrellas. Here are a few photos of that happy time. |
Osvaldo Zotto & Lorena Ermocida at Las Estrellas
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Lorena, Osvaldo and Takis in Las Estrellas |
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5th Festival DVD - Order Now!
The DVD of the 5th Festival is now available. Please CLICK HERE to order your copy for only £15.00 plus £1.50 post and packing.
5th LONDON INTERNATIONAL TANGO FESTIVAL
We held the 5th London International Tango Festival on the 13th, 14th and 15th November 2009, at the Porchester Hall in Bayswater, organised by the Academia Nacional del Tango (UK) and Las Estrellas Tango Studio, and produced by Takis.
"ONE OF THE MOST PRESTIGIOUS TANGO EVENTS IN THE WORLD"
Sponsored by
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Festival Artists:
Our line up headed by the late great Osvaldo Zotto and his partner Gisele Avanzi. To see photos of the Festival please go to Andreas Schroeder photos
Osvaldo Zotto 1963 - 2010
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Osvaldo started dancing Tango in 1989, and was one of the most prestigious Tango dancers in the world. He was renowned for his precision, elegance and emotion, and widely recognised for his generosity as a teacher. He worked extensively all over the world, both at all the major Tango Festivals and at famous venues giving spectacular performances at the Hollywood Bowl, the Metropolitan Opera House, the Royal Albert Hall and Luna Park in Buenos Aires. He danced for the President of Egypt and the Queen of Spain, and worked with Julio Iglesias. He received the Leonida Massine award in Positano and official recognition from UNESCO for his teaching and performance of traditional Tango. He died on January 8th 2010 at his home in Buenos Aires and will be missed by the whole Tango community. |
Gisele Avanzi
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Gisele Avanzi started studying ballet and Spanish dances in 1998, and since then she studied at the Teatro Colon Arte Superior and the National Arts University Institute. She has danced in various companies in Argentina and Latin America, opening the V Interamrican Dance Meeting and choreographing her masterpiece La muerte de Ofelia at the Centro Cultural Adanbuenosayres. Since August 2008 she has worked with Osvaldo Zotto at the Festival Internacional de Tango Buenos Aires, and with him in Italy at the Festival Tango Fusion. In 2009 they performed in the Festival Tango con Las Estrellas in Plalcio Paz, at the Oporto Tango Festival and the Lausanne Tango Festival. |
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Osvaldo Zotto and Lorena Ermocida performing with Julio Iglesias. |
Takis Kalogroulis and Jane Solomon
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Takis Kalogroulis is the organiser of the London International Tango Festival and Managing Director of the Academia Nacional del Tango (UK) Ltd, and he started to dance Tango from the age of 20 as a young Greek seaman in the ports of Buenos Aires, Genoa, and Livorno in various places of questionable repute with ladies of a similar disposition. After he left the sea as a Sea Captain, he settled in London, and in 1993 he opened his own Tango School, Las Estrellas, teaching traditional Argentine Tango. He was one of the small group of founders of the Argentine Tango movement in London. In Las Estrellas he introduced the estilo apilado (close embrace) in 1994.
