SPECIAL EVENTS

Tango Shows

Very often, we host very exciting special events. In April 2001 we were fortunate to have the most eminent tango group from Montevideo, Uruguay, visiting Gainesville. The Malajunta Tango Company, that means the tango dancers Marcel Ramírez and Isabel Sans, and the quartet led by arranger and director Juan Schellemberg. The quartet consists of a piano, violin, double bass and bandoneon. The group introduced Gainesville audiences to tango, the plaintive "soul music" of Buenos Aires. Schellenberg also played the piano and performed the group's bluesy vocal numbers.

Three accomplished tango-dancing couples from South America and the United States joined the band onstage. The couples included Laura Brondo and Luis Vivas, from Argentina, Richard and Melina Lucia from Orlando, and Teo and Marsha Bartek from Gainesville.

We presented two provocative nights of tango in Gainesville. On April 3, the tango quartet was featured as they played their live acoustic music in the warm and resonate hall that is the Thomas Center.

On April 6, the band was joined in the open-air community theater, Gainesville City Plaza, by four tango dancing couples who performed the authentic form of tango that has inspired the most successful Broadway shows of recent years.

L to R:Juan Schellemberg,Gloria Duhagon, Gerardo Pérez, Jorge Pi