By Brian & Fay

Inquiries about this workshop can be made via email tangobloomington@yahoo.com or phone (805) 895-1644.

Fay Villanueva

Fay was destined from birth to be a performer. Her mother was an accomplished opera singer; her father a singing star on radio. While growing up in Santa Barbara, Martha Graham was often her baby-sitter. Fay began studying ballet at an early age, and later spent many years studying, performing, and teaching the folkloric dances of the Philippines and Polynesia. After majoring in Piano & Voice at the University of Santo Tomás, Fay continued to pursue vocal studies with noted teachers, and made three concert tours of Germany as a soprano soloist with Santa Barbara's own Edelweiss Choir. Fay's most recent stage appearance was in the Santa Barbara Grand Opera production of Die Fledermaus, for which she created the waltz choreography. In 1991, Fay began studying Argentine Tango under Alberto Toledano & Loreen Arbus, who arranged for her to give public exhibitions of Tango after only a few months of training. Fay has furthered her studies under many of the best-known Argentine master-teachers, and teaches and performs Argentine Tango in Santa Barbara.

Brian Griffin

Brian got his first exposure to Argentine Tango at a 1988 workshop by the legendary maestro Orlando Paiva. In 1990, the critically-acclaimed Forever Tango performed at the Arlington Theater; the first mournful notes of the bandoneón cut through him como un puñal en la carne, and he knew he had to learn this dance.
In 1991, he began studying the intricacies of the authentic Tango with Alberto Toledano & Loreen Arbus. Since then, Brian has had the good fortune to study with many of the living legends of Argentine Tango, such as Nito & Elba García, Orlando Paiva, Juan Bruno, Lampazo, Nestor Ray, and Juan Carlos Copes. As a teacher, Brian has also been influenced by the best of the modern generation of tangueros. The methods of Daniel Trenner, Rebecca Shulman, Fabián Salas, and Gustavo Naveira have been particularly influential.

In addition to his usual local teaching & performing schedule, Brian regularly lectures and gives demonstrations of Argentine Tango for the Dance Department at UCSB.

If you have any questions, please email tangobloomington@yahoo.com or call (805)895-1644.