Special Guest Dutch tango pioneer Wouter Brave (Amsterdam)

Talk How it all started and why, Saturday 11th of June 15:00 - 16:00

Wouter Brave (1953) is a multi-disciplinary artist with a long and versatile career. He was a pioneer in Argentinian tango. As one of the first European tango searchers he visited Buenos Aires in 1985 with his dance partner Martine Berghuijs to study tango. He studied with legendary teachers like Antonio Todaro and Pepito Avellaneda. In 1986 he founded, together with Martine, Mirta Campos and Lalo Diaz, the first tango school in the Netherlands, Tangoschool Amsterdam.
This school was of great importance in the growing popularity and spreading of tango throughout the Netherlands. A lot of the current Dutch tango schoolholders are somehow linked to the Tangoschool Amsterdam.

Between 1980 and 2000 he was active as a performer, dancer and choreographer and initiated and produced a great number of theatre productions. In the 90’s he taught tango on a regular basis in Toronto and New York but mostly in Montréal. He also produced and created a number of tango shows which toured all the main theatres in the Netherlands, like Màs Tango (1990) with Roberto Alvarez orquestra Color Tango, the Tangodrôme at the Parade with Nanette Currie and Martine Berghuijs, el Arte del Tango (1997) for the Holland Festival with the Dutch National Ballet, Sexteto Canyengue with Roberto Alvarez, Juan Carlos Tajes, Nanette Currie and Claudia Codega y Esteban Moreno. Finally he made Tango Tango (1999) – his favourite show - also with Sexteto Canyengue, Juan Carlos Tajes, Claudia y Esteban, Argentinian Canadians Roxana y Fabian Belmonte and the legendary milonguero couple from Buenos Aires Rodolfo y Maria Cieri. In the last two shows Wouter danced with Babette Anhalt.

The past 14 years he has been active as a light artist and visual artist. His work is being presented in quite a few countries, like the Netherlands, Austria, Lithuania and China. Nowadays he lives in the countryside but most of his life he was based in Amsterdam.

We feel incredibly honoured that Wouter will share some of his personal experiences in tango. Take this rare opportunity to listen to his story first-hand.