Philadelphia International Tango Festival from May 23-26, 2014

The Philadelphia Argentine Tango School presents the 4^th Annual Philadelphia International Tango Festival from May 23-26, 2014.  This year, in addition to its local appeal, the festival anticipates hosting visitors from at least twenty states and five countries.
An improvised social dance that originated in Argentina and Uruguay in the late 1800′s, Argentine tango is now danced enthusiastically by large numbers of people in vibrant tango communities around the world.  Completely improvised, Argentine tango makes possible for complete strangers to enjoy wonderful dances together.  As a result, tango dancers often become addicted to traveling the world to experience the dance in different cities.  With a first-class group of tango maestros (masters) and DJs, the Philadelphia International Tango Festival has become recognized as a destination by tangueros (tango dancers) worldwide.

Silvina Valz

The festival features four internationally-renowned tango couples, three of whom come from Buenos Aires, Argentina. Also appearing is Silvina Valz, recognized as one of the greatest living tangueras (female tango dancers). Having taught and performed throughout the world, Silvina recently gained great acclaim as the featured dancer in “Fermin”, an Argentine film released this month, which has already appeared at the Chicago Latino Film Festival. Silvina will be teaching and performing with Andres Amarilla, a celebrated Argentine tanguero who has been dancing over 25 years.

Javier Antar and Kara Wenham

Guillermo Cerneaz and Marina Kenny

Adam Hoopengardner and Ciko Tanik

The festival also features tango couples Javier Antar and Kara Wenham (of Argentina and the U.S., respectively), Guillermo Cerneaz and Marina Kenny (Argentina) and Adam Hoopengardner and Ciko Tanik (New York).
Thirty tango workshops are being offered for dancers of all levels. The workshops are organized into tracks or specific topics – tango musicality, movement technique and improvisation. This year, the festival will feature an unprecedented seven milongas and prácticas (Argentine tango social dances and practice events), to keep attendees dancing from early evening into the wee hours over the Memorial Day Weekend.
Most festival events (workshops and social dances) will take place in the upstairs ballroom at the RUBA Club in Northern Liberties at 414 Green Street, Philadelphia. This space is reminiscent of a particular mix of elegance and edginess, where tango is danced in Buenos Aires. During the day, workshops will take place concurrently in the studio of the Philadelphia Argentine Tango School located at 2030 Frankford Avenue in Philadelphia.
Of course music is required to accompany all this dancing. The festival is offering an equally popular and superb line-up of DJ’s,  including Travis Widrick (Buffalo), Jay Abling (Phoenix), Manuk Colakyan (Philadelphia/Turkey), Marc Hussner (Philadelphia/Sweden), Adam Hoopengardner (NYC) and Ciko Tanik (NYC/Turkey).
In order that participants have adequate time to stretch and prepare for the festivities and non-stop dancing, a daily yoga class is offered,  taught by Argentine yogi and tango aficionada Monica Moya.
Registration is open now on the festival website: http://philadelphiatangofestival.com. A range of registration options – from a full festival pass, to specific level and day passes, to a milongas-only pass – are available online. Registrants may also choose to purchase individual workshops and milongas at a discounted pre-registration price. Full-time high school, college and graduate students receive 20% off any registration option. Pre-registration ends at midnight on Sunday, May 18, after which attendees may pay at the door for classes that have not sold out and for all milongas and prácticas.
The Philadelphia Argentine Tango School recently celebrated six years of offering superb instruction in Argentine tango to beginners through professional dancers in Philadelphia. In addition to group and private lessons, the Philadelphia Argentine Tango School offers twice-weekly prácticas, monthly milongas and occasional larger events. We have organized three previous Philadelphia International Tango Festivals (2010, 2012 and 2013), and have hosted three major tango bands directly from Argentina, Otros Aires (2009), Tanghetto, (2010) and the Alejandro Ziegler Quartet (2012 and 2013), as well as workshops with many world-renowned tango instructors. In addition to teaching in Philadelphia, our instructors regularly travel to teach and perform worldwide. In the past three years, Philadelphia Argentine Tango School instructors have taught in Austria, Poland, Russia, Cyprus, Lebanon, Brazil, Argentina and throughout the US. In 2009, School Founder Meredith Klein established a permanent studio in the Fishtown neighborhood of Philadelphia.  Since then, the Philadelphia Argentine Tango School has been enthusiastically collaborating with other local arts and development organizations to help build a robust Frankford Ave Arts Corridor.
Videos of Teachers/Performers: