The Players
Staff From Around the World
Maestros
Hugo and Celina
Dallas TX
Hugo Patyn and Celina Rotundo Two excellent Dancers, Choreographers and Master Instructors of Argentine Tango.
From Buenos Aires, Argentina, these two creators and directors of various productions know how to reach the audience by touching the deepest feelings when seeing them dance, they have made different appearances in Movies, Shorts, Advertisements, Festivals and Tango Shows in more than 30 countries.
There is no audience that does not explode in applause when his show is presented. Celina & Hugo are two authentic representatives of Tango culture.
As teachers they have trained hundreds of dancers in great milongueros as well as professionals who today travel all over the world.
They use an exclusive and approved method where in their classes each person, regardless of their level, reaches their goals, managing to learn and incorporate what they have learned.
Get to know them even better:
Maestros
Adam and Marina
Portland OR
Adam Cornett, a Portland native, has been dancing since 2000. Adam has traveled to Buenos Aires eight times and studies greatly during each trip. He focuses on historical information rather than the newest moves.
Adam has taught at MIT, Yale, Harvard, Brown, Northwestern, and the world renowned Beijing Dance Academy (the Juliard of China). Adam has taught at most of the major Tango festivals in the US. Adam is the official 2016 US Argentine Tango Champion with Tilly Kimm.
Adam has partnered with two world champions, Maria Ines Bogado and Jesica Arfenoni. Adam has taught thousands of students around the world how to dance tango from every level.
He has helped brand new dancers become advanced dancers whom later became teachers and performers themselves. Adam focuses first on connection, then on technique through vocabulary, then intermediate and advanced technique and musicality.
Adam is one of the few dancers in the US that focuses on Salon style tango which is the style of famous dancers such as Sebastian Archaval and Roxana Suarez and many many others.
Marina Godinez has been dancing for about 5 years and teaching with Adam for three. Marina comes from a family of dancers and musicians and she has continued that tradition by being both a musician and a dancer. Having been around high level dancers her whole life, Marina focuses on technique and has an eye for the minute details.
Her appreciation for form in Tango has quickly set her apart from most teachers who focus solely on moves. Marina especially enjoys working with new dancers to set them on a path of connection and technique.
You can reach him here:
Peformer/Vendor/Teacher
Diego and Giselle
Miami FL
Meet Giselle Noelia Bobolis, a National Dance Teacher from Buenos Aires, Argentina! With over 30 years of experience as a highly skilled dancer and choreographer, she's danced on countless TV shows and alongside some of the biggest names in the industry. She has also graced the stage in numerous theatrical performances in Buenos Aires and Mar del Plata.
As a choreographer and assistant on TV programs, theater productions, and event productions, Giselle's vast skills have contributed to the success of many productions. Recently, she's been working in Miami alongside Diego as an organizer of Milongas and Tango assistant, where she's been able to develop her skills and expand her experience in Tango.
Giselle is a highly motivated and skilled dance professional, committed to excellence in everything she does. With her extensive experience, she's quickly become one of the pillars of the TANGO IN MIAMI company.
Now let's meet Diego Santana, a Tango Teacher from Uruguay! For over 20 years, Diego has excelled as a dancer, Tango teacher, DJ, and choreographer. Known for his exceptional musicality and interpretation of the milonga genre, he's taught Tango and DJ'd at countless Tango festivals. Diego has also been a judge at the International Tango Summit in Los Angeles.
Diego has performed in multiple Tango shows with companies like "Tango Lovers" in New York, appeared on TV with Andrea Bocelli, and participated in theater productions as a choreographer and actor. He created the TANGO IN MIAMI company in 2005 and has organized countless Milongas since 2012.
Together, and with his extensive experience and skills they make up the perfect team for teaching Tango.
Performer/Vendor/Teacher/DJ
Lindsey and Ricardo
Austin TX
Lindsey and Ricardo have over three decades of combined experience in Argentine tango. In their home city of Austin, TX, they teach seven weekly group classes and over 700 private and group classes per year. They also teach and perform in tango festivals, including the Tucson Tango Festival, Windy City Tango Festival, Tango on the Rocks, Tango Maya, and the Dallas Tango Holiday Weekend.
Additionally, they have taught and performed in Argentina, Taiwan, Mexico, San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Diego, Seattle, Tucson, Denver, Chicago, New Orleans, Austin, Dallas, San Antonio, and Houston. They are known for their fun, supportive, and clear teaching style focusing on improvisation, musicality, and partner connection. Their classes build confident dancers that move with precision and artistic freedom
Check out their website:
DJ
Tommy Smith
Boise ID
Tommy discovered tango in early 2012 and immediately became obsessed. Since then his love for exploring both the technical and emotional facets of tango has grown. His skills and interests run the full spectrum: teaching, DJing, performing, and organizing. Constantly seeking out top tango instructors to train with, Tommy is committed to the notion that learning tango is a journey, not a destination.
