Dancers

TangoMujer was founded in 1996 by Fabienne Bongard, Rebecca Shulman, Valeria Solomonoff, and Brigitta Winkler. Artistic direction is collaborative and shared by all members of the company.

		Fabienne Bongard is known for her special affinity for the milonga and Argentine waltz, cheerful cousins to the darker tango. Born near Montreux, Switzerland, she came to New York in 1979 to train at the Martha Graham School and to study tap, jazz, and ballet. From 1981-85, Fabienne danced for Peggy Spina's Tap Company. She became fascinated with tango in 1991, and in her travels to Buenos Aires studied with Pepito, Petaca, and Manolo, all kings of milonga dancing. She has also trained with Gustavo Naveira and Fabian Salas. Fabienne has been teaching at Dance Manhattan since 1995 and hosts a Friday night "milonga" there. Since 1994 she has held a weekly Men's Tango Class, in the style of the men's classes of Buenos Aires from the 1940's.
		Sharna Fabiano Sharna lives in Washington, D.C., where she has performed tango at such prestigious venues as the Argentine Embassy and the Kennedy Center. She has a background of classical and modern dance technique, and over the past decade has made five extended visits to Buenos Aires to study tango with both older and younger generations of social dancers. She counts Daniel Trenner, Rebecca Shulman, Brigitta Winkler, Pablo Veron, Pedro "Tete" Rusconi, and Mariano "Chicho" Frumboli among her strongest influences. Sharna travels frequently to teach workshops all over the US, Canada, and Europe, and is regarded as a pioneer of "neotango," or tango danced to contemporary non-argentine music. In 2002, she traveled twice to Cuba to teach tango as part of a US-licensed cultural exchange. She appears on instructional videos partnering two of today's finest Argentine dancers, Mariano "Chicho" Frumboli and Jose Garofalo, and her written articles on modern tango culture have been widely read online and translated into several languages. www.sharnafabiano.com www.sharnafabiano.com
		Angelika Fischer studied tap and modern dance before she discovered tango in 1982. Born in Southern Germany, she now lives in Berlin, and has been very active in establishing and developing Berlin's enormous tango scene. Having studied with the masters of Buenos Aires, particularly Eduardo Arquimbau, Angelika has performed internationally in Europe and North America, on stage, on television, and for numerous other events. She teaches in Berlin, where she and her partner Brigitta Winkler have had their studio Tanzart for tango and modern dance since 1987. www.tangoart.de
		Rebecca Shulman is the coordinator of Dance Manhattan's extensive Argentine tango program. Born in New York City, Rebecca studied classical ballet all her life and Contact Improvisation and yoga since 1993. Her tango career began in 1991 with Daniel Trenner, with whom she began to perform and to visit Buenos Aires. Her teachers include Mingo and Esther Pugliese, Gustavo Naveira and Olga Besio, Tete and Maria, Juan Bruno, and Antonio Todaro. She has performed with the finest dancers of this generation. Legions of students across the U.S. and in Europe seek Rebecca's clear instruction on improvisation, on technique, and on adornments. Her special musicality workshops grew from a collaboration with Pablo Aslan. For four years Rebecca taught and translated for Stanford University's Tango Week, and in 1998 at the Montreal Festival. In New York she teaches, hosts a weekly "milonga", and invites numerous guest teachers to Dance Manhattan. Rebecca's Article on TangoMujer
		Born and raised in Argentina, Valeria Solomonoff studied tango, modern dance, ballet and choreography. She was twice awarded first prize for her solo choreographies at Argentinean dance festivals. Upon arriving in the United States in 1994, she looked for new ways to merge modern dance technique with tango's improvisational structure. Valeria has completed dance programs at several schools, including Alvin Ailey, Nikolais and Louis Dance lab, Jennifer Muller/The Works and Mark Morris. In addition, she has studied tango with Daniel Trener, Natalia Hills, Julio and Corina Balmaceda, Nito and Elba among others. Valeria has performed for the president of Argentina at the Metropolitan Opera House, choreographed for shows at Alice Tuly Hall, Town Hall and Repertorio Espanol in New York and has partnered stars of Tango Argentino and Forever Tango. Valeria has taught in New York for more than ten years and is currently teaching at Dance Manhattan. Besides participating in Tango Festivals she taught at colleges such as New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, Smith College and Mount Holyoke College, Mass and at Mark Morris Dance Center in New York. Her website is www.valetango.com
		Brigitta Winkler divides her time between New York and Berlin, where she studied ballet and modern dance for many years. In 1980, her life changed when she discovered Argentine tango. She then spent some years in Paris studying with Virulazo, a star of Tango Argentino. At that time she met Coco Orlando Diaz, and they began performing together at Les Trottoirs de Buenos Aires in Paris. In 1986, they took their own show to Montreal and Toronto. Brigitta traveled often to Buenos Aires to study with such noted dancers as Juan Carlos Copes, Antonio Todaro, Pepito, Gustavo Naveira, and Eduardo Arquimbau. In 1987 she opened Tanzart with her partner Angelika Fischer, where she hosted Arquimbau's visits to Berlin. In 1994 Brigitta choreographed and danced in Tango Marathon in the Theaterhaus Stuttgart and Tango Vision in the Podewil Berlin. She incorporates into her interpretation of tango Body-Mind Centering, which she studied in a four-year program with Bonnie Bainbridge-Cohen. www.brigittatango.de

Guest Artists in Vice Verso

© TangoMujer 2001