BOSthón 2023 Artists

Ana Carolina Di Monaco & Simo Raucci

from São Paulo, Brazil

Ana Carolina Di Monaco & Simo Raucci are Champions of Tango Vals and Vice-Champions of Tango Pista in the Brazilian Preliminaries of the Tango World Championship. They have been dancing together for over 6 years teaching classes, giving workshops, performing shows and participating in festivals all around Brazil, Italy, Spain, France and Turkey. For them, the focus of their teaching and performing is always keeping a conversation between the couple (through the dance) , and transmitting the fascination of the embrace and connection.

Diego Lanau & Alejandra Saravia

from Buenos Aires, Argentina

Diego Lanau participated in a variety of tango competitions. He became finalists in the Sin Rumbo Club in Villa Urquiza and in December 2003 was crowned champion, by a nearly unanimous public vote, in Club Saraza. And set the finals in 2004 in the world tango cup. In 2009 he taught and performed in Italy, Spain and France. April 2013, special participation at ATUSA as performer. March 2015, judge at Los Ángeles local championship. In 2017, he perform at Buenos Aires City Hall, Club Atlético Boca Juniors. January 2018 participated in TANGO SALON EXTREMO, in Argentina. March same year work as Judge at ATUSA, in San Francisco. And continue working and performing in Buenos Aires as well USA today.

Alejandra Saravia has been teaching and performing in the US since 2008, Bolivia in 2018; Europe, in March 2019 ( Italy) and April 2019 in Chile. At the end of 2019 she began her partnership with Diego Lanau and continued traveling and teaching in San Francisco. Together they have long and vast experience dancing tango and teaching to different cultures and levels. They are professional tango dancers and milongueros, with a broad spectrum of literacy of the dance in all their components.

Eleonora Kalganova & Tarek Marroushi

from USA and Canada

Eleonora Kalganova is a dance artist and teacher who focuses on exploring improvisation, flow, and communication as process and performance in Argentine tango (since 2009).

Argentine Tango competitions:
– The winner of the International tournament “Spartak Cup 2010” in the category “Show”.
– Vice-champion of 3rd Russian Open tournament of Argentine tango “TANGO CUP 2011”.
– The winner of the International tournament “MOSCOW BALL 2012, “EMPIRE CUP 2012”.

Tarek Marroushi has been dancing since the age of 16 in Folklore, and soon became involved with Latin dancing. Trained by several teachers from Hungary, Ukraine and Russia, which led his interest in competitions and performances.

In 2012, he was introduced to Argentine Tango where he discovered his true passion in the art of improvisation for the dance and the embrace. This took him all across North America and abroad to Argentina and Europe, learning with many brilliant teachers and masters – where he grew to teach and perform along with Linda Catlin Smith.

In 2022, he connected with Eleonora Kalganova, which gave them an opportunity to teach workshops and performances together.

Tarek has been teaching for over 10 years, group classes and privates, along with leaders technique.

Please welcome Eleonora and Tarek as our Teachers for BOSthón 2023.

Iakof Shonsky

from Georgia

Iakof Shonsky is Argentine Tango Maestro, organizer of Tango Academy in NY. Actor/Choreographer at Tango Choreodrama “When the World is Endless”, creator of Tango Academy and Tango School in Batumi and Owner and Founder at BeSTFest.

Please welcome Iakof as our Teacher for BOSthón 2023.

Jacklyn & Cristyan

from Miami, Florida

Jacklyn Shapiro began her dance training at the age of 12. Her instant love for dance and performance led her to become a competitive Ballroom and Latin dancer for ten years. After her competitive stage, she knew her profession lay in sharing her passion with others. To this day, Jacklyn continues to teach Ballroom dancing while focusing mainly on the art of Argentine Tango for the last 11 years.
She has performed and competed in tango all over the United States, and holds a finalist position in the Argentine Tango Championships in 2014, 2015, 2016, & 2017. Jacklyn also performs as a tango singer featured in multiple stage tango productions and showcases.

Cristyan Quiroz is an established international dancer and choreographer. He directs Taborda Dance Company and is the founding director of the Pa’Corrientes adult ballet company. He started dancing at the age of 12 studying Argentinian folk dance, Argentine Tango, and contemporary dance. His dance work experience includes dancing, competing and choreographing for international dance companies, tv programs, and judging international festivals & competitions majority in Argentina, Brazil, and Paraguay. Currently, he continues to dance and teach the art of folklore and tango in the United States.

Today, Jacklyn and Cristyan take every opportunity to learn from each other, maintain an open mind, and grow together as they continue on their tango journey. They also love to perform, teach and entertain using their versatile skills to showcase all of the different styles tango and folklore has to offer. With each passing day, they aspire to become more versatile dancers and performers, and most importantly stay true to what tango and folklore is at its core: Love, Passion, Creation, and a form of Expression.

