:: Ezgi & Ezgi (Turkey) ::

Ezgi Turmus started to tango in Istanbul University Dance Club in 2004. She worked with many diffrent tango teachers. She was interested in both roles of tango and she performed in many organization. After graduate she came back to Samsun and founded her own comunity which called TangoSam and started to teach. Than she went to Buenos Aires for a while and countinued to improve herself and again came back to Samsun for teaching.

Ezgi Sarıkaya started to dance tango in at TangoSam 2012. She became an assistant. They teach and dance together in their school and they decided to became partner for Istanbul Mundial de Baile 2017 competition as a queer couple. They competed in the final and the placed 8th. They still teach tango and perform in many diffrent cities.

:: Astrid Weiske (Berlin) ::

For more than 25 years Astrid has been dancing Tango Argentino and is well known and respected in the tango communities worldwide as an excellent leading woman and excellent teacher. She has developed strong sensitivity in leading, great creativity in improvisation and playful musicality which stand out as key elements in her dance. But Astrid is recognized also for her skills as a follower which greatly expands her knowledge and understanding of the dance.

Since 2005 she has been teaching in Berlin at "PHYNIXtanzt" Studio, traveling as a guest teacher since many years and accepting invitations to Germany, UK, France, Italy, Russia and also abroad to Argentina, US and Canada. She has received invitations to teach and perform at several Festivals such as Queertangofestival Copenhagen, Phantastango Festival (Germany) or Queertango Festival Buenos Aires. In 2011 she founded the 1st. intern. Queer Tango Festival in Berlin which was a great success and has since earned an international reputation.

Her teaching is based on awareness and analysis of natural movement in combination with her profound knowledge of technique, structure of the dance and connection between the couple. This creates a constant dialogue between leaders and followers who share the responsibility of listening and responding to each other, based on a strong connection to the music.

Her exploration of the many techniques of tango, from the very classical to the very experimental, leading and following and other dance forms like contact improvisation or modern dance make her believe that there is no "one" Tango. She believes in a creative, liberating variety and connection of ideas, movements and technique by rsepecting the roots of Argentine Tango. She promotes that fusion to reduce borders, allowing people to find their own expression in the dance.

www.queertango-berlin.de

:: Brigitta Winkler (Berlin/NYC) ::

Brigitta (Berlin/NYC) is one of the world's most renowned teachers and innovative dancers of tango, inspiring legions of dancers worldwide with her creative approach and musical esthetics. She founded or co-founded the internationally acclaimed Tanzart and PHYNIXtanzt schools in Berlin, TangoMujer, and the Tango Teacher Training Network in North America. Brigitta discovered tango in 1980. In Buenos Aires, she studied with legendary dancers, including Juan Carlos Copes, Antonio Todaro, Pepito Avellaneda, Gustavo Naveira and Eduardo Arquimbau. She was among the first to teach tango in both Europe and the United States during tango's current revival. Brigitta co-founded the highly respected Tanzart studio in Berlin in 1987, the internationally acclaimed performance company Tango Mujer in 1996, and co-created the Teacher Training Networkwith Tom�s Howlin in 2008. In between world travels, Brigitta teaches regularly in NYC and PHYNIXtanzt in Berlin.

Brigitta combines over 30 years of international experience in tango dance, instruction and performance with techniques of Body Mind Centering. She is an equally gifted resource for both close embrace and open style tango. Her workshops are insightful, creative, and incredibly fun!

"I do know that tango wouldn�t be what it is in the United States and Europe without her. I do know that she is relevant to women like me right now. She advocates for women to dance on their own terms. We must lead and follow, and we must build a sisterhood in tango. She has participated in and created tango retreats just for women like Tango Donna."

www.brigittatango.de
www.tangodonna.com

:: Ray Sullivan and Luis Vivas (Miami) ::

Ray Sullivan, Artistic Director of “Conexion”, Miami‘s International Queer Tango Festival.

Ray Sullivan first met Tango while living in Argentina in the early 1990s performing with El Ballet Contemporaneo del Teatro San Martin during his international dance career. He went regularly to the milongas in Buenos Aires to dance as a social outlet while living there five years. Since then, his work and his life continue to be tied to Argentina. He performed contemporary concert dance works influenced – and about tango - by various acclaimed argentine choreographers including Ana Maria Stekelman, Oscar Araiz, Alejandro Cervera, and Silvia Pritz, among others. The first private tango class he took was with Miguel Angel Zotto, and from then on, he became forever hooked. Jumping from master classes and workshops by tango names like Chicho Frumboli, at the advent of neo-tango, to Suzuki Avellanera, he soon opted to only dance socially: for fun... with a deep yearning to dance socially with same gendered couples at a time this was not permitted in Buenos Aires.

In the 2000s, back in the United States, while directing Miami Contemporary Dance Company and teaching for Miami City Ballet, he began teaching Tango mixed with contemporary movement techniques and he choreographed the full evening ballet, “Tango Undressed”, an evening of contemporary dance set to music by Astor Piazzolla. The North American cast performed to sold out houses and acclaim in North America, Europe and Argentina.

In 2004, together with Luis Vivas, he began to explore same gender tango and the beginnings of Tango Queer. Through classes, practicas, interventions and social action he began to push Tango Queer in Miami and abroad, and in 2016 they co-founded Tango Out. Today Tango Out has taught more than 300 community classes, presented more than 25 national and international queer tango artists, produced social interventions for protections of the LGBTQ+ community and produced CONEXION, Miami‘s International Queer Tango Festival, receiving national acclaim, foundation support, the Key to the City and an official proclamation from the commissioners of The City of Miami Beach naming April 7-10, 2022… TANGO OUT Queer Tango Days in Miami Beach.

For more info about Ray Sullivan’s dance career and current programming, visit www.RaySullivanDance.com

Luis Vivas - CONEXION, Miami‘s International Queer Tango Festival

Luis Vivas was born in Buenos Aires where he began his initial tango training. Since his arrival in the United States in 1998, he continued his training with internationally acclaimed tango teachers such as Jorge Nell and local director of Miami Dance Machine, Randy Pittman. Luis participated for 4 years in USTC Tango Fantasy in Miami, performed as a featured dancer for 3 years in Tango Fever, in Tango Review 2003, as well as performing in numerous tango events with his regular tango partners. He joined Miami Contemporary Dance Company in 2004 as a guest tango artist featured in Tango Undressed in the United States, Italy and Argentina.

Luis Vivas is the co-founder of Tango Out in Miami and is a co-organizing manager for CONEXION, Miami‘s International Queer Tango Festival.

:: Katia Abbondanzieri (Geneva) ::

Katia Abbondanzieri (Tangueradelcirco), physiotherapist in Geneva since 1996, has been dancing tango as leader and follower since 2010.

Her passion for studying and understanding the body since she was a child led her to teach anatomy in various natural therapy schools in Switzerland, France and Belgium for more than 20 years. Her classes in palpatory anatomy, movement anatomy, therapeutic stretching and classic massage are popular with novices eager to understand how their bodies work, as well as experienced therapists who want to deepen their knowledge through their practice.

She also teaches Argentine tango singly or in couples so as to encourage listening and feeling with awareness and subtlety. She set up Anatomy for Tango, to provide biomechanical responses to tanguero(a)s eager for body knowledge, to understand and feel the anatomical subtleties that allow harmony and fluidity in their tango, in both roles.

Katia is now invited in several countries of Europe with Oscar the squeleton, to bring its knowledge in the field of biomechanics and pathology of Tango.

Since 2 years Katia is co-organizer of the Queer Tango Marathon in Geneva.

http://queertango-geneva.ch