Teaching Faculty & Guest Artists
Buenos Aires In the Vales 2012 Tango Performers & Teachers
International Guest Artists
FRANCISCO FORQUERA & CAROLINA BONAVENTURA
(Buenos Aires, Argentina)
Artistic Directors & Producers
ANDREW & ADRIENNE GILL (Southern Cross Tango, South Australia)
BILL JARMAN & CHANDRA LENNIE (Tango Bajo, Victoria)
FABIAN & KARINA CONCA (Tango Conca, Sydney/Buenos Aires)
Richard & Pamela Jarvis (Community Tango in Geelong, Victoria)
David & Michelle Wheaton (Southern Cross Tango, South Australia)
Leonie Berger (Life & More, South Australia)
CALIENTE TANGO ENSEMBLE
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ADRIENNE & ANDREW GILL – Southern Cross Tango
Artistic Directors & Producers of Buenos Aires in the Vales
Adrienne & Andrew Gill are recognized internationally for the artistry, elegance & romance of their tango, connection in the dance, innovative teaching & performance.
Southern Cross Tango is South Australia’s original founding professional tango school. With over 14 years experience & an impeccable reputation for excellence in teaching, performing, choreographing, & presentation of inclusive tango functions in the community, Adrienne & Andrew Gill are highly respected by their peers.
Popular performers & inspiring teachers, Andrew & Adrienne have choreographed & directed over 30 theatrical tango shows, collaborating with musicians & artists, couturiers & dancers, poets & actors, in tango productions celebrating the beauty of the tango arts.
Andrew & Adrienne Gill have worked professionally with companies such as Leigh Warren & Dancers, State Theatre Company, State Opera, & Restless Dance Theatre. They have performed onstage with Milena Plebs, Demian Garcia, Alejandra Mantinan, Carolina Bonaventura, Los Hermanos Macana, Santiago Polimeni, Joaquin Amenabar (Argentina), Massimo Scattolin, Mirko Satto (Italy), Tango Futur, Cesar Stroscio & Esquina (France), Saxafourte (Germany), Anthony Halliday, Zephyr Quartet & Quartito Azul (Aust). Recently Andrew & Adrienne were commissioned to create a choreographic piece for Tango Poetica - new dance works inspired by Australian tango poetry.
Andrew Gill is lead tango performer in ‘Maria de Buenos Aires’ (Leigh Warren & Dancers & State Opera of SA). Andrew choreographed collaboratively with Leigh Warren in the production’s creative development, in an exciting fusion of Argentine Tango & contemporary dance. Andrew & Adrienne Gill were choreographers of ‘Speaking in Tongues’ by Andrew Bovell, presented by State Theatre Company of SA.
Andrew & Adrienne Gill are the artistic directors & producers of Australia’s longest running tango festival, “Buenos Aires at the Beach”, with the 2012 Festival renamed ‘Buenos Aires in the Vales’ & celebrating its’ 13th year in South Australia.
Andrew & Adrienne Gill have appeared on television, film, various documentaries & on national & local radio stations. They are members of UNESCO International Dance Council CID, & have performed in Argentina, USA & Germany.
Festival performances include: Brisbane Festival, Womadelaide, OzAsia Festival, Los Angeles Fireworks Tango Festival (USA), Buenos Aires at the Beach Summer Tango Festival, Sydney International Tango Festival, Canberra International Music Festival, Organs of the Ballarat Goldfields, Murray River International Music Festival (regional Australia tour) Australian Tango Festival, New Jersey Tango Extravaganza (USA), Adelaide Fringe, Perth Fringe, Cabaret Fringe, Winter Tango & Melbourne Spring Tango Festival.
Southern Cross Tango conducts classes & courses in SA & VIC, workshops & master classes all over Australia. They also present specialised courses in schools, universities & rehabilitation centres. Adrienne Gill is the tango dance lecturer at Flinders University Drama School, & is an Ausdance ‘Dancers in Schools’ Tutor.
Southern Cross Tango presents the celebrated Milongas ‘Tango by the Sea’ & ‘Tango Nuevo Milonga’, ‘Tango Experimento’, ‘Tango on the Hill’, & not for profit outreach program ‘Community Tango in Geelong’.
Adrienne & Andrew Gill share their passion & commitment to the positive physical & mental health benefits of argentine tango in the wider community. They dance with elegance and lithe grace, & have made tango relevant & accessible to a new generation of dancers across Australia.
INTERNATIONAL GUEST TANGO ARTISTS:
CAROLINA BONAVENTURA & FRANCISCO FORQUERA (Argentina)
Carolina Bonaventura & Francisco Forquera began their professional partnership in 2008, after highly successful personal tango careers over the past 15 years.
Dynamic & highly entertaining performers & dedicated teachers of tango salon, milonga, vals, technique for men & women, & professional dance coaching, Carolina & Francisco have influenced tango dancers from all over the world through their distinctive style & commitment to the art of tango.
Carolina & Francisco dance with a deep spiritual connection, demonstrating the intensity & emotional power of their tango. Their excellent teaching methodology enhances the technical precision & musicality of tango, allowing the exploration of exciting new dancing innovations, whilst remaining respectful of the traditional essence of tango.
Recently Carolina & Francisco have created their own impressive Tango Company Mestizaje Tango, & manage the ‘Mariposita de San Telmo’, a tango school & venue, boutique hotel & tango production company.
Carolina & Francisco have toured extensively throughout the world, performing & teaching in festivals & shows in Russia, Croatia, Germany, Uruguay, Greece, Belgium, Holland, Italy, Romania, Korea, Taiwan, Brazil, Singapore, The Phillipines, Indonesia, El Salvador & Argentina.
Francisco Forquera performed in ‘Tango y Tango (1996), ‘Forever Tango (2001-5), ‘La Pasion del Tango’ (2006), ‘La bienal de la danse’ (2004), in Broadway musicals (2000-1), ‘Tango Dream’ (2005), ‘Good Morning America’, ‘Vraison’ (2003), ‘Destinos Cruzados’ film with Harrison Ford (2003), ‘ Ballroom dance extravaganza (2007) & Tango Buenos Aires (2007) & many Festivals in Europe, North & South America, Canada & Asia.
Carolina Bonaventura performed in ‘Tango Venus (Japan 2004), ‘Copes Tango Show (Bs As 2003), ‘Fantasia de Tango’ (Gent 2002), with All That Tango company in ‘Fascinacion de Tango’ (Seoul 2002), ‘Tango Maxima’ with Sexteto Canyengue (Holland 2002), ‘Chanta Cuatro Tango’ (Beirut 2000) & Bs As shows ‘Piazzolla Tango’, ‘Copes Tango Copes’, ‘El Querandí’, ‘La Tangoteca’, ‘Taconeando y otros;’ ‘Tango Metropolis’, documentary ‘Tango, el espíritu de Argentina’ & many Festivals in South America, Europe, plus tours to New Zealand, Australia, Canada, Asia, & the Middle East. Carolina organises Ladies Tango Week, a festival of Technique for Women, the ‘Mujeres Tango Festival’ in Naples, & many other special tango seminars at Mariposita de San Telmo.
GUEST TANGO ARTISTS:
BILL & CHANDRA – Tango Bajo (VIC)
William Jarman (Bill) is a highly respected choreographer, dancer & teacher who brings to tango a unique combination of creative vision & technical skills honed over many decades of working in various forms of dance professionally.
Gaining a scholarship in "Historical Dance", Bill studied Comedia del Arte & Colonial dance forms at the New Zealand School of Dance. Another scholarship took him into the New Zealand Ballet Company for two years. After a third year with the London Contemporary Dance School, he took a job with the Vienna Festival Ballet for two years. After this he danced with the Kassatka Cossack Touring Russian Character Ensemble, & then the Athens Contemporary Dance Company. On returning to New Zealand, he freelanced with the Ballet Company & became involved with dance-work education, travelling in this capacity to the 1992 World Exposition in Seville. In 1995 he undertook post-graduate studies at the Victorian College of the Arts in Dance Choreography.
Bill started performance tango in 1990 in New Zealand with Sidewalk Tango, & now operates Tango Bajo, (formerly named L'Affaire de Tango) in Melbourne. He has been involved with the 2003, 2004 & 2005 Australian Tango Festival & the first Tangoz Australian Tango Congress 2005 in Melbourne. He has been a member of the Buenos Aires at the Beach teaching faculties from 2004 - 2010, & has collaborated in the interstate Tango-X-Change program during 2004 & 2005.
Bill Jarman is recognized in Argentina & Australia as an exponent of Nuevo Tango. Tango Bajo /L’Affaire de Tango company collaborated with Southern Cross Tango in November 2004 to present Primavera Returns, performed in Victoria & South Australia. In 2010 Tango Bajo were guest dancers & teachers at “Tango on the Hill” in Adelaide. Since 2007, Bill has led groups of students to attend the Cosmotango Festival in Buenos Aires. In August 2011-2007, Bill Jarman & Chandra Lennie attended Gustavo Naveira’s intensive seminar in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
During 2008 Bill acquired the St Albans Church in Orrong Rd, Prahran, an architectural delight in which to convert into his Tango Bajo studio & milonga space.
Chandra Lennie has been learning tango for ten years with Bill Jarman & is his performance partner. Chandra has also studied Ballroom, Flamenco, Ballet & character dance, as well as Callisthenics for ten years. Chandra travels extensively with her work, & has been to Buenos Aires on many occasions to train with Gustavo Naveira. A speciality for Chandra is Nuevo Tango, the form that she performs regularly with William Jarman, & she cites Fabian Salas & Carolina as major inspirational sources in her dancing.
http://www.australiantango.com.au
FABIAN & KARINA CONCA – Tango Conca (Argentina, NSW)
Fabian & Karina Conca were born & raised in Buenos Aires, Argentina, amidst a steep family tradition of Tango. They were introduced to tango from an early age & represent a third generation of tango dancers in their families. Fabian & Karina’s style of dance is very traditional & their teaching has a very strong focus on elegance, romanticism & sensuality, reflecting their tradition & culture.
Fabian & Karina are the directors of Sydney tango school TangoConca & run weekly classes, workshops, private tuition & two monthly Milongas, including the popular "Tango Entre Amigos". Fabian & Karina also teach classes in primary & high schools, & working with their local council, conduct special classes in argentine tango for senior citizens in the community.
Popular teachers, Fabian & Karina have been invited to teach & perform in Auckland & Wellington New Zealand, as well as undertaking annual teaching residencies at Tango Brujo in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Fabian & Karina joined the teaching faculty of Buenos Aires at the Beach Tango Festival in 2011. TangoConca organizes tours for tango dancers to travel & experience Buenos Aires in March each year, working with local teacher Demian Garcia.
Fabian & Karina have also taught workshops interstate, in Adelaide & Melbourne, & undertake regular visits to Perth & Hobart. Fabian & Karina have performed in various festivals & shows, including the ‘Melbourne First Tango Congress’ directed by Christian Drogo, the ‘Australian Tango Festival’, ‘Sydney Tango Festival’, ‘Sydney Tango Salon Festival’ & other Sydney events such as the Bacardi Festival, Fiesta at Darling Harbour & ‘Mind & Body Festival, the ‘New Zealand Wellington Tango Festival’, ‘A night in Buenos Aires’ show, performed in Sydney & directed by Fabio Robles, ‘Tango made in Argentina’ performed at the Canberra Theatre directed by Jorge Bagnini, & the ‘Australian Tango Championship’.
RICHARD & PAM JARVIS – Community Tango in Geelong (VIC)
Richard and Pam are respected Australian exponents of tango. Drawn to tango’s flame in 1989, they were able to visit Buenos Aires often in the years before the current popularity of tango tourism. Driven to learn as much as possible about the culture of tango and develop skills for social dancing, they worked diligently with chosen ‘maestros’.
Buenos Aires’ thinkers and philosophers, bookshops, libraries, recordings, archives, literary and oral traditions, and Tango’s custodians, offered first-hand experience or inspiration. Tango music was a constant companion to the city’s life. Pam began writing the monthly journal ‘Tango Australis’ a decade ago, for dancers in Australia and around the world. It is a labour of love.
Richard and Pam became known in iconic Buenos Aires milongas, places that exist today only in memory and history books. They danced socially with wonderful dancers, now sadly deceased, and trained with some of the greatest professional dancers of Argentina. In Australia, in time, they received invitations to perform in tango shows and on stage. Initially reluctant, they were encouraged to occasionally brave the limelight when they learned that traditional Argentine tango shows have an older couple in the cast.
Pam & Richard now live in a regional Victorian city. Wanting to contribute to their new home, they founded Community Tango in Geelong. They teach as volunteers and have introduced around 200 people (in two years) to Tango. The group is unique. Students learn in the time-honoured tradition of old Buenos Aires; experienced dancers help new dancers find their feet. Pam tells stories of Tango, trusting that this legacy and heritage will be carried into the personal stories that her students tell when they dance the Tango.
Having recently retired from full-time legal practice Richard now has more time to teach and pass on his tango knowledge. Pam continues to write, research and dance. She is a lively, informative public speaker, these days most often on a topic related to Tango. They both feel that the gift of Tango that they received should be passed on to others.
http://southerncrosstango.com.au/eventsgeelong.html
DAVID & MICHELLE WHEATON – Southern Cross Tango (SA)
David Wheaton studied modern ballet and jazz with a number of dance schools in Adelaide, including the Australian Dance Theatre. In the early 1980s, working as a choreographer with the Adelaide Theatre Group, he combined dance and drama to create a number of performance pieces specifically for non-dancers. Michelle Wheaton’s passion for tango dancing & her life-long involvement with horse riding & technical training, gives her a unique understanding of connection concepts stemming from both disciplines.
David & Michelle Wheaton have been passionate & dedicated tango dancers for many years, training with Andrew & Adrienne Gill, Demian Garcia, Alejandra Mantinan, & Nancy Louzan. They commenced tango teacher training with Southern Cross Tango in 2009, & have taught highly successful tango courses in the Adelaide Hills. Friendly & engaging teachers, David & Michelle also host regular Practicas, DJ at milongas & enjoy guiding the development of new couples into the tango community. Michelle Wheaton assisted Leigh Warren in his initial tango training with Southern Cross Tango, leading up to the creative development of Maria de Buenos Aires.
David & Michelle have performed in various Southern Cross Tango shows, including Once Upon a Tango (Buenos Aires at the Beach) & Tango on the Hill. David & Michelle have featured as Tango Teachers in the Adelaide Hills Magazine Autumn 2010 edition.
LEONIE BERGER – Life & More Performance Training (SA)
Leonie Berger is a registered fitness professional with Fitness Australia, a certified Pilates Instructor & a qualified Life Coach, passionate about making health & fitness accessible to everyone. Leonie established her studio, Life & More High Performance Training in 2004, and has been transforming people's lives since, achieving results for her clients not experienced before.
Leonie is also an experienced mountaineer & trekker and now divides her time between her studio, training for mountaineering expeditions and tango lessons - her most recent expedition in January 2011 in South America traversing the highest mountain outside the Himalayas 'Aconcagua 6962m. From crampons to stilettos Leonie undertook a series of group & private classes whilst in Buenos Aires at the Mariposita de San Telmo tango school and with Alicia Pons.
