Ricardo Calvo y Sandra Messina

Ricardo Calvo, maestro of Tango, dancer, choreographer and show producer of international renown. His career begins in Argentina in 1984 and abroad in 1992, including more than hundred international tours, participating in all the renowned festivals in Europe, US, Russia and Middle East. Producer of shows, but foremost a pedagogue and researcher of the movement, has developed a revolutionary method of teaching the Tango, adapted to all publics, from amateurs to professional dancers.

Sandra Messina, dancer with background in classical and contemporary dance. Master Trainer in Gyrotonic® and Gyrokinesis®. Begins her career at 18 in Buenos Aires and then moves to France, where she devotes herself
to the study of the movement and to the teaching thereof. At the same time she participates on festivals and European tours in various dance companies and creates projects and novel creations that ally contemporary dance, theatre, tango and other arts.

In 2005 Ricardo Calvo and Sandra Messina form a dance couple, in an encounter of their ideas and knowledge, experience and projects. This results in a particular style of dance, which allies elegance of the gesture, technical precision and emotion of its fine musical interpretation.

RICARDO CALVO

Tango master, dancer, choreographer and show producer of international renown, born in Rosario, Argentina. His first teacher is his father who had lived during the golden age of Tango. With the time his tango style gets directly influenced by his principal teachers: Victoria COLOSIO, a dancer and choreographer from Rosario and the great dancer and Tango master Pocho PIZARRO from Buenos Aires. After a substantial preparation, Ricardo Calvo meets in 1990 Marisa TALAMONI, his new partner, and they start a successful career, which will last for 12 years, including 36 international tours – a historic record in his own town and one of the most important tours in Argentina. In 1999 he introduces Tango in Israel and creates the ”QUERIDO » TANGO school, together with Kelly SERFATI. In 2005 he meets Sandra MESSINA and thanks to this encounter of ideas and knowledge he improves his personal style and proposes a revolutionary method of teaching Tango. Ricardo is recognized for his way of dancing the Milonga and his capacity to interprete the most diverse styles of traditional and modern dance; he can integrate a theatrical dimension by recreating historical characters or ones from his own inspiration, most of the time with a delicious touch of humour which makes them profoundly human, so that the public can identify with them. Researcher of the history and the essence of Tango, he wrote many articles and is giving lectures all around the world. As a pedagogue he has created a new method of teaching which resumes all of his experiences on the movement. This has made him travelling for teaching Tango, Milonga and Argentinian Vals in many countries. Lastly, he has been involved in training Tango teachers, being one of the few masters in creating a complete method and program in order to train those who want to dedicate themselves to the teaching of this art. His profesional career has gone into theatres, television, festivals and many events next to the most representative of the kind: Alberto CASTILLO, Nelly VASQUEZ, Jorge VALDEZ, Enrique DUMAS, Juanchy GRANELLY, Abel CORDOBA, etc. He performed as a solist dancer with orquestras as: “Domingo FEDERICO”, ”Julian CHERA », ”Rodolfo Cholo MONTIRONI”, ”CAMANDULAJE”, etc. He has also participated in international shows like ”Tango Metropolis”, ”La Pasion de Vivir” and in great festivals such as “Sitges”, ”Encuentro de los Grandes”(Spain), ”Noche de la Pasion” (Belgium), ”Universo Tango” (Germany), ”Couleurs Tango” (France), ”Milano Tango Festival” (Italy), the International Festival ”GREC96” (Barcelona), ”Primer Festival de Tango en Paris”, ”Fascination de Tango” in the Empire theatre in Paris, ”Los Encuentros del Sur” (Toulouse), ”Karmiel Dance Festival ”(Israel), ”Festival de Tango de Prayssac” (France), Festivales de Porto y Lisboa (Portugal), ”5e Cumbre Mundial del Tango” (Rosario, Argentina). In 1993 he founded his own company, creating and offering numerous international shows. At the present time he is heading the “Tango sin Fronteras” production.

SANDRA MESSINA

Dancer, choreographer and actress, born in Buenos Aires. Graduated from the National School of Dance; schooled in the classical dance by Luis BALDASSARE, in the modern dance by Renate SCHOTELIUS and learned Tango from Pedro ”TETE” RUSCONI. After working in the “GRUPO INDEPENDIENTE DE DANZA CONTEMPORANEA”, headed by Leticia MASCARDI, and in the movie ”CIPAYOS” by Jorge COSCIA, went to France and had been living there for 18 years. In France participated in numerous and different shows as a dancer and as an actress next to artists with international renown like Jérôme SAVARY from the Opéra GARNIER (Paris) and Blanca LI in the Opéra de NANCY. Worked as a contemporary dancer with the choreographer Bernard BAUMGARTEN in Frankfurt (Germany), with Carla FORIS, the choreographer of the “8RENVERSE” company and also with the theatre company ”PESCE CRUDO” (France), participating in many festivals of dance and theatre such as ”CHALON SUR SAONE”, ”AURILLAC”, ”FESTIVAL DU BORDS DE LOIRE” (France), ”HAMBURG” (Germany), ”BURGOS”, ”TARREGA” (Spain). Created together with other artists the “CABARET TANGO”, cabaret with a contemporary style, the central theme of which is the typical Argentinian culture, playing with elements from dance, theatre, singing, circus, music and images. It has been presented more than three years in notable places such as “CABARET SAUVAGE”, ”LES ETOILES”, le “CIRQUE BOUGLIONNE” and the festival of dance of ”VILLENEUVE D’ASQ”. Parallel to this appeared as a Tango dancer with orquestras like ”CESAR STROSCIO”, “CUARTETO CEDRON” and “Juan Carlos CACERES”. Also created the choreography and performed as the first dancer in the Opera ”TANGO MON AMOUR” by Jacobo ROMANO for the Festival of Montreux in Switzerland, participating at the same time on an international tour. Directed the ”MILONGA OXIDADA” festival in the Bastille Theatre in 2005. Is an instructor and a pre-trainer of GYROTONIC EXPANSION SYSTEM® , teaching this revolutionary method of movement in the “WHITE CLOUD STUDIO PARIS” for 10 years and today in Buenos Aires. Sandra is a recognized and much demanded pedagogue, due to her large experience in the research and the teaching of movement. The encounter with Ricardo CALVO, her teacher and partner in Tango has been very decisive in her career as an instructor and as a dancer. Together they succeeded to fuse their knowledge and experience, which has resulted in a massive list of successful projects and creations, like the video dance show ”CIEN AÑOS DE DANZA” or the educational project ”Formacion para Profesores de Tango Argentino”. They have developed a fresh and elegant Tango style, much appreciated by the public. At the present time Sandra is participating on the show “TANGO SIN FRONTERAS”, produced by Ricardo Calvo.