Tango Downtown Special Events

Tango Downtown Events

Susana Miller

Susana Miller, July 22-25

Argentine Tango in the Milonguero Style with Susana Miller of Buenos Aires.

A weekend workshop presented by Tango Downtown in Albuquerque, Susana's 7th workshop with us.

Susana Miller is a preeminent teacher of Argentine Tango in the Milonguero Style, a term she coined to introduce tango apilado to students around the world. Milonguero Style is a synthesis of Susana’s studies over the years of the unique dancing styles of the older milongueros. She has a gift for deciphering their distinct vocabularies and choreographic combinations, and transmitting these to her students.

More info on Susana

Events History

July 22-25, 2011
Tango Downtown's 7th Susana Miller workshop. Held at Las Puertos venue.

Julie Reichert & Bill Mohr hosted our traditional Friday evening welcome milonga at their beautiful South Valley home. Classes & the Saturday evening milonga were held at Lee Blaugrund's Milonga de las Puertos venue.

2011 Susana workshop flier
2011
Tango Downtown's 10th Anniversary year. Classes began at Dance Factory in March 2001 and at the Harwood Arts Center in September 2001.
2010
Tango Downtown begins teaching Wednesday evening Intermediate level classes at the New Mexico Tango Academy, along with Monday evening classes at the Harwood Art Center.
October 31- November 2, 2009
Tango Downtown's 6th Susana Miller workshop. Held at Studio Roma.

Julie Reichert & Bill Mohr host our traditional Friday evening welcome milonga at their beautiful South Valley home. Lee Blaugrund provided Studio Roma for classes and the Saturday Night Milonga.

2009 Susana workshop flier
2008-2009
Tango Downtown becomes Karen's sole proprietorship. Karen and Paul began teaching Monday evenings together on a regular basis when Jenny "retires" in 2008.
November 1-3, 2008

Tango Downtown hosted Susana Miller's 5th workshop in Albuquerque.

Held at the Harwood Art Center. Saturday evening house party at Julie Reichert & Bill Mohr's. Sunday evening Milonga at Kellys Brew Pub, hosted by Tango Club of Albuquerque.

2008 Susana Workshop flier
November 3-5, 2007
Caroline Peattie & Christopher Nassopoulos returned to Albuquerque for a Tango Downtown workshop at the Harwood Art Center. Caroline & Christopher's website.

2007 Caroline & Christopher workshop flier.
January 2007
Hsueh-tze Lee visited the Harwood Art Center in January 2007 for a special workshop class— Surges, Suspension and Lilt in Tango Vals: Vals dynamics that charm. Hsueh-tze's website.
November 4-6, 2006
Robert Hauk's 3rd Tango Downtown workshop at the Harwood Art Center.

More on Robert. 2006 Robert Hauk workshop flier.
June 10-12, 2006
Tango Downtown's 4th workshop hosting Susana Miller included Diego Yepes.

Diego Yepes is Susana's son and a teacher, dancer and DJ. Diego was General Manager of El Beso, one of the most famous milongas in Buenos Aires, and a director of El Tanguata, the premier magazine of all-things-tango. Diego assisted Susana and solo-taught a Milonga class, his specialty.

2006 Susana & Diego workshop flier
May 1, 2006
Tango Downtown offered a special one evening class with Caroline Peattie & Christopher Nassopoulos, Musicality and Phrasing.

This class followed a weekend workshop hosted by Tango Club of Albuquerque.
March 4-6, 2006
Tango Downtown's 4th workshop hosting Alicia Pons. More on Alicia.

In 2006 Karen worked as Alicia's U.S. Agent and booked her U.S. tour. 2006 Alicia workshop flier.
November 4-7, 2005
Robert Hauk's 2nd Tango Downtown workshop at the Harwood Art Center.

2005 Robert Hauk workshop flier
June 18-20, 2005
Tango Downtown's 2nd workshop hosting Susana Miller.

2005 Susana workshop flier
March 19-21, 2005
Tango Downtown's 3rd workshop hosting Alicia Pons.

2005 Alicia workshop flier

November 2004
Tango Downtown participated in Tango! Flamenco! Tropical! in support of Pablo Rodarte's Dance España.
November 6-8, 2004
Robert Hauk's 1st Tango Downtown workshop and first workshop in New Mexico.

Robert, based in Portland, Oregon, is a respected U.S. teacher of the apilado style, as well as a popular tango DJ and dancer & instructor on the social-tango festival circuit. More on Robert.

2004 Robert Hauk workshop flier
April 17-19, 2004
Tango Downtown's 2nd workshop hosting Susana Miller.

2004 Susana workshop flier
March 2004
Tango Downtown participated in Tango! Flamenco! Tropical! in support of Pablo Rodarte's Dance España.
February 14-16, 2004
Tango Downtown's 2nd workshop hosting Alicia Pons. More on Alicia.

2004 Alicia workshop flier
November 2003
Cacho Dante workshop at the Harwood Art Center.

2003 Cacho workshop flier
September 2003
Tango Downtown participated in Tango! Flamenco! Tropical! in support of Pablo Rodarte's Dance España.

