Austin Tango Teachers
Index
Alphabetical by first name
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David Phillips
David teaches private and small group lessons (up to four couples) at his home studio in west Oak Hill (southwest Austin). We can also use your home or some nearby studio, which may involve travel time or floor fee.
Our non-traditional approach sees tango as a game where dancers play cooperatively and everyone can win. The rules use things we already know: using our body in coordinated, well-structured ways; interacting with others in comfortable ways; and expressing our feelings for music. Guided activities help us discover our “sweet spot” in each of these areas — to become Clear, Comfortable, Creative dancers.
Diverse training in dance and mind-body systems (Alexander Technique, Feldenkrais, NLP), and best practices for teaching, learning, and coaching has informed his guided self-discovery approach. His studies of Argentine tango, both nationally and internationally, have included:
* El Corte Tango in Nijmegen, Netherlands, Tango Teacher Training 2023
* ProDVIDA Bronze, Silver, Gold, and Platinum with High Honors 2016-2017
* Caminar Abrazados International Tango Teacher Training in Saarbrücken, Germany 2016-2017
* DanceAbility International Teacher Certification 2015
* Tomás Howlin, Tango-Learning 1 and 2, 2014, 2015
* Minnesota Tango Teacher Camp, 2014, 2016
* Tango Salón Extremo, Buenos Aires, 2014
With pro-partner and dance professional, Liz Diana, they created a one-year course — but you can dip in anywhere you like — called the Game of Argentine Tango. And! They gift it to the tango community for free.
Tango Tribe ideas about tango and teaching, learning, and practicing:
* Weekly video tips on YouTube
* The (Free!) Game of Argentine Tango
* Our teaching and ruminating blog
* Facebook
Email David@TangoTribe.com
Text 512-917-6488
Gustavo Simplis
EsquinaTango
Private instruction
Facebook
Co-founder of Esquina Tango, Gustavo is the facility director and events co-director. He found his passion for teaching tango in 2005, having danced for several years prior and learned from renowned masters in Argentina, including Daniel “El Flaco” Garcia, Juan Carlos Copes, and Lorena Ermocida. Being from Argentina, the music had always been part of his life. His dance style expresses passionate feelings and connection, as well as a sense of humor with his partner, the audience and the music.
He performs and choreographs for theaters around Texas, including the Long Center, Austin Shakespeare Company, the Scottish Rite Theater, the Camp Mabry, and more. He has taught the UT Informal Classes of Argentine Tango since 2015. He has taught for Power for Parkinson’s and various elementary schools around Austin. He also brings free introduction to tango classes & social dances to bars and restaurants around town as a community service each Monday for the last 8 years at places including Batch, Opa Wine & Coffee, and Halcyon Mueller.
Gustavo studied tourism in Argentina and spent years traveling around Central & South America, learning about new cultures and developing experiences for the formation of his ultimate dream of opening a cultural center, where people can go to learn about and be immersed in Latin American cultural experiences.
When he first laid eyes on the Esquina Tango building, he saw the potential and spirit of the place that would lend itself perfectly to the mission and energy of Esquina, and so he worked hard to obtain & renovate the building, turning it into what it is today. He developed the cultural programs and the aspects of Esquina that allow people to immerse themselves into new, integrative experiences of different cultures, while building community.
His mission was to build a place where people would not just come to take a dance class and leave, but also see live music, take a quick dance class before the live music to learn enough to dance that style all night, learn languages, and more, all in one place, making friends and feeling at home in the process. You can learn not only the dance, but also the language, history, and culture, and have a complete experience. The multi-faceted aspect of Esquina is what has made it the community hub it is today thanks to this integrative focus.
Gustavo understands that a dance is not just the dance, but the spirit of culture and history behind it, and he has been bringing those authentic experiences to people in Austin for the last 15 years. You will know Gustavo upon entering Esquina, as the friendly man that comes to shake everyone’s hand and greet all who enter Esquina.
Lindsey Zan and Ricardo Correa
Lindsey and Ricardo embody a fresh yet experienced approach to Argentine tango. Combined they bring decades of experience in teaching, performing and choreographing Argentine tango along with other dances. They have taught and performed throughout the US and internationally in Taiwan and Argentina.