Over the years he has taken masterclasses with Eduardo Arquimbau, Pepito Avellaneda, Nito & Elba Garcia, Mora Godoy, Hector Villalba, Lorena Ermocida and others. He also took masterclasses from his friend and legendary dancer Carlos Gavito when Carlos was teaching in Las Estrellas for several months in the past. Takis performed on the BBC, Channel 5, ITV and in the Dorchester, Claridges, the Sheraton and the Hilton hotels with his partner Jane. Now he concentrates only on teaching. Takis is a member of the UNESCO International Dance Council (CID). Jane Solomon studied Tango with Takis for seven years and performed with him. She studied in various ballet schools and completed her studies at the Laban Contemporary Dance School. She recently moved to Buenos Aires where she has taken master classes with Mora Godoy and Lorena Ermocida amongst other great dancers. |
John and Nina Krook
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John and Nina Krook have danced all their lives. When they concentrated on Argentinean Tango in the beginning of the 1990s there had hardly been any Argentinean Tango in Helsinki for decades, and they were instrumental in its reintroduction there. In 2001 they were invited to perform in the 3rd London International Tango Festival along with other well-known top dancers. In Finland they have created several performances, including Siempre Tango based on Astor Piazzolla´s Tango Nuevo and shortly, in September 2009, Tango Roto, for which all the music has been composed by Finnish musicians. Nina and John have their own dance school in Helsinki, and also teach in other cities around Finland. |
Eloy Prim and Analia Centurion
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Analia Centurion and Eloy Prim have been working together for 10 years, performing in the best tango venues in Buenos Aires, also participating in different TV programmes and collaborating with the best orchestras in Buenos Aires. The couple have developed a very strong connection and understanding that can be compared to poetry on stage. Their strong training in Tango, Ballet, and Contemporary dance has brought them national and international recognition. Currently, although Eloy is based in Spain and Analia in Argentina, they are still promoting tango with their performances, participation in festivals and by organising workshops and training master classes in Europe and Latin America. |
Francesca del Buono and Filippo Avignonesi
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Francesca and Filippo dance Tango of the present, going beyond specific styles, encompassing a lot of what Tango is nowadays.
This is Tango without setting boundaries, neither new ones nor old ones, without forgetting its roots and with an intense embrace. Filippo has over 10 years experience of teaching and dancing around the world, where he is much sought after for his exceptional educational abilities. Francesca, with a classical and contemporary ballet background, is known for her mastery of new and old styles, for her creativity, versatility and smoothness. They are from Italy and show the strength of the European Tango movement. |
Andrea Ponzetti and Jorge Udrisard
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Andrea Ponzetti is a National Professor in Classic, Modern and Folk dance, specialising in Argentine Tango. Jorge Udrisard is a Professor of traditional and Show Tango, and they have been dancing together since 1997, participating in numerous Festivals in Europe and the USA. They currently live in Barcelona, where they own and run their dancing school. They also create, direct and dance in their own Compania de Tango. |
Julia and Andres Ciafardini
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Julia and Andres started their tango career in Buenos Aires, being trained by the renowned maestros Carlos Lopez, Carlos Rivarola, Carlos Gavito, Maria Plazaola, Roberto Herrera, Natacha Poberaj, Hector Falcone and many more. During their development as artists they have become highly respected tango teachers, developing a rich expressive choreography defined by a personal style based on traditional tango mixed with modern elements, with elegance and softness, both highly technical and creative. They have participated with the important orchestras Silencio, Orquestra Tanguisimo, and Ensemble Hyperion; and at the festivals All that Tango, Festival of New Year´s day, and Festival of Montpellier amongst others, and are now recognised and acclaimed all around the world. |
Laszlo Budai and Maria Glotz
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Laszlo and Maria are Hungarian, and he has 25 years of experience in different kinds of dances (from ballet to ballroom). He encountered the Tango at the end of the Eighties in Hungary, but he was touched by the essence of the dance during the first of his several visits to Buenos Aires. He has won several European and World Championships of IDO, participated successfully at different Tango Competitions in USA and Argentina, and recently in Korea and Japan dancing with his partner Maria Glotz. Maria explained: ´What the Tango means for us is passion, emotion, the life itself full of thoughts, essence of utilisation of techniques of other kinds of dances we ever learned - getting us over reality into a different dimension during the performances while giving a special joyful experience for our audience. |
Eduardo Del Rio and Elisa Vidal
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Elisa Vidal was trained in classical and Latin-American rhythms, and she has a University degree in Physical Education and Gymnastics. She formed her partnership with Eduardo Del Rio three and a half years ago for a new experience as a tango dancer.
