Maestros / Judges
Miguel Angel Zotto & Daiana Guspero
Miguel Angel Zotto was born 1958 in Buenos Aires and he grew up listening tango with his grandfather and his father (actor and dancer ).
He’s dancing tango from over 40 years and he is recognized as a real true icon among tangueros. Nowadays he’s the major Argentinian tango representative in the world.
He learned Tango from the major tango masters (Rodolfo Dinzel, Antonio Todaro – for Zotto his style is the real tango – Pepito Avellaneda, Juan Carlos Copes e Maria Nieves, Finito Ramon Rivera, Petroleo Virulazo) and he has the merit of having spread it and teached almost in all the continents.
In 1991 He won the “Maria Ruanova Award”, the Argentinian Dance most important prize, yearly granted by
“Consejo Argentino de la Danza” (that was the first time this award was granted to the tango).
Miguel Angel Zotto, undisputed star, considered by the experts of the subject “one of the top three tango dancers of the century” together with Copes and Virulazo.
He is a choreographer, dancer, teacher and artistic director of the TangoX2 Company; for thirty years on the international scene, he animates the different nuances of this sensual and poetic dance, with shows, performances and tours all over the world, winning the record for best tango.
Carlos Espinoza & Agustina Piaggio
Carlos Espinoza is a dynamic “milonguero” style dancer who has been dancing for the last twenty years in Argentina and Chile and has instructed at hundreds festivals and workshops in Europe, Asia and South & North America gaining a fiercely-loyal following worldwide. One of Carlito’s first tango teacher was Carlos Malone and Sergio Natario, who taught him the importance of walking.
In 1998 Carlitos began teaching in Argentina and Chile and in 2001, in Europe. Word quickly spread and since 2004 he has instructed in Europe almost full-time. When Carlitos is not touring he resides between Santiago, Chile and France where he instructs group classes and gives private classes to a seemingly endless stream of advanced students who arrive daily from around the world to work with him.
Dance Style Carlitos dances an authentic close-embrace milonguero style tango. His personal dance style is characterized by a rare combination of extreme dynamism, profound musicality, energy, precision, and a very grounded and elegant walk.
Education:
Basic and Secondary Education San Carlos de Bariloche(Argentina)/1997-1999 -Corporal expression/
Manuela Rossi & Juan Malizia Gatti
Manuela Rossi & Juan Malizia Gatti have been dancing together for 11 years, since 2012.
Juan started tango very young at the age of 14 in his home town of San Nicolas, and later added support from other disciplines such as jazz, ballet and also martial arts. Manuela was a ballet dancer all her childhood until she turned 19 years old. She graduated as a Professional Ballet Dancer from Argentina’s National Ballet School: “Instituto Superior de Arte del Teatro Colon” and made a two year intensive program at “Ècole Superièure de Danse de Cannes” in France with a scholarship from UNESCO.
Both of them started tango with other partners but had many of their main teachers in common, like Melina Bruffman and Claudio Gonzalez, Sabrina and Ruben Veliz and Martin Ojeda. Dancers, teachers and choreographers, they have been part of many shows and companies all over the world, such as ‘Cafe de los Angelitos’, ‘Tango Lovers’, ‘Tango Legends’, ‘Dramatic Tango’ and ‘Ayres de Tango’. Juan was part of the show ‘Tango Fire’ for many years, and also of ‘Tango a Tierra’, ‘Corporación Tangos’, ‘Piazzolla Tango’, ‘Tango Palace’, ‘Rojo Tango’, ‘Tangos Corazónicos’ and ‘Tango x 2’ Manuela on her own was part of ‘Tanguera’, ‘Tango Porteño’, ‘Esquina Carlos Gardel’ and had the leading role in 2010 Volkswagen Polo advertisement “Last Tango in Compton”.
Vaggelis Hatzopoulos & Marianna Koutandou
Vaggelis Hatzopoulos & Marianna Koutandou, dancers of Tango Argentino since 2004, and couple in tango and life since 2009.
They have their own tango school, the “Academia del Tango” in Athens, Greece since September 2011. They were awarded European Champions in the category of Tango Salon in 2013, having already conquered 2nd place in Europe in 2012 and 1st place in Greece in 2011 at the same category. After that, they are finalists of the Mundial de Tango several years.
They have been part of the tango company of Natalia Hills “Tangueros del Sur” and the greek tango company “Tango en Eros” dancing at the most important theatres of Greece.
They are often invited worldwide to give seminars and shows at various events, milongas and festivals (such as TanGo to Istanbul Festival, Tango Follies Festival, Tango Emotion Festival, Oktober Pest Tango Festival, AniverTango Festival, Taipei Tango Festival, Auroville Holi Tango Festival, Cyprus Tango Festival, Tango Lovers Festival, Unchained Tango Festival, Todos Tango Festival, Syros Tango Festival, Kalamata Tango Festival and others) all around the world, such as Argentina, India, Taiwan, Germany, Hungary, Romania