Instructors
Gianpiero Galdi &
Lorena Tarantino
Gianpiero was only 12 when his father (engineer, martial art teacher and tango lover) involved him in a free project for youngster to approach tango. He fell in love with tango during his first trip to Buenos Aires when he was only 15 and since then he’s been studying with all the major Maestros. He became a teacher the following year and started performing in Italy and abroad at 18, realizing that he wanted to dedicate his life to tango.
Tango and his pedagogy are strictly connected to his studies of music, engineering and bio-mechanics as “a simple and efficient technique, based on natural laws and aware listening, as the key to free the real and intimate spirit of tango”. For more than a decade, he has been developing a thorough didactic and intriguing training method. Moreover, in order to deepen his research he also enrolled to a Bachelor degree in Motor and Sports Activities and Psychomotor Education Science, and will soon be graduating with a dissertation on Functional Training Methods for Tango.
Lorena has been studying dance and ballet since she was five years old. At 17, she found tango thanks to Gianpiero. She immediately became passionate about the teaching and care needed for the delicate psyche of the amateurs of this complex art. Under Gianpiero’s guidance, she began her professional path in tango. At the same time, she is pursuing a Bachelor Degree in Motor, Sports Activities and Psychomotor Education Science at the University of Salerno in order to deepen her knowledge of motor control, learning, body awareness and pedagogy.
In 2015 she began studying, teaching, performing and traveling in partnership with Giovanni Cocomero, with whom she’s collaborating on many projects led by Gianpiero: Gtango School in Salerno; the High School Tangotherapy Project, Tango at University of Salerno, and Tangere Co.
In 2018, Gianpiero and Lorena began their partnership as people, friends and dancers, working daily on the flow of tango connection based on their deep mutual understanding. They are moved by the research on the analysis of an always more precise and effective didactic method, later just called the Method, with the aim of providing the expressive Art of Tango as a sharp, accurate, meaningful, deep and truthful tool of communication.
Adam Hoopengardner
& Ciko Tanik
Adam and Ciko are unique to North America, and especially to the New York tango scene. They have been in partnership for over 20 years and this commitment of working together has given them a distinctive quality among their peers as well as having allowed them to build a very special relationship and style as dancers.
They have had the opportunity to study with teachers from all over the world, who come from very different ideologies, which has allowed and fostered their own approach and character of dance. Their dance has evolved by blending these outside influences they had with their own personal growth as a couple. Their style is defined by its sensuality, musicality & creative playfulness.
They emphasize the importance of a good technique with a comfortable, musical walk over complicated moves. Their goal as teachers is to bring their students’ personality out in their dance by teaching them the music, depth of communication and the concept of countless possibilities the dance offers. They cannot overemphasize the value of equal presence in both roles and a dialogue between the partners, which makes the dance much more interactive and fun. When teaching they are able to transmit their mastery of the complex concepts of tango while retaining their innate humor and humility.
As well as being dancers and teachers, they are Community Builders. This is a big part of what they value about Argentine Tango, that it brings people together and creates a sense of belonging. They visit different Tango communities around the US regularly and have become part of their development as well as their own local community. To list a few; Argentine Tango at Penn State, Princeton Tango Club, Yale Tango Club, Philadelphia Argentine Tango School, The Cleveland Tango School, University of Kansas Tango Club in Lawrence.
Many of their students have gone on to become professional dancers and organizers in their own right. Some of them have started new communities in major cities while others have inherited bustling college communities, and a few of them even teach in Buenos Aires and in Europe.
As for themselves, they also still continue to learn, explore and grow as dancers, teachers and organizers.