Pittsburgh Tango Festival
A weekend-long Argentine Tango festival, this event features 4 days of workshops, 6 milongas, 6 amazing instructors, 6 DJs, and one beautiful venue in Pittsburgh PA.
Meet Our Instructors and DJ s
Paloma & Maximiliano (MIAMI, FLORIDA)
Paloma & Maximiliano, native from Santiago – Chile, has been dancing together for 25 years. Since they were young, they share the passion for Argentine Tango as a heritage from their parents. They were formed in Chile and in Buenos Aires, with many argentine masters, getting the knowledge and the culture of argentine Tango from them. Nowadays based in Miami - Florida, USA, they have been touring through South and North America and part of Europe, teaching and performing in uncountable Casinos, Convention Centers, Hotels and TV shows. They has been invited to teach and perform in the biggest and the most important Tango Festivals across US.
They won the 2nd place in 2007 in the Worldwide Tango Championship in Buenos Aires and the 1st place in 2008 in the Trex Games TAFISA worldwide competition in South Korea. They define their style as a salon tango, prioritizing the close embrace but always being open to the elasticity and comfort at the moment to dance. Their teaching, it’s characterized as energetic, didactic and detailed. Focused on promote the argentine Tango and their culture around the world from the connection and the joy through one of the most passionate dances in the world
Marcos Pereira & Florencia Borgnia (New York CITY)
We are Marcos Pereira and Florencia Borgnia, Argentine Tango dancers, performers and instructors from Argentina and currently based in New York City.
We started our career together in 2013, and since then, we haven’t stopped doing what we like the most, dancing Tango.
Individually we’ve been dedicated to tango since our early age, having the opportunity to learn and being inspired by most of the well known tango masters and “milongueros” in Buenos Aires.
In 2015, we got the second place in the Buenos Aires City Tango Championship and we have been finalists in the World Tango Championship in 2017, 2018 and 2019.
During the latest years, we have been travelling all around the USA, Asia and Mexico, teaching and performing at many different Tango Festivals, schools and events.
Tango is our passion, and we’d like to invite you to join us in this wonderful and captivating “one-way trip” to the Tango world.
Gaby Mataloni (ARGENTINA)
This porteña tango dancer has been connected to the world of dance since her childhood. She discovered tango at the age of 21 though, and, with it, her true passion and vocation. She started studying with different tango teachers in order to find her own style. Amongst them, Chicho Frúmboli and Juana Sepúlveda, Alejandro Larenas and Marisol Morales, Bruno Tombari and Rocío Lequio, Pablo Rodríguez and Corina Herrera, Moria Castellano, Dana Frígoli and Corina de la Rosa stand out.
Javier Sanchez
Born and raised in Buenos Aires, Javier Sánchez has been playing the bandoneón for almost 30 years. Between 2005 and 2016 he was a member of Latin Grammy Award nominee Rodolfo Mederos Orquesta Típica. Mr. Sánchez has toured the globe with well-known tango orchestras and tango companies such as Tango Pasión, Tanguera, Tango Emotion (returning to Japan for 5 consecutive years), and many others. As an active musician in Argentina, Mr. Sánchez played in the most prestigious tango shows of Buenos Aires including El Viejo Almacén, Esquina de Carlos Gardel, Café Tortoni, Piazzolla Tango Theater, just to name a few.
In 2016, he relocated to the New York metropolitan area and started collaborating with a variety of tango groups, among most noted are Aces of Rhythm directed by Pablo Aslan (debuted at Lincoln Center in July of 2017), Pan American Symphony Orchestra (Kennedy Center, Washington, D.C.), and the Astoria Tango Orchestra led by Daniel Binelli (11-piece orchestra típica). In August of the same year, he won the First Prize at the renowned Che Bandoneon International Competition judged by bandoneón legend Victor Lavallén.
