Barbara Durr
Barbara first became captivated by tango in 1988. While on vacation in Buenos Aires, she saw an old man dancing on the street for money. He danced with women of his generation who happened to pass by, and they moved so beautifully that she became entranced. She followed him around for two days, met his family, learned a bit about tango, and then had to go home to Chile, where she was living at the time. It wasn't until several years later that she began to learn the dance-with visions of the old man still running in her head. She even moved to Buenos Aires for a brief period to study tango at the source.
Barbara has been dancing and teaching tango for over a decade, and is nationally known in the United States. She returns to Buenos Aires regularly, and is well known in the milongas there. She has studied with such tango luminaries as Lorena Ermocida, Aurora Lubiz and Jorge Firpo, among many other fine teachers. But her dance and her teaching have been most influenced by Susana Miller, Brigitta Winkler and Cacho Dante whom she counts as among her friends.
Barbara's specialty is the highly rhythmic close embrace style, also know as milonguero or apilado, which predominates in the crowded milongas of central Buenos Aires. This strictly social style tango has a rich and complex choreography of compact footwork, yet emphasizes connection between partners and musicality.
In addition to her weekly classes in Atlanta, Barbara regularly teaches at national and regional tango festivals in the US, including Denver, Meet in the Middle, and Portland. She is frequently invited as a special guest teacher to other cities including Memphis, Ann Arbor, St. Louis, Cleveland and Cincinnati. Outside Atlanta, Barbara frequently teaches with Robert Hauk of Portland, Oregon. She has also been a guest instructor at Emory University and the University of Georgia, and has been the performance partner of the head of the UGA Department of Dance.
Barbara is locally available for private classes (individuals, couples or small groups). For more information, please contact her using our CONTACT page or by calling 404-223 5456.
Angel Montero
Angel started studying tango in early 2002, and discovered the "close embrace" style in 2003, after taking classes with several teachers brought to Atlanta by Barbara Durr (Brigitta Winkler, Alicia Pons and Susana Miller). He has been a student in Barbara's class ever since, and he started collaborating in the class in May 2004.
He has also taken classes with Cacho Dante, Ricardo Vidort, and some of the best "close embrace" teachers in the US, like Robert Hauk, Robin Thomas, Christopher and Caroline, Tomás Howlin and Eric Jorissen. His curiosity for tango has taken him to study with teachers of other tango styles.
In addition to assisting Barbara, Angel also DJs at several milongas in Atlanta (Milonga Pasional and Tangueros Emory in the past and now Carpe Diem, Milonga Bohemia) and has been invited to DJ and teach in Memphis; St. Louis; Durham, NC; Augusta, GA; Ann Arbor, MI; Charleston, SC and Salamanca (Spain).
Recently he was invited to teach "Tango en Español", as part of the Spanish Immersion Program of Morehouse College in Atlanta.
Angel is a co-organizer of the Atlanta Tango Festival , one of the best new tango festivals in the US.
Angel is also available for private classes (individuals, couples or small groups). For more information, please contact him using our CONTACT page or by calling (404) 376-6732.