Jenny & Rod

from Chicago, Illinois

Jenny – as an artist, musician, and Latin dance instructor for many years, Jenny found her true calling in dancing and sharing her understanding of tango. With athleticism and grace, she flows effortlessly through complex movements, always with a strong connection to the music and her partner. Her athletic background and focus on tango’s core movements combine delightfully to create a visually poetic expression of the music and her partner’s lead. Her years as a salsa dancer also contribute a distinctive flavor that is both engaging and entertaining. Jenny has worked with many of the traditional masters of tango in an effort to refine and develop her tango style. She then in turn works with many students and dedicates herself to helping them develop their own styles and become strong tango followers in their own rights. Her quiet encouragement and easy instruction have helped develop a new generation of talented tangueras in the Chicago area.

Rod – has been dancing all his life. Although his background early in his life has been mostly in hip hop and street dancing, he has fully committed himself to Argentine Tango. One can still see the lasting influence of his street dancing in his innovative and original tango style. It is also easy to see the coexistence of traditional tango movements and philosophy working in symmetry with a newer nontraditional influence, the end result of which is an eye-catching and entertaining performance. In the past, Rod would annually spend time studying with the masters in Buenos Aires and spend much of his time teaching in Chicago.

Together – (since 2009) they believe that connection, musicality, and technique are the keys to fully appreciate the beauty of Tango. In their classes they want to concentrate on how to be comfortable inside the embrace, based on the logic and naturalness of the movement. They travel all around the U.S. as well as abroad (Canada (BC areas), Mexico, Poland, India, Italy, etc…) to perform and share their tango knowledge at festivals and weekend workshops. With their athletic background and other dances previous to tango, one can easily see the coexistence of traditional tango movements and philosophy working in symmetry with a nontraditional influence, the end result is an eye-catching and entertaining performance.
In Chicago, their classes are taught with an eye on encouraging and nurturing individual artistic styles while at the same time stressing the core movements and strong values of traditional tango. Their infectious energy and love of the dance has created a large following of students in Chicago and the surrounding area. They are the founders of 312 Movement & 312 Tango, which organizes events (monthly milongas and weekend workshops), djaying, performing, and teaching. When they are in their hometown (Chicago), you can easily find them supporting various tango events and social dancing at one of the weekly/monthly milongas.
Most recent 2022 teaching/performing travels entail – 4th Holiday Tango Weekend (Dallas), Tango Maya Festival (Cancun), Tango on the Rocks (Denver), and variou weekend workshops at different cities/communities. They also created an annual festival in July (since 2017) – Windy City Tango Festival.

Julia Gorin

from Argentina

Julia Gorin – professional dancer, teacher and choreographer. She performs and teaches Tango Salon, also Tango Escenario (stage tango) and Argentine Folklore.

Julia has been dancing Argentine Tango for over 20 years, and in her career she partnered with many outstanding dancers.
She has created her own method of teaching (JG TANGO METHOD), which is unique and effective, based on body consciousness, special approach to the musicality and logic of movements.
Many students of Julia became the semi-finalists and finalists of different national and international championships, including European Championship.
Julia is the creator of the tango-theatre show “RELATOS DE INMIGRANTES” (“STORIES OF IMMIGRANTS”).

Julia toured with seminars, master-classes, performances and festivals and concerts all over the world.
Julia’s unique method of teaching is the quintessence of her experience not only in tango, but also in Argentine folklore, modern and contemporary ballet, jazz, drama theatre, research in the field of conscious movement, dance therapy and her own developments.
WHERE IS ATTENTION – THERE IS ENERGY, WHERE IS ENERGY – THERE IS TRANSFORMATION!

Patricia Porras Porras

from Colombia

For about 20 years Patricia has been a professional Dancer, a tango teacher and a woman that is completely passionate about Tango.

Training
She has been trained in Argentina and Colombia by great Tango masters, professors, and partners.

Event organizer
Patricia has hosted and organized several dancing events:
– TANGUEROS… Hosted The milonga since 2011, Bogota Colombia
– Embrace Tango Festival, organizer
– Champions Meetings, organizer
– Tango competitions, organizer
– Different events in milongas and theaters.

Jury
She has been invited as a jury in different Colombian national Tango competitions.

Championships
Patricia has participated in several International Tango dancing competitions:
– Colombian National Tango Champion, 1st place
– Third place in Tokyo, Japan in the Tango salon and Stage categories.

Ruth Hernandez

from Chile

Ruth Hernandez is a Dancer and teacher of Argentine tango with an outstanding career of more than 20 years teaching classes, giving workshops, performing in shows and participating in festivals all around Chile, Argentina and now the United States.

In 2015, Ruth was awarded the award for “ Outstanding Dancer” of the National Tango Championship, in Chile. In 2017, she received recognition by the renowned radio program “Malena Cuenta el Tango” of the Municipality of Los Angeles, in Chile, for her outstanding tango career and won “Vice-champion” of the National Tango Championship in 2018 and 2019. She is also the creator of the online tango school “Al Sur Escuela de Tango”, in Chile.