What started one month ago as a farfetched idea miraculously came to life; I’m so fortunate and grateful for the forces that allowed my ideas to become reality. The stars could not have aligned more perfectly to bring the SoCal Competition to fruition. Most notable of these “stars” are the community members, organizers, friends and teachers.
I would like to formally thank all the members of the LA tango community and those of other cities (i.e. – San Diego, Santa Barbara, San Francisco, Buenos Aires, & Las Vegas) for helping to make this happen.
I approached Andrea Monti with my idea 1.5 month ago and invited her to judge the competition and delight us with a performance with her partner, Diego Lanau. Andrea was a Judge at Tango Buenos Aires Dance World Cup (Mundial) for 2 years and she is the Director the Argentine Tango USA Official Festival and Tango Championship. Her knowledge and expertise was highly appreciated and much needed. Many thanks to both Andrea & Diego for giving a beautiful performance.
Sincere gratitude to Julie Friedgen & Angel Echeverria for sponsoring the event and donating a free pair of women’s & a free pair of men’s shoes to the runners up. Also, it was an honor to have Angel Echeverria who has been in the tango world over 60 years to be in the judging panel.
Amongst the judges, the hugest sacrifice had to have come from Colette Hebert. Colette runs an established tango school in San Diego and I cannot thank her enough for canceling her group classes in San Diego to join the judging panel.
Last but not least, our fifth judge was Daniel Arias who has been a great addition to the judging panel because of his many years (20+) of experience in tango and recognition in Buenos Aires.
Many thanks to all 30 participants who sweat blood and tears for the tango and whom strive for continual growth. Congratulations to the Winners of the SoCal Tango Salon Competition: (1st place) Miguel Angel Reynaga and Vanessa Piri, (2nd place) Dennis Cante and Tanya Spektor, and (3rd place) Derek Tang and Rachelle Lin.
Thanks to Linda Valentino for bringing the 2012 Tango Salon World Champions Facundo de la Cruz and Paola Sanz, and delighting us with their gift of performance.
Who can forget the hidden talent of Brian Nguyen, our Master of Ceremonies. His charm and wit kept us entertained the entire evening, and it would not have been the same without him.
No words to say, how thankful and lucky I feel to have DJ Lampis who put so much attention and care to make sure all the transitions run smoothly and of course bringing the best collection of tangos, valses and milongas.
Many thanks to my friend Rina Gendleman for bringing her Atelier Vertex clothing collection all the way from San Francisco, and to Annette Corsino for her photography of which will be available on facebook shortly.
Lastly, I would like to thank my mom for helping me unconditionally for every single event that I host, to Eric and Yukiko for their hardwork behind the scenes, Joyee for making the world’s greatest home-made flan and to Susanna and Brenda for covering the front desk, Marissa Davis for providing the special lighting, and Danielle Deborah for providing the participants’ numbers.
Stay tuned for the 2016 SoCal Tango Competition!!
Again many thanks to all!
Best,
Yuli B
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