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INTERNATIONAL TANGO FESTIVAL IN HARROGATE

maestros

GUILLERMO TORRENS & ALEXANDRA WOOD

GUEST TEACHERS TBC

RICHARD MANUEL & CAROLINE HANSON

GUILLERMO TORRENS

​Guillermo Torrens was born in Argentina and Tango soon became his life. He watched it performed in houses, theatres, at Milongas and in the streets and longed to Tango professionally himself. His studies began in Rosario, Argentina with the legendary Orlando Paiva along with Claudio Omar and Maria Veronica and intensified when he moved to Buenos Aires in 2002 to study with teachers such as the “Maestro de Maestros” Raul Bravo along with Angela Ruth Manonellas, Silvio Lavia and Mimi Santapa. While he was living in Rosario his education in the arts covered more areas apart from dance and was enriched with studies in acting with Hector Ansaldi.

Studying classical dance at an early age influenced Guillermo. His artistic background has a strong emphasis on technique and dance interpretation. He studied ballet at Teatro Colon with Liliana Belfiore, a former Prima Ballerina of the English National Ballet Company. Even now he continues to learn from other excellent teachers. Guillermo has performed in many shows and theatres in Argentina such as Teatro el Circulo (Rosario), Teatro fundacion Astengo (Rosario), Teatro La Cooperacion (Rosario), Teatro Colon (Bs. As.), Teatro Nacional Cervantes (Bs. As.),Teatro Avenida (Bs As), Centro Cultural Borges (Bs.As.), Teatro El Globo (Bs. As.), Teatro El Cubo (Bs. As.) as well as at Casas de Tango such as Confiteria Ideal, Cafe Tortoni, Esquina Homero Manzi. He has been also member of the Ballet de Tango Pichincha, Ballet de Atilio Sanchez, Cuballet Rosario, Koi Ballet, Compania de Liliana Belfiore, Ballet Neoclasico de Bs. As., Compania Ballet con Humor.

From 2005 until 2007 he was the tango partner of Liliana Belfiore and together they participated in different shows and events and were invited to appear in TV shows. Guillermo has also performed outside of Argentina in many countries such as Brazil and in Europe. In 2007 he toured around the UK as the lead dancer in Tango Nuevo with the Tango Siempre Company.

In 2011 Guillermo performed at the Midnight Tango show tour in UK and he continued with the Midnight Tango show at West End theatres in London and the national (UK) tours in 2012 and 2013. Guillermo's latest performing work includes his appearance on the iTV live show "This Morning" and the "Classic Brits Awards 2012" at the Royal Albert Hall dancing the music of Miloš Karadagli?. He also appears at the DVD of the "Midnight Tango" show which was released in 2011. Some projects include dance performances for the the national tour of internationally reknown tango singer Martin Alvarado and national tour with Tango Motion (Tango Siempre).

 

Guillermo is an experienced choreographer. He has choreographed many of the shows and exhibitions with which he’s been involved. Countries he has taught include Argentina, Switzerland, Greece and the UK.

He also has a tango school in the North called Tangounlimited, he is also involved with teaching tango in schools and organise various Tango Festivals, Tango Holidays and Cultural Holidays. More information about Tango can be found at www.tangounlimited.co.uk and for Tango and Cultural Holidays at www.indulgeyoursensesgreece.com