Eduardo has been a well-known and recognized dancer for the past thirty years, and was one of the founders of the Argentine Tango movement in London. He was recognised as a Maestro of Milongueros in Buenos Aires in September 1997, alongside all the maestros of the time. He has performed on three continents in Festivals, Theatres, on television and in movies. They have put together the Chilean National Tango Company, which is performing in mayor cities throughout Chile with great success. |
Lucas Panero and Cintia Tinelli
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Cintia and Lucas have been dancing together since 2004. They started off travelling the world dancing Spanish and Latin styles. They studied Tango with masters such as Fabian Peralta, Eduardo Gomez Couto, Sebastian de la Vallina and Marisa Talamoni, among others.
They have been teaching master classes and workshops in Argentina, Mexico, Guatemala, Cyprus and Italy, passing on their taste for dance expressed through the study of the body movements and interactions between partners. In 2005, they established the dance company Tangoexport, and they were semi-finalists in the Mundial de Tango 2007. Currently, they are performing and teaching in Europe. |
Giggio Pascualetti and Anna Zyuzina
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Giggio has drawn his tango style from the union of many disciplines. He lived in Argentina as a child, and after learning Tango with Norberto ´Pulpo´ Ezbres in Brazil he returned to Buenos Aires to seek his roots and new inspirations. He joined CETA (Tango Art Experimental Centre) where he, working with other innovative dancers, created one of the first electronic tango shows: Resurreccion Urbana. He teaches and performs in Europe with his partner Anna.
Anna Zyuzina is Russian and has danced professionally for ten years, going to Buenos Aires annually to study different styles with the greatest teachers and using this to create her own tango style. Her principal teachers are Graciela Gonzales, Julio Balmaceda, Corina de la Rosa and Sebastian Arce. In 2004 she started her own school Tangomio in Moscow, teaching a tango based on body movement and very exact short explanations of basic technique. She is well known in all of Russia and Ukraine and teaches all over Europe with Giggio and German Salvatore. |
Hector Villalba and La Morocha
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Hector Villalba has been dancing tango since 1950 and has performed extensively in Europe as well as in Argentina, Mexico and the United States. He is one of the few dancers of today who, in the authentic style of the milongueros, weaves the steps of the tango in the moment, spontaneously and directly from the heart, intuitively interpreting the music without need of a planned choreography. This ability is one of the qualities that make him so highly valued as a teacher, and he has given workshops in Buenos Aires, in festivals in the US and at the 2nd, 3rd and 4th London International Tango Festivals. Hector has his own Tango Academy and Club, the Mansion Dandi Royal, in the San Telmo district of Buenos Aires. Hector Villalba dancing at the 3rd Festival |
El Despues Quintet
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Founded in 2004, the El Después Quintet presents a repertoire almost entirely dedicated to new compositions. The two founding members, Argentines Victor Hugo Villena (bandoneon) and Alejandro Schwarz (guitar, compositions and arrangements), are very well known within the tango world and have surrounded themselves with premier league musicians: violinist Cyril Garac, pianist Ivo De Greef and double bassist Bernard Lanaspèze. These five instrumentalists from diverse musical backgrounds unite their collective experience and talents to provide tango music with a contemporary personal vision. The quintet formation gives them an unlimited freedom in soloistic interpretation, not to mention considerable artistic opportunities with reference to musical dialogue and exchange. As a result, they are able to deeply explore Alejandro Schwarz´s music in all its rich detail whilst never ceasing to push at the borders of the renewal of traditional tango music. |
Tango for 3 and Per Arne Glorvigen (Quartet)
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Tango for 3 have been playing together since 1992, founded by Sverre Indris Joiner (Piano), who also composes and arranges their music, with Steiner Haugerud on Double Bass, Jon Mehus on Violin and Per Arne Glorvigen on Bandoneon. They specialise in concert music and have played all over the world often with major symphonic orchestras.