Tommy brings his analytic and organized teaching style into the tango classroom, drawing from extensive experience as a professor of engineering. He values deep investigation into the “whys” and “hows” of tango movement, striving to present concepts that both reinforce each other organically and are accessible to students of all levels. He teaches comfortable and connected social tango, emphasizing embrace, thoughtfulness, and musicality. With over 6 years of tango teaching experience, Tommy has taught in multiple locations around Boise, as well as regionally at events such as Boulder’s UniTango Festival, Missoula’s Spring Tango, and Salt Lake City’s Mountain Milonga.
Tommy also has a passion for traditional tango music and DJing, and he believes understanding the mind of the social dancer is the key to great DJing. He has a simple mantra: OPB (Only Play Bangers!) To educate and motivate beginning DJs, progressing DJs, and those interested in tango music, he offers semi-regular DJ workshops. Events he has DJ'd at include DC’s Tango Holiday, Portland Tangofest, Tango on the Rocks, and Austin Spring Tango.
DJ
Dmitry Pruss
Salt Lake City UT
Dmitry Pruss fell in love with Argentine Tango in 2006 and soon turned his insatiable fascination with the poetry and the music of tango into DJing, translations of tango lyrics, and a tango blog, er, wait, it's actually two blogs now. Dmitry DJ'd and lectured on tango history and tango poetry on three continents. This included Missoula MT beginning 2016.
Check out Dimitry's blogs on tango history, Lyrics and Poetry:
DJ
Deniz Sevinc
Houston TX
Deniz is from Ankara Turkey, and moved to Boston, MA when she was 17 to study Engineering at MIT. During her years in Turkey, she attended a music faculty for the youth where she studied music theory, choir, classical piano and performed at various different concerts for almost 10 years.
She switched over to jazz in 2010s picking up the trumpet, and played as a part of the jazz band around the city of Ankara. She recently picked up the alto saxophone and has been in the journey of learning different musical instruments.
Ever since Deniz took her first tango steps, she’s been in love with it. She’s been told her passion for dance is contagious and she believes it stems from her love of music. She’s studied Argentine tango intensely in Turkey, and in the US with maestros all around the world. She believes that something magical comes when the mind and body connect and she’s on a lifelong journey of discovery.
Exploration of feelings and curiosity about different movement dynamics is her favorite way of moving along her tango journey.
After the pandemic, Deniz and her two very good tango friends formed the Alt Tango group in Houston, and started hosting Houston’s first alternative milonga, Milonga Vault.
As a DJ, she believes that you are almost dancing with the entire crowd, feeling what they’re feeling, dancing with them tanda by tanda.
She believes that different people, moods and feelings inspire us to move in different ways, and both her traditional and alternative tandas are chosen to take you on a journey of different flavors throughout the night, almost like a multi course meal with all our senses.
DJ
Ector Gutierrez
New Orleans LA
Ector Gutierrez was born in Nicaragua and moved to New Orleans at age sixteen.
He started dancing seriously around 2000 and quickly excelled at dancing, performing, and teaching a variety of different styles. In 2003 Ector discovered Argentine Tango and never looked back. His passion for both the dance and the music led him to become the most important force in promoting tango in New Orleans for the last two decades. With historian, Kerri McCaffety, Ector created and hosted the “Kiss of Fire” tango show, highlighting the fascinating, parallel origins and evolution of Argentine Tango and New Orleans jazz.
His deep love and intensive study of all eras of tango music make Ector a well-rounded DJ who can seduce dancers to stay late into the night while surprising even the most experienced tangueros with something new, or very old.
DJ
Dj la Sonrisa
Toronto ON
Mehnaz met tango music at an early age to her grandmother's delight. Years later, she began dancing tango in Istanbul.
Originally, DJ La Sonrisa is an accomplished designer in the Art and Design worlds for some decades, and comes from a strong musical background where everyone in the family plays an instrument.
Mehnaz plays mandolin, violin and the piano. After meeting tango, her musicality flourished from the 24x7 listening, researching, and reading. She learned from the tango world's well known djs, mentors and elves.
Her DJ debut took place in Boston and Toronto milongas. She has her own Practilonga with two other friends in Toronto where they have collective DJ contributions.
She has started playing and getting offers for festivals in North America. Her energy will surround you with love and spirit.
DJ
Larisa Yaroschuk
Salt Lake UT
A Tanguera for more than ten years before Larisa turned her attention onto developing her skills as a DJ.
