We welcome all dancers and future dancers of Argentine Tango to join us
in sharing the rich history, the tradition, the music, the dance, and the culture of Argentine Tango.
We invite you to be a part in making Houston a healthy, thriving, cooperative, and fun Tango community.
in sharing the rich history, the tradition, the music, the dance, and the culture of Argentine Tango.
We invite you to be a part in making Houston a healthy, thriving, cooperative, and fun Tango community.
Susana Collins
Susana began her dance training at the age of 5 in Buenos Aires, Argentina, studying Classical Ballet, Flamenco and Argentine Folk. In Houston, she trained and was featured in various Latin and Central American dance troupes. By the age of 16, Susana had formed her own dance groups and soon was performing for celebrities such as Libertad Lamarque and Robert Duvall. In 1998, Susana committed to her passion in Argentine Tango, returning to Argentina to further her training with top maestros of this passionate art form. Susana’s stage performance and instruction is focused on Latin dance forms featuring Tango. Her intensive study in multiple dance disciplines gives her greater depth in body movement and allows her to convey to her students a better understanding of the fundamentals needed to reach and perfect their Tango technique. |
Damien Kima
Damien loves to dance! Salsa, WCS, Disco, Blues Fusion, Ballroom, Jazz, Hip Hop, if there is a good music playing, he is sure to be there dancing. But his true love is Argentine Tango. He has been a break dancer since 12, but in January of 2001, he began ballroom and social dancing for the first time at an Arthur Murray dance studio. Showing a great potential, he was personally invited to be coached under Stew Hartman-Mart (Latin and Standard dance champion and instructor, and co-founder of LA Dance Central.) During his training, he learned how to dance, the pedagogy of teaching the dance, and how be a dance instructor. After receiving his BA in Spanish in 2007, Damien moved to New Mexico and joined Solstice Dance and Performing Arts Team. During a preparation for an upcoming 2008 Fall Showcase, Damien and his partner volunteered to present Argentine Tango. This decision would forever change his life. Never having danced tango, he dove into the research of Argentine Tango. The movements caught his attention; graceful, elegant, yet exuding passion and sensuality. But it was the music, the tango cancion, that pulled on him unlike any other dance he had experienced. He still remembers hearing his first real tango "Una Emocion" by Tanturi & Campos. "It was an enlightening moment in my life. As if I had found this... unknown thing... that I was yearning for deep inside. The music and the words... they resonated within me stirring up all sorts of feelings, and it moved me. THAT is dance." He fell in love with what he found. He felt that Argentine Tango was an animal of different breed, that cannot be learned from a ballroom instruction. He sought out teachers all over USA and found Ney Melo and Jennifer Bratt, world renown tango dancers/instructors who taught traditional Villa Urquiza style Salon Tango in San Franscisco. In January of 2009, he was invited by Ney to come out to San Francisco to study under him and Jennifer. Damien spent a month in an intensive study of tango doing nothing but dancing, attending classes, practicing and listening as they introduced him to the world of Argentine Tango, the music, its subculture, the code that they observe. With his enthusiasm, passion, and devotion, he proved to be a quick study. Upon returning to New Mexico, dancers began asking him to share what he had learned. He began privately sharing and teaching, while he continued to work on what he had learned. Since then he has sought and studied with only the best and most respected names in Argentine Tango, such as Fabian Peralta & Josefina Bermudez, Claudio Aspera & Agustina Videla, Oscar & Mary Ann Casas, Enriqueta Kleinman & Ruben Harymbat, Luis Bianchi & Daniela Pucci, Lucas Carrizo & Paula Tejeda, Murat & Michelle Erdemsel, Eduardo Saucedo, Iona Italia, “El Gato” Valdez & Andrea Monti, Homer and Christina Ladas, Nick Jones & Diana Cruz and more. Damien considers himself a "Nuevo Milonguero"; a new generation of young tango dancers who are just as passionate about the history, the culture, and the music as the dance itself. "Nothing I teach or dance is original. I did not invent Tango. The steps, the figures, the technique, it has all been passed down to me from the masters of tango, who received it from their masters. However, it is original because the way I understand, communicate, dance, and express it with my own unique personality." Damien’s teaching is described as inspiring, contagiously passionate, and systematically structured. He prefers teaching the “why’s” and the “how’s” rather than the "what's" His philosophy in teaching is to lay a solid foundation on which a dancer can build on themselves, to give the dancers the feedback and the tools necessary to identify their own strengths and weaknesses in order to achieve their personal best. |