Their style emphasizes connection, creativity, improvisation, fun, friendliness, kindness, and care for ourselves and our partners. Their teaching style utilizes adult learning methods and focuses on refining foundational technique and improvisational skills to enable dancers to deeply connect with their partners, express their musicality, and embrace their unique style. In their classes and private lessons you will experience exercises and tools to help you understand concepts, improve your execution of movement and nurture your creativity in a fun supportive and safe environment.
Lindsey & Ricardo teach weekly group classes and are available for private lessons and performances. For more information on Lindsey and Ricardo visit ConnectionTango.com or their Facebook page.
Monica Caivano
EsquinaTango
Private instruction
Facebook
Co-founder of Esquina Tango, Monica is the operational director and events co-director. She began teaching tango in 1997, in Austin, Texas. Her career in tango began as a teenager in her hometown of Buenos Aires, Argentina. Her family moved to the United States taking her along when she was 17. In Austin, her love for the arts did not leave but rather intensified. Parallel to working in college, where she studied theatre, Monica found herself in search of other tango lovers in town. Slowly she found some other enthusiasts and they started practicing in a living room; with time, curious eyes began joining them and slowly but surely the living room became too small and they had to move to a bigger spot. This was the birth of the Austin Argentine tango community.
Monica has trained with masters like Nito & Elba, Carolina & Diego, Lorena Ermocida, as well as many other renowned teachers. By the time the idea of Esquina Tango materialized, Monica had already been teaching tango to the Austin community for 10 years. Her motivation for teaching was and continues to be to share her love for the dance, the music, and the culture. Her incentive is to get people “out in the street” dancing. Her charisma and warm personality engages students.
Monica’s tango teaching style helps dancers build on their technical abilities while placing relevance on the connection of leading/following and on dancing to the music. Furthermore, Monica works towards creating dancers that have great social skills and etiquette in the “Milongas”.
Esquina Tango has been an amazing dream come true for the continuation of building social dancers along with a community of wonderful friends. At Esquina Tango teaching goes beyond the mere act of conveying information, it’s creating links and crossroads between people, sharing, and making the love for dance and music contagious.
Vania Rey
VaniaTango.com
Facebook @VaniaRey.Tango
TEACHER. Vania embarked on her tango-teaching journey in 2002 in Berlin, Germany. After being invited to teach in New York City in 2005, she decided to make North America her new base. Since that time, Vania has traveled to teach and DJ (see below) in over 50 cities across three continents, in communities large to small, freshly-established to deeply-rooted, teaching tango in four languages.
Highly-respected and almost equally accomplished as both leader and follower, Vania has performed around the world with over 50 different partners, with women as well as men, in both roles. Her greatest strengths as both a dancer and a teacher are her versatility and range, traits gleaned and continually developed on her own tango journey, through years of experience dancing and teaching a wide variety of styles.
Whether you want to work on leading that tricky sequence of overturned back-sacadas for your upcoming nuevo-tango performance, or simply want to feel more free in your own body and beautiful when you stand, Vania’s dedication and careful attention to detail can help guide you there.
Regardless of the class topic, as an instructor Vania emphasizes techniques that are universal in helping both leaders and followers, either as individuals or as couples, achieve more comfort, stability, and ease of movement in the dance.
DJ. I began tango DJing in 2008, and over those 12 years I’ve witnessed a constant evolution both in my musical preference and in my DJ style. My greatest strength as a DJ has been to stay conscious of that development as I’ve grown over 20 years as a dancer, because it permits me to play to all the dancers’ various experience and skill levels, from beginner all the way up to the current tastes of the most-experienced and highest-level dancers.
Aside from hosting/DJing a monthly two-room (one traditional, one alternative) milonga in Austin, Texas, I travel regularly to teach and DJ tango around the world, thus far having had the opportunity to play for crowds in over 40 cities on three continents. Those gigs include the big, national festivals and marathons, but also the more intimate, local milongas, including locations in Buenos Aires.
I maintain a close network of tango DJ friends, which has been a way to share and discuss ideas about history, trends, fashions, and technology in the ever-changing tango music world. I’m also available to teach tango DJ lectures.
Learn more about Vania at Vania Tango.