She has a deep knowledge of music and is enjoying the challenge of choosing the right songs for the tandas and the right tanda for the mood.
She established herself as a DJ in Salt Lake at various venues and events, local practicas and milongas, getting biggest attendance of local Tango addicts who love her style and music she chooses.
Larisa is looking forward to DJing at the Queen City Tango Festival in July 2023 and exited about DJing in Montana in September this year
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Yoga
Jamie Lynn Figure
Colorado Springs CO
Jamie-Lynn took her first yoga class in 2007. She disliked being told to breathe so much it took her two years and a serious neck injury to lead her back to the mat.
The second time around, she begrudgingly admitted it made her feel better and dove in. Developing a regular practice gradually transformed from "required body maintenance" that allowed her to continue the activities she loved into a passion of its own for intentional movement and patience with the consequences of being human.
In 2016 she moved across the country and struggled to find a teacher she connected with, so she became one. In addition to teaching yoga, she's a facilitated stretching specialist and dance teacher.
Like you, she's a long-time tango addict, which helps her build festival classes geared toward dancing more tango for longer hours. Her tango-yoga resume includes Connect: Ashland Tango Festival and Mountain MIlonga Retreat.
In all areas of her practice, she seeks to help people feel safer in, more comfortable with, and better integrated between their brains and bodies. She loves bringing her knowledge of anatomy, injury, movement, and recovery onto the mat to meet her students where they are and offer accessible variations as well as creative challenges.
Where tango is the practice of connecting to others, yoga is the practice of connecting to oneself. Take a moment to breathe some life back into your pieces this weekend and join us on the mat.
Alexander Techique
Mari Hodges
Missoula MT
Mari Hodges is a certified Alexander Technique Teacher, Art of Running instructor and pain management specialist.
She is passionate about empowering people to enhance mobility and performance, discover personal transformation and increase freedom of choice by changing long-standing habits of posture, movement and thought.
Mari teaches anatomy-informed mindful movement, embodied awareness, natural breathing and self-care and self-development skills in addition to pain and stress reduction. Her Alexander Technique training and extensive teaching experiences give her unique insight into human movement and how to help people eliminate unconscious, habitual interferences for greater whole-body coordination, comfort, vitality and calm presence. In group and individual classes, she helps dancers and others “rediscover” integrated movement and mind-body wholeness.
Mari taught and performed Brazilian dances around the world for over 20 years. She has studied and danced tango since 2005 in Buenos Aires, where she lived until recently. She is now based in Montana and is available for individual coaching by appointment.
Mari will be teaching The Goldilocks Zone for accessing postural tone and movement that’s relaxed, engaged and free as you dance tango.
Visit www.DiscoverEase.how for more about Mari and Alexander Technique.
Yoga
Lori Chase
Missoula MT
Lori Chase has been practicing yoga for over 30 years and teaching for 11. She started dancing Argentine Tango 7 years ago. Since then, she has been applying the principles of yoga to tango, and tango has become one of her yoga practices. She has also trained in and taught Pilates and Barre.
She is a dedicated student of the human form in movement.
Although Lori has taught many different styles of yoga to diverse groups – from college students to seniors, she primarily practices and teaches Ashtanga Yoga. Ashtanga means “eight limbs,” referring tothe eight main practices that constitute yoga. But when we apply this to tango, “eight limbs” takes on a different meaning: the combination of the two arms and two legs of each partner.
The practice of yoga can help dancers to gain a better understanding of themselves: their minds, bodies, breath, where they are in space, and how they relate to others. When one brings that self-understanding into a movement
partnership, then we have the eight limbs of tango, and the dance itself can become a moving meditation.
When Lori is not dancing, teaching, or practicing yoga, she works for MissoulaEvents.net, Missoula’s go-
to event calendar, and enjoys outdoor recreation: skiing, biking, hiking paddling and climbing.
She has college degrees in Psychology, Creative Writing, and Anthropology. She also likes reading, writing, sewing, and traveling for yoga and tango.
Yoga/Guide
Julie Rae O'connor
Missoula MT
Registered Yoga Teacher
Licensed Massage Therapist
B.F.A. Theatre
Julie Rae has been a practitioner of yoga postures and meditation since her teens. Her tango practice is her advanced yoga practice. Sharing yoga asana practice with dancers and enthusiasts along the way is her delight and sustenance.
"My wholehearted gratitude to my friends, family, Anusara yoga education, Erich Schiffmann, and my teachers of Traditional Thai medicine, massage and bodywork, theatre and dance for providing me the grace and foundation to teach.
Yoga makes it possible, has been my experience.
Thank you, thank you, thank you...
Enjoy enjoy enjoy..."