In 2018 Mr. Sanchez became Musical Director of Che Tangazo orchestra based in Montreal, Canada, making its debut in July at Tango BA Festival and World Cup. In the past five years Mr. Sanchez has also performed with many renown musicians such as Emilio Solla, Oscar Feldman, Héctor del Curto, and Sverre Indris Joner.
In 2019 Mr. Sanchez completed writing a repertoire of tango arrangements specifically for social dancing and put together a tango quartet “Mala Junta”. Since then Mala Junta performed in NY, NJ, and CT. Since 2018 he has also been DJing in large number of milongas in tri-state area. Making him the only professional musician/DJ on the East coast.
DJ Edmond Bardhi (ANN ARBOR, MI)
Edmond was exposed to a large variety of music from both visiting and local DJs in Ann Arbor. DJing regularly at different events in Ann Arbor has allowed him to develop a rich style full of rhythmical presence and lyrical complexity. Throughout the night, Edmond manages the flow of energy to enhance the dancers' connection by being versatile and attentive. He keeps the crowd energized with playful cortinas and by strategically infusing subtle contrast in his music.
DJ Ken Broom (COLUMBIA, SC)
As an explorer of Argentine Tango since 2004, Ken enjoys playing tandas of sensual tango, melodic vals, and playful milonga in both traditional and alternative music. Watching a dance floor filled with dancers who share a common passion for the creative art of dance excites him.
Since he began playing music for dancers, Ken has been the primary house DJ in three different tango dance venues in Columbia, SC between 2007 and 2017. He has also been featured in events like Spoleto’s Tango on the Beach (2006 to present), Columbia’s Mad Hot Tango Marathon (2010-2012), Columbia’s Argentine Tango Regional (2014-2015), Charlotte’s Candlelight Alternative Milonga (2016), Queen City Tango Marathon (2018 to present), Dancing with the Stars (9 seasons), Las Carolinas Tango Marathons, SouthEast Tango Festival, and Milonga La Pantera along with several ballroom grand openings and numerous private tango events.
As an audio engineer, Ken has mixed live music for such artists as: Alejandro Ziegler, Osvaldo Barrios, Athens Tango Project, De La Noche, Orquesta MaCuba, and Palmetto Latin 9.
He also enjoys hosting events, such as: Tango by the Lake, WinterHeat, and The Columbia Tango Marathon as well as performing tango and other genres of dance.
DJ Chris Gebhardt (PITTSBURGH, PA)
Chris is a Pittsburgh native who has always loved rhythmically-complex music like jazz and classical. His friends introduced him to Argentine tango in 2011, but it was only a curiosity at first. He spent significant time with the swing and blues idiom dances, but would stop in at a milonga here and there. Tango's sophistication, playfulness, and range of expression kept him fascinated. Chris kept learning through volunteer classes of the Panther Tango Club at his alma mater. Since 2017, he's been studying tango exclusively, with local instructors, Chewy and Yulia. Chris enjoys DJing both traditional and alternative music, borrowing from his appreciation of a wide range of musical styles. An experimenter at heart, he likes to constantly explore new possibilities of mechanics and interpretation.
DJ Aijan Jumukova (SAN FRANCISCO, CA)
Aijan took her first tango class in Ireland in 2014 and was immediately hooked. In part because of her classical music background, Aijan is particularly interested in studying tango musical composition and history. She is a fan of the Golden Age classics and a little bit of Doja Cat during cortinas. You can find Aijan DJing or dancing in San Francisco.
DJ Marcos Pereira (NEW YORK CITY, NY)
DJ Koichiro Suzuki (PITTSBURGH, PA)
Koichiro Suzuki has a Master’s Degree in Performance Music at Duquesne University and performs Euphonium internationally since 1996. Koichiro incorporates his complex music background and deep understanding of musicality into his DJing. Koichiro DJs regularly in Pittsburgh, PA and has DJed in other cities in the United States and Argentina. Additionally, Koichiro was invited to DJ at the Limassol "SOUVLAKI" Tango Marathon in Cyprus this spring 2019 and planning to travel and DJ in Europe.