ALEXANDRA WOOD

From the age of three, Alexandra knew she wanted to dance and asked her parents to allow her to study classical ballet. They agreed, and since then she has not stopped, continuing to study it to date. Dance has always been a passion and a huge part of her life. She is now an internationally renowned Argentinean tango dancer and teacher.
Alexandra has studied most forms of dance, she has a BA (Hons) degree in Dance (specialising in Contemporary) from De Montfort University. A distinction in Recreational Arts for the Community (Dance) Manchester Metropolitan University, and a BTEC National Diploma in Performing Arts (Higginshaw College, Oldham). After graduating she worked as a contemporary dancer and ran her own dance company for 5 years before becoming a tango dancer. In 2002 she co-founded ‘Tango in Action’, the first Argentine tango school in London.  She left this school in 2011 to create her own Tango School. Alexandra studied tango mainly in Argentina, and with the Tango star, Andrea Misse, who she was honoured to worked with for 5 years. Alexandra is a regular performer at the most well known milongas in Buenos Aires including 3 shows in the prestigious Sunderland Milonga Buenos Aires (the milonga famous for Tango Salon). She has danced alongside some of the most famous tango dancers, including Miguel Angel Zotto (Tango Por Dos), and Osvaldo Zotto. She has toured extensively, dancing and teaching all over the world in shows and festivals, and was recently invited to represent England dancing Tango de Salon in two festivals in Italy and in Spain. She has worked as the principle teacher and performer of Tango Boot Camp.co.uk for 6 years.
In the summer of 2009 she collaborated with Athens based Seresta Dance Company to co-choreograph a Contemporary Dance and Tango show in Hydra/Greece. For over two years she toured with the show Tango Motion with Tango Siempre.
In 2011 Alexandra performed in the theatrical sensation Midnight Tango starring Vincent Simone and Flavia Cacace of Strictly Come Dancing fame, She was invited to be in the show for the second successful tour and in the West-End debut in 2012 where she became Dance Captain. She has danced in Deborah Bull’s BBC documentary ‘The Dancers Body’, and appeared dancing Tango on BBC’s Zingzillas in January 2012. This Summer she danced on ITV's 'This Morning' performing with Milos Karadaglic - Libertango and was honoured to perform again with Milos at The Royal Albert Hall for The Classic Brit Awards  which was televised and on ITV and ITV3 October 2012.
Immediately after she finished the first tour with Midnight Tango, Alexandra played Desdemona in the Royal Shakespeare Company’s RND project of Tango Othello.
Alexandra performed on the BBC's 'Strictly Come Dancing' on November 11th 2012 in an excerpt from Midnight Tango.

Her passion and devotion to traditional Argentine Tango the dance that entered her soul so deeply has fuelled her career. Alexandra runs her own Tango School in Londonwww.AlexandraWoodTango.co.uk

JUAN MANUEL ACOSTA

Juan Manuel Acosta is Dancer, Teacher and Choreographer of Argentinian tango. He was part of the most prestigious international Argentinena Tango Companies and Operas in Europe. Tango por Dos, TangoKinesis, Tango Pasion and Tanguera. 

Operas: La Boheme. Carmen.  Royal Albert Hall, London. Theater Des Champs-Elysses Paris. Sadllers Wells-London. Opera Frankfurt.

As a dancer in Argentina he was part of the most prestigious places in Buenos Aires. Señor Tango, Esquina  Carlos Gardel, Tango Porteño. For more than 20 years he develops as a Dancer and Teacher in Europe and Asia.

LAISA SOUZA

Laísa Souza has a degree at the National University of Arts, (UNA) for Folklore with special mention in Tango.
She was finalist of the Metropolitan Championship 2013, in Buenos Aires in 3 categories, milongueros del Mundo, Vals and Milonga. In 2017 she and her dance partner Ariel Manzanares, won the 11th place in the Mundial Championship in Buenos Aires and  in 2021 she was finalist of the Mundial Championship, in the salon category with Leonardo Pankow.
While pursuing her performing career, she has been teaching and performing Tango in Europe (England, Spain, Germany, Bulgaria, Italy, France, Russia and Switzerland) Asia (China and India) Africa (South Africa and Mozambique) and South America (Argentina, Brazil and Colombia) for almost 19 years. 
Actually she is working in London and taking part at an important show at “Tango Gardel” at the Chatelet in Paris and “Relatos de Inmigrantes” in Buenos Aires.

RICHARD MANUEL

Richard Manuel is an internationally renowned artist, much in demand as a dancer, choreographer and teacher. He has appeared on many shows including : “La Milonga Interna”, “Una noche en Buenos Aires”, both directed by Biljana Lipic, “Romance d’Carnaval” (UK Tour) directed by Myriam Ojeda, “Ferverosa” (UK tour) directed by Wendy Hesketh and “Tangomotion” (UK tour) with the band Tango Siempre.

He was also part of the creative team and choreographer of the show “Tango ! Tango !”, directed by Justin Pearson, about the life of Astor Piazzolla which toured the U.K in 2008, 2009 & 2012.

In 2009 he choreographed “Bolero” by Ravel for 4 tango dancers for Conductor Darrell Davison.

In November 2011 he joined the show “Midnight Tango” (West End, UK Tour & Strictly Come Dancing on BBC 1) directed by Karen Bruce (344 shows in two seasons 2012 & 2013).

Since 2014 he is one of the organisers and performers of the International Tango Festival in Harrogate.

Between 2014 and 2018 he has toured UK with the show Tangomotion and has started working with the Santiago Quartet in October 2017.

Recently he has choreographed and performed on three promotional videos for the Santiago Quartet, the rock band The 5th Element and The Great Masked Ball for The Lost Estate.

Finally in August 2018, he has choreographed, performed and directed a video clip called “Barreras de Amor”.

Richard has taught and performed in 12 countries and more than 140 cities around the world for workshops, festivals & shows.

For more information : www.tangografia.com

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