Teacher Bios

NOTE: All our teachers are available for private lessons; please see calendar for available times and email the organizer.

Cecilia González
Well respected by the tango community in Buenos Aires, Cecilia has taught and danced at numerous festivals around the world, partnering some of the most famous tangueros of her generation, such as Osvaldo Zotto, Fabian Salas, and Mariano 'Chicho' Frumboli.

The technical precision, fluidity, and elegance of her movements and notable capacity of improvisation characterize her dance. Her complete knowledge and passion for teaching makes her a very appreciated and requested tango teacher, being invited regularly to give workshops in Europe and North America since 1996. She also has taught in Asia and at the Sydney International Tango Festival and the International Grand Tango Festival of New Zealand.

She has been on the teaching faculty of the Argentine International Tango Congress (CITA), held annually in Buenos Aires, since its inception in 1999. Included in her language studies are Spanish, English, and Italian; and in other studies: yoga, kung fu, pa kua, and contact improvisation.

More info: www.tangomotion.com

Evan Griffiths
Sometimes quiet and incredibly subtle, sometimes drastically daring and mad fast, his dancing is always precise, intense, and intimate.

Evan has been dancing tango since 1998 and teaching it since 2001. His more influential teachers include Elizabeth Wartluft and Greg Estes in Eugene, Daniel Trenner, and Christopher Nassopoulos, and from Buenos Aires: Luciana Valle, Mariano "Chicho" Frumboli, Fabian Salas, Guillermo Merlo and Fernanda Ghi, Susana Miller, Florencia Taccetti, Hugo Patyn and Miriam Larici, Carlos and Maria Rivarola, Rodolfo "El Chino" Aguerrodi, Norberto "El Pulpo" Esbres and Luiza Paes.

He has assisted Susana Miller in classes, and has taught and performed with Luciana Valle, Alex Krebs, Rebecca Shulman, and Florencia Taccetti. Evan has spent time dancing in Berlin, Tokyo, and Buenos Aires. He has also taught in festivals and workshops across the country and in Berlin. In 2006, Dance Manhattan invited him to move from Oregon to New York and teach for them. Currently, he lives in Harlem and has been contributing his insight and energy to the New York tango scene.

Evan studied classical piano for twelve years growing up, and studied music in college. He has been playing tango piano now for the last seven years. He plays often with Conjunto Berretin and with the big festival orchestras, and coaches other musicians on how to give tangos the vigor and swing that dancers love.

More info: dancemanhattan.com

Florencia Taccetti
Argentine by birth, has been dancing and teaching tango for 25 years. She has performed with many renowned tango dancers from Argentina, including Pepito Avellaneda, Gustavo Naveira, Pablo Veron and Chico Frumboli.

Florencia captures the varied and nuanced emotions of improvisation. Effortlessly uniting music to movement and mood, she creates an articulate and distinct character with each dance. She takes each movement to its physical and emotional limit with such passion that she can guide an audience to feel the most subtle emotion by the smallest of gestures.

In her classes—each of them uniquely composed—Florencia creates an experimental studio atmosphere, which allows her students to rigorously, but playfully, develop their dancing abilities. Her individual critique is strictly constructive and as amazingly pertinent as her pointed interventions, improving the performance of the class.

As a modern dancer she was trained in Buenos Aires and Europe. She performed at "Ballet del Teatro San Martin," "Nucleodanza" and "Teatro Colon" and danced in the movies “Tango Bar” and "Evita. In Minneapolis, she teaches at Four Seasons Dance Studio between her U.S. Tours and as an affiliated faculty at the University of Minnesota Dance Program.

More info: www.florenciataccetti.com

Somer Surgit
Somer Surgit is an internationally acclaimed dancer who embodies musicality, elegance, and creativity. Recognized as a unique interpreter of New Generation tango, Somer fuses a variety of influences with his own personal emphasis on genuine individual expression and deep connection with his partners.

His sensitivity to music and ability to improvise showcase a richly nuanced choreography with fluidity and elegance. As an instructor, Somer emphasizes core techniques and fundamentals in both close and open embrace. His profound understanding of movement — both technical and interpretive—and well-developed interpersonal skills allow him to convey the principles of tango succinctly and clearly and enable his students to advance quickly and consistently.

More info: www.somersurgit.com

Tova and Carlos Moreno
Tova and Carlos have been dancing Argentine tango together for more than a dozen years—and they're still just as fired up and passionate about the dance as they were when they took their first tango steps together in Seattle in 1997. The Morenos regularly teach and perform at tango weekends and festivals around the U.S. and have taught in the UK, Germany, Mexico, and Canada. Their performances are applauded for their musicality and playfulness. As instructors, the Morenos hook students with a happiness and sense of fun that is innate to their personalities, but they keep students coming back with solid technique and a gentle demand for precision and hard work.

Tova and Carlos have been living and teaching in Boston for the past seven years and are among the favorite instructors of New England's university tangueros, teaching regularly at MIT and Harvard. Carlos recently received a doctorate in the biomechanics of animal locomotion from Harvard University, and Tova was the instigator and organizer of the very popular tango festival Tango de los Muertos. A move to New York City is in their near future.

More info: www.morenotango.com

Mitra Martin & Stefan Fabry
Mitra Martin and Stefan Fabry are the founders and directors of Oxygen Tango, a Los Angeles-based tango school devoted to creating an exceptional learning environment for students of all levels to learn tango. Teaching tango together since 2004, Mitra and Stefan have a logical, systematic approach drawn from extensive research with colleagues around the world. Both are utterly devoted to tango—Mitra since a trip to Buenos Aires in 1998 and Stefan since a walk down Santa Monica's Third Street Promenade in 2003.

Both dance tango full time. Stefan's formal dance training at Tanz Projecte Koln and decade-long apprenticeship with legendary modern dance choreographer Rudy Perez, enable him to inspire students with a disciplined yet creative approach to tango. Mitra's Montessori background, interdisciplinary degree at Princeton University, and four years of group facilitation training, enable her to be an extraordinarily effective teacher. Their students have become fine, sensitive, intelligent, creative dancers who support one another; contribute to a vibrant local tango community; and participate in national festivals. Since 2008, through a 'One Tree Per Dancer' philosophy at events, Oxygen Tango has planted 6,405 trees with The Nature Conservancy.

More info: http://www.oxygentango.com

Rebecca Abas
Rebecca, one of the organizers for Heartland Tango Festival, is the founder and owner of Four Seasons Dance Studio. She will be teaching a contact improv class with her partner Gerry Girouard from BodyTalk. They take tango, salsa, waltz and other partner dances and blend them with contact improvisation, capoiera, and modern dance to create a new performance dance style.

More info: www.fourseasonsdance.com

Sabine Ibes
Sabine, one of the organizers for Heartland Tango Festival, has been studying Argentine Tango since 2003. She has traveled to Buenos Aires and other cities to better understand this versatile dance. She was a dancer in the Theater de la Jeune Lune's tango opera Maria de Buenos Aires. Sabine has always had a passion for dancing. She started as a young girl with jazz, ballet, and ballroom dancing. Born in the Netherlands, she moved to the States in 1990, is a proud mom of three daughters, and works alongside her husband in their company. She and her partner Eric Li teach tango at one of the festival's venues: Social Dance Studio.

More info: http://www.tangoandi.com/