Leonie has been dancing tango with Andrew & Adrienne Gill since 2008 & performed as part of the Southern Cross Tango ensemble in Tango Poetica in Geelong, 2011.
CHERIE BOOGAART
Cherie Boogaart graduated from the Elder Conservatorium in 1998 and has since been a regular soloist in concert and stage performances. For Co*Opera, Cherie has appeared as Third Lady in The Magic Flute, Peaseblossom in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Dorabella in Cosi fan Tutte and Orlofsky in Die Fledermaus. She was Young Artist with SA State Opera in 1999 and has worked with the Company since as a regular chorus member and soloist in such roles as Nefertiti in Akhnaten, Phil in The Station, Kasturbai in Satyagraha, Ainadamar, Giovanna in Rigoletto, Wowkle in The Girl of the Golden West, and the Sandman in Hansel and Gretel. For Bel-Canto Opera she has performed the roles of Carmen in Carmencita and Alisa in Lucia di Lammermoor.
Her credits also include South Pacific and The Mikado for the Festival Theatre, The Four Note Opera, He and She don’t go together for the Perth Cabaret Festival, The Messiah, King David and Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater, Guys and Dolls (Adelaide Symphony Orchestra), Sisters of Motown (Adelaide Fringe Festival), The Beauty Spot (Adelaide Cabaret Festival) Songs to make you feel Sexy (Adelaide Cabaret Festival), I love you, you're perfect, now change (Singular Productions), and Elegies (Singular Productions). Cherie most recently had great success in the role of Maria in Maria de Buenos Aires with State Opera SA and Leigh Warren Dancers.
CALIENTE TANGO ENSEMBLE
A passion for Latin music between notable Adelaide guitarists Alain Valodze, Mike Bevan and Dylan Woolcock led to their collaboration as Caliente.
Imbued with a sublime and seductive mixture of joy, melancholy and passion, Caliente’s current repertoire combines lyrical melodies with fiery solos, and intricate lines with rhythmic subtlety, to create a distinctive and captivating sound that is both modern and nostalgic at the same time.
The trio has delighted capacity crowds at the Adelaide International Guitar Festival, in the Famous Spiegeltent at Adelaide Fringe Festivals, as opening act for Israeli singer Yasmin Levy and at the 2010 Bellingen Global Carnival. ‘Menage a Guitarre’ features original and traditional pieces that display the virtuosity of all three musicians, as the Brazilian thread is interwoven with gypsy, tango, classical, Cuban and contemporary styles.
During 2011 Caliente included traditional Argentine Tango, milonga & vals into their repertoire, adding violin & bass to their line up to create Adelaide’s very own tango ensemble.
2010 saw the trio perform at the Adelaide international guitar festival along side Yamandu Costa and Doug de Vries. Also the release of their second cd 'Menage a Guitarre'. 2011 places the trio on the WOMAD circuit.
http://www.myspace.com/calienteguitartrio
YVONNE WILLIAMS
Geelong soprano, Yvonne Williams, began studying classical singing at the age of sixteen and successfully completed Sixth Grade AMEB Vocal Studies having earlier attained her A.Mus.A in Pianoforte Studies. Over the years Yvonne has studied with Isobel Biddel, Thea Phillips, Suzanne Ward, Marcelle Menzeland recently Manfred Pohlenz in Geelong.
Yvonne has taken part in musical comedy productions performing the role of Maria in ‘The Sound of Music’, as well as light opera productions and until recently, was a member of the Melbourne Opera Co appearing in performances of ‘Turandot’ (Puccini), ‘La Traviata’ (Verdi) and ‘Die Fledermaus’ (Strauss). She has also presented recitals in Melbourne and Geelong.
Yvonne is also a keen choral singer having sung with junior choirs from the age of five and later with The Victoria Chorale, The Melbourne University Choir and The Geelong Chorale. She currently holds the position of Musical Director of the Geelong branch of The Australian Youth Choir.
A keen Tango dancer, Yvonne is a member of Geelong Community Tango.