Parties, held in the Harwood Art Center Theater Studio, include flamenco and Argentine tango dance demos, and a social dance party featuring salsa & other Latin dances.
June 2003
Tango Downtown hosted a dance party to raise funds for the new tile floor in the Harwood Theater Studio.

Our special guests included Ricardo Guillermo and the Albuquerque Samba School, Pablo Rodarte's Dance España, pianist Fred Sturm, visual artists, Kris Hotvedt (much missed since her passing in August 2005) and Diane Orchard, and Basement Films.

We had moved classes and events downstairs to the northside basement the previous August. The floor was something like painted unlayment until the tile job was done. It's difficult to imagine how we managed to stay in business on the old basement floor. Thanks to our loyal student-base!
May 16-19, 2003
Tango Downtown's 1st workshop hosting Susana Miller and her first visit to New Mexico.

2003 Susana workshop flier
April 4-5, 2003
Alicia Pons review classes held at La Mesa Dance Studio, led by Jenny.
February 21-23, 2003
Alicia Pons workshop on Women's Technique in the Milonguero Style. Alicia's first visit to New Mexico!

This was our first weekend with Alicia. Classes were held at La Mesa Dance Studio opting for a wood floor. It was a low-key, by-invitation event that built strong interest for subsequent years. Men were invited to the Friday night opening class and to the last class on Sunday, trying to test a "before-and-after" scenario. Some men attended the other classes to work on the woman's role.

There were three milongas hosted during Alicia's stay: Liz Haight's Carlos' Gosp'l Cafe in Santa Fe on Saturday night, a milonga/potluck party at Diane Orchard's in Placitas on Sunday night, and the Tango Club's milonga at Milagro in Bernalillo on the following Tuesday.

I organized this with Jenny and Paul, then missed most of the event due to a death in my family.
November 8-10, 2002
Cacho Dante workshop at the Harwood Art Center and a milonga with Tango No. 9, presented in partnership with Outpost Productions, Inc., at the Outpost Performance Space.

2002 Cacho workshop flier
August 2002
Tango Downtown moves downstairs to the Harwood Arts Center basement, holding classes and practicas in Theater Studio.

When we moved in the basement was a strong contender for the "worst floor ever" award. I recall that it felt like painted unlayment.
November 2-3, 2001
Cacho Dante workshop at the Harwood Art Center and a concert and milonga with Tango No. 9, presented in partnership with Outpost Productions, Inc., at the Outpost Performance Space.

Cacho visted Albuquerque in 1998 with Brigitta Winkler for a Tango Club of Albuquerque workshop. Paul & I were a few months into our tango expenrience, and this was our first Milonguero workshop experience. Jenny and I organized Tango Downtown specifically to bring Cacho and his social style of dance back to New Mexico.

Tango No. 9 is live tango music group based in the Bay Area of San Francisco. Their unique take on tango music included a trombone! A collaboration with Tom Guralnick of Outpost Productions made this weekend possible.
September 2001
Tango Downtown moves to the Harwood Arts Center, holding classes and practicas in the upstairs "cafeteria."

Classes and a late-morning Saturday practica were held in the upstairs cafeteria on the southside of the building.
August 2001
Our very first weekend workshop, Ramiro Gigliotti's A Seminar for Dancers on Musicality, held at Lloyd Shaw Dance Center in August 2001.

2001 Ramiro workshop flier
May 1, 2001
Official start date of Tango Downtown as a business partnership between Jenny DeBouzek and Karen Reck.
April 30, 2001
Tango Downtown made the front page of the (late, great) Albuquerque Tribune with a photo of dancers at our Gold Coast Coffee House Milonga at 831 Mountain Road NW.

Gold Coast Coffee House Milognas were booked for the first Sundays of each month, 7:00-10:00pm. Jenny would present a mini-class (30 minutes or so) for newcomers. Tomás Alberto García was our DJ. The dance space was narrow, but longish and naturally enforced the ronda.
March 23, 2001
Tango Downtown was featured on the Albuquerque Journal's Westside pages in an article by Jane Mahoney and color photos by Aaron Wilson.
March 14, 2001
First Tango Downtown class. After several months of discussion and planning, Jenny Debouzek and I began offering Tango Downtown classes, followed by an informal milonga, at the Dance Factory — Desiree Lang's much-missed beautiful dance studio — in Barelas on the corner Rio Grande and Indian School Rd.

We replaced Michael Walker's tango classes in Dance Factory's Wednesday evening timeslot. Michael had come down from Santa Fe to teach over the previous year, initially with his partner, Luren Belluci and later assisted by Carrie Adell, who sadly passed from this world's pisos in July 2001.

Our discussions included Paul Akmajian, Carole Ross, and others. We initially flirted with a kind of cooperative guided practica/tango exchange model.
March 4, 2001
Tango Downtown's Inaugural Gold Coast Coffee House Milonga.

The milonga was meant to coincide with and promote our classes which were originally planned to start on March 1, but were delayed for two weeks while Michael Walker honored class-card obligations at the Dance Factory.
August 1998
Paul and I signed up for our first tango classes (suggested by Jenny DeBouzek).

Tango Downtown is a small business owned & operated by Karen Reck with her spouse, Paul Akmajian.