Tango for 3 have toured several times in Norway, Sweden and Denmark. They have also played in France – in Genevillers & Paris (Les Trottoirs de Buenos Aires), EXPO´92 in Sevilla (Spain), the Ikaalinen-Festival (Finland) and in the German cities Berlin, Bremen, Munich, Dresden, Torgau, Bergish-Gladbach, Recklinghausen and Wiesbaden. They recently also did a successful tour in Netherlands/Belgium together with the gifted Argentine singer Julia Zenko, including their second appearance in the prestigious ´Concertgebouw´. |
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Per Arne Glorvigen is a noted bandoneonist who performs with passion and humour. In addition to playing tango, Glorvigen has expanded the repertoire of the bandoneon by playing everything from baroque, kletzmer and pop and last but not least; contemporary music. The young composers Willem Jeths (Holland) and Bernd Franke (Germany) have both dedicated concertos to Glorvigen. In 2003 he performed and recorded with the Alban Berg Quartet and together they commissioned a new piece for bandoneon and string quartet by Austrian composer Kurt Schwertsik. Among Glorvigens musical partners we find artists as Giora Feidman(clarinet), Göran Söllscher (classical guitar), the Leipziger Streichquartett, Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie of Bremen, Orchestra Guiseppe Verdi Milano, Danish Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Oslo and the Gothenburg Philharmonic, the Russian National Orchestra and the Soloists of the Orchestre de Paris; and last year he spent a week playing with the BBC Symphony Orchestra. His most important colleague has been violinist Gidon Kremer with whom he has recorded 4 CDs and played nearly one hundred concerts worldwide. He has been playing with Tango for 3 since they formed in 1992. |
Sandra Rehder - Singer
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Sandra Rehder started her musical studies in San Rafael (Mendoza), in guitar and singing, including euphonics and body expression. She has also worked as a producer of artistic events. Established in Barcelona, she has developed a strong career as a singer, mainly in the mythic Bodega Carlos, where for over 3 years she gave concerts in Tango and Argentine folklore. She participated in the popular Fiestas de Gracias 2003, in the Forum Universal de les Cultures 2004, I Festival Internacional de Tango de la Costa del Sol, IV Festival Internacional de Almeria 2007 and she has represented Barcelona in the VII Cumbre Mundial de Tango 2007 in Chile, moreover she performed in Istanbul and Berne. In October 2007 she performed the show titled Intensotango with Manu Estoa (guitar), Pablo Logiovine (bandoneon), Jorge Sarraute (double bass) and Alejandro Di Costanzo (piano). She has produced three albums: En el nombre del tango in Argentina, and in Barcelona Bajo la piel and El exilio de nosotros, in this last one in collaboration with Manu Estoa, Pablo Logiovine, Horacio Fumero and Sergio Menem. |
Esteban Antonio - Flamenco Guitarist
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Esteban is an acclaimed international Flamenco and Classical guitarist and composer. He has performed all over the world, and composed for the films The Last Serious Thing (Michael Haussman) and The Unicyclist (Mary Soan), appeared in Chocolat with Johnny Depp and on TV in The Fixer with Magnus Fiennes. He began playing the guitar at the age of 3, and composing from the age of 4. He went on to win a scholarship to the Royal College of Music studying classical guitar, piano, violin and classical orchestral compostion. He has designed the Ha Shem, the first Grand Concert Classical Harp Guitar in the world (see left - it has three necks). Esteban played at the third London Tango Festival in 2001. Photo by Paul Cox |
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Academia Nacional del Tango (UK) Ltd
2-3 Inverness Mews Bayswater
London
W2 3JQ
UK
Office: 020 7221 5038
Club: 020 7221 8170
Fax: 020 7229 6339
Email: info@tangoinlondon.com
2-3 Inverness Mews Bayswater
London
W2 3JQ
UK
Office: 020 7221 5038
Club: 020 7221 8170
Fax: 020 7229 6339
Email: info@tangoinlondon.com
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