Pablo Pugliese
I was born in Argentina and today am based in Montreal. I teach and perform internationally along my wife and dance partner, Noel Strazza. Together, we founded the Extempore Danse Company in 2008 to create and perform dance and art projects that incorporate the Argentine tango and contemporary dance. Our mission is to promote understanding of tango and our Argentine culture through workshops designed for dancers at every level, from amateur social dancers to professionals and students from a variety of artistic backgrounds.
My parents, the legendary Argentine tango masters Esther and Mingo Pugliese, taught an entire generation of tango professionals working all around the world. I am proud to build on their legacy as a dancer, teacher, and choreographer of both traditional Argentine tango and adaptations blending tango with other dance forms.
I began performing professionally when I was 10 years old and taught my first international workshop in the United States at age 16. Traveling through the Americas, Europe, and Asia, teaching and performing opened my mind to a wider scope of possibilities and interests through an exploration of diverse artistic cultures.
The Alvin Ailey School of dance offered me a scholarship to study in New York City, where I moved in 1999. Later, I studied choreography, thanks to a scholarship through the Salzburg Experimental Academy of Dance (SEAD). Over the years, I have studied different movement disciplines such as yoga, Chen tai chi and the Feldenkrais Method, which have informed my artistic vision and my teaching methodology.
I have shared the stage with renowned tango musicians and composers, Héctor Del Curto, Fernando Otero, Daniel Binelli, Gustavo Casenave, and Pablo Aslan.
In collaboration with the video artist, Sol Aramendi, I choreographed, directed, produced and performed "UqbarTango."
I was assistant director and co-choreographer of Astor Piazzolla’s opera, Maria de Buenos Aires, under the direction of David Parsons and Neal Goren, for the Gotham Chamber Opera and featuring the dancers of Parsons Dance Company.
Noel Strazza
I was born in Buenos Aires. When I was 10 years old, I began to study dance – a path that led to a degree from the Taller de Danza Contemporanea of the San Martin Theatre, whose Ballet Juvenil I joined from 1995 to 1997. I danced in the theatre’s productions of Boquitas Pintadas, Once Corazones and 101 Dalmatians.
In 1998 I worked with Ballet de Bolsillo, a company directed by the prestigious Argentine choreographer Oscar Araiz. As co-choreographer with Yamil Ostrovsky, I won the first choreography award at the IV Dance Festival of Amazonas in Brazil. I assisted and danced in many original creations by Carlos Veiga.
I have been dancing tango since 1997. For five years, I worked with the renowned tango dancer Pablo Veron, with whom I taught and performed tango in numerous countries in Europe, Australia, Asia, and North America; I also danced at the 2005 Gala des Étoiles at Montreal’s Place des Arts.
I have both acted in and choreographed productions for the Théâtre de l'Utopie, directed by Cristina Iovita. I have been a guest choreographer for the Les Sortilèges dance company and, since 2008, have often been invited by the Cirque du Soleil to work at La Nouba as a movement/tango consultant and teacher.
For the last six years, I have been working with Argentine tango dancer and choreographer, Pablo Pugliese. Together, based in Montreal, we dance and teach in Canada and in many cities in the United States and Europe.
Carla Marano
I am from Argentina, where I started dancing tango in 1994. I belong to a generation of dancers who changed the teachings of this traditional folkloric dance into a fine-tuned investigation of its movement technique, its technical language, and its musical interpretation.
Over the years I devised my own didactic method, based on my own approach to the dance – a system that I have shared with colleagues and students from different generations and styles.
I give courses in different academic institutions and organizations, as well as for special events in Buenos Aires, such as La Viruta, Cita, and Festivals of the City Government of Buenos Aires. I also teach internationally throughout Europe and the United States.
Since 2013, I have run the popular La Propuesta, (The Proposal) a space for discovery and learning, with renowned tango dancer Octavio Fernandez at La Viruta and El Juvenil clubs in Buenos Aires.