Argentine Tango Workshop
with Stéphanie & Pulpo
Singles welcome, no partner required.
Pulpo and Stéphanie will work on men & women's technique, controlled & relaxed movements, and smoothness of leading in close embrace. The classes are organized in two groups. The first focuses on balance and connection in close embrace and consists of Saturday's first two classes. The second group focuses on possibilities that arise out of leg contact and consists of the other four classes. These four topics tend to be intermediate to advanced in nature and rely on the techniques developed in the first group. Partners are required for the Sacadas and Entanglements classes.
Friday, May 8th at Higher Groundz, San Luis Obispo
6:30 – 7:30 pm Chamuyo and
7:30 – 9:30 pm Milonga
There is so much more to Tango than just dancing! Kick off the evening with a free discussion group (chamuyo). Stéphanie & Pulpo will discuss the music, dance, and culture of Tango. Bring your questions and wellcome this dynamic couple on their second visit to San Luis Obispo.
Continue the evening with great food, drink, music, and most of all dancing. No cover for this social dancing event at the Higher Groundz Family Coffee House, 3230 Broad St., Suite 130, San Luis Obispo (Broad and Orcutt), but a great opportunity for a light dinner before dancing!
Saturday, May 9th at the San Luis
Obispo Odd Fellows' Hall 
11:00 – 12:30 pm Caminadas Giradas & Suspension
Circular walks plus the technique and use of Suspensions.
12:30 – 2:00 pm Angulations of the Ocho & Ocho Loco
Making ochos with different angles plus "crazy" ochos.
2:30 – 4:00 pm Sacadas con Agarre
Sacadas with traps. Partners required, please plan ahead.
Saturday, May 9th at Adrian's Home
4375 Poinsettia Street, SLO: From SLO, south on Broad Street, left on Tank Farm, first right on Poinsettia. 4375 is 1/3rd mile on the right. From the south on 227, turn right on Fuller, then right on Poinsettia, 4375 is 50 yards on the right. Questions for Adrian? 441-2086 or adrianbray at yahoo.com.
8:00 pm – ??? Milonga
Food bites and refreshments provided, and you are welcome to contribute in like, but not obligated. The music will be Tangos, Valses, and Milongas.
Sunday, May 10th at the San Luis Obispo Odd Fellows' Hall
4:30 – 6:00 pm Ganchos 1
Ganchos -- the hook (not kick!). Technique developed here will be used in the next class.
6:00 – 7:30 pm Ganchos 2 & Barridas
Continuing with Ganchos and moving on to Barridas -- sweeping the feet.
8:00 – 9:30 pm Entanglements
With a controlled and relaxed connection, fascinating things can be done with the legs. Partner required.
Monday, May 11th at the SLO Vets’ Hall,
Grand Ave. & Monterey St., San Luis Obispo
8:00 – 10:00 pm Guided Practica
Not a class, but Pulpo and Stef will supervise so the students can practice, ask more questions, and do some exercises, $10. This takes the place of our regularly scheduled practica.
Class fee schedule per person:
Note that the last 15 minutes of each class will be for practice and/or warm-up for next class. Please try to arrive early so you don’t miss anything.
Norberto “El Pulpo” Esbrez has twenty years of professional experience as a dancer, tango teacher and choreographer. He is the third generation of a tanguero family, son and grandson of bandoneon players. He has worked for the most important theaters and show-places in Buenos Aires, such as Teatro San Martin, Teatro Astral, Café Tortoni. El Viejo Almacen, La Ventana and many others. Norberto lived for seven years in Brazil and opened his first dance studio in São Paolo. After coming back to Buenos Aires, he started to travel in United States, France, Germany, Russia, Japan, China, Italy and Holland, contributing to the apparition and growing of many tango communities. Besides his regular participation at CITA (International Congress of Argentine Tango, Buenos Aires), he has been teaching in different festivals all over the world. Norberto’s style is characterized by creativity and improvisation. This avant-garde artist was the first to use the expression “Tango Nuevo” to talk about dance. Since the beginning of his career he showed his capacity to innovate, creating a very personal image. His perfect understanding of technique enables him to invent and improvise complex sequences of ganchos, sacadas, enganches, that made him known as Pulpo (The Octopus). This vision of dance is wonderfully applied when he performs, always improvising. His dance is based on the communication and understanding with his partner, and characterized by continuous, round, soft movements.
Stéphanie Lepeu began dancing tango when she moved from France to Buenos Aires to write her Master´s thesis on the history of the social and cultural aspects of tango. Since 2004 she has been studying extensively with maestro Rodolfo Dinzel, with particular interest in improvisation and role definition in tango dance. She participated in the creation of tango events mixing dance, music and pictures of Argentinean and foreign artists in the Club Estrella de Maldonado, Buenos Aires, and performed in Argentina and Colombia. After she received her degree as an historian she dedicated herself to dance, also discovering dance-theatre with José Garófalo.
She began partnering with el Pulpo Esbrez in 2008, and they have been teaching and performing in Brasil, United States, Argentina and France. They taught together in Pulpo´s Tango Week 2008.
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