September 3rd-6th, 2026

NY Queer Tango Weekend

2026 Performers & Instructors

Leonardo Sardella

Leonardo started dancing tango professionally in his hometown of Buenos Aires and has performed in Argentina with theaters including the Colon and Cervantes. He moved to New York City in 2011, where he co-founded Malevaje Tango dance company and later Friends of Argentine Tango. Leonardo has participated in International Tango festivals worldwide and performed in the US, England, France, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, Sweden, Denmark, Iceland, the Dominican Republic, Mexico, Bolivia and Argentina. He was the choreographer for: Male Tango (IATI theatre) which was recognized with two HOLA awards and Two Latin ACE Awards nominations. He teaches weekly tango classes with NY City Tango and is a co-organizer and host of the BK Pride Milonga.

Walter Perez

Walter was trained by renowned Argentine tango masters Juan Carlos Copes, Graciela Gonzalez, and Rodolfo Dinzel, and also by salsa master teachers Eddie Torres and Jimmy Anton. He has appeared in Buenos Aires, New York, and other major cities worldwide as a feature dancer in many tango productions. In 2013, he co-founded Friends of Argentine Tango, a nonprofit organization. Since 2015, Walter and Leonardo have been the organizers of the NY Queer Tango Weekend. Walter was a grantee of LMCC Su Casa 2017-2022 and Creative Learning 2017 & 2020. In the USA, Walter has taught at Sandra Cameron, Dance Manhattan, Stepping Out Studios, IATI Theater, Friends of Argentine Tango, Brooklyn Public Library department of Creative Aging, and Lifetime Arts.

Luna Beller-Tadiar

Luna Beller-Tadiar (she/they) is a queer mixed-US-Filipinx multi-media artist and performer who works in choreography, video, text, and comics. As a tango dancer and teacher she has been anchored in the international queer tango community since 2018, and has since interpreted, organized, danced, and taught for queer tango organizations in Valencia, Paris, Lyon, Berlin, New York, Berkeley, and Buenos Aires.

Luna’s contemporary dance-choreography work has been shown at Movement Research Judson Church; Triskelion Arts; Ailey Theater; Mark Morris Dance Center; the 92NY; Duke University; Yale University; in La Union (Philippines); in Buenos Aires (Argentina); and in 2024 earned her recognition as a Jadin Wong Artist of Exceptional Merit from the Asian American Art Alliance. She has performed with others at Harlem Stage, National Sawdust, Tanglewood, the Yale University Art Gallery, the Performa Biennal 19, and more. She has taught dance at American Dance Festival studios, Duke University, University of Michigan, in Paris, Lyon, and Buenos Aires, and has taught regularly at The LGBT Community Center (NYC) since 2023.

Nick Wallach

Nick Wallach is a dancer, educator, and researcher of Argentinian and South American folkloric culture and dance who lives and shares the limitless ways folklore is danced socially and performatively in urban and rural communities across Argentina and the region. He won the Precosquin, Argentina’s largest folklore festival, with Ballet Sumampa, and has danced with traditional and contemporary groups including Recuerdo Salteño and El Federal. He completed academic training at leading US and Argentinian universities and he has lectured, taught regular classes, and performed at universities and festivals in the US, Argentina, Mexico, and Uruguay. Currently he is completing a masters in Anthropology at La Universidad Nacional de San Martín as well as further studies at La Universidad Nacional de las Artes.

He shares folklore and folkloric dance as community-based practices that foster critical intercultural exchange and resistance to cultural commodification, that connect us with Argentinian and South American history and tradition, that reconnect us with the natural world, and that enable us to find freedom in our own bodies and collectively. He also currently researches variants of tango in Northwestern Argentina, as well as connections between folklore and the environment

Augusto Ezequiel Castaño Cevilan

Augusto Ezequiel Castaño Cevilan is an Argentine artist whose work lies at the intersection of tango, contemporary choreographic research, and movement biomechanics. A dancer, choreographer, and pedagogue, and a disciple of renowned tango masters such as Alejandra Mantignan and Carlitos Pérez, he has developed a distinctive approach in which musicality, bodily awareness, and the organization of movement take precedence over external form. A Tango Escenario Champion at the International Tango Championship in Vichy and a semi-finalist at the Buenos Aires Tango World Championship (Mundial de Tango), he is recognized for a deep, organic, and sensitive interpretive style, grounded in solid training in classical dance, contemporary dance, and Argentine folklore.

Based in Paris for the past five years, Augusto pursues an international artistic and pedagogical career, traveling throughout Europe to transmit the foundations of organized movement through festivals, workshops, and masterclasses. He is the creator of the Tango Free Motion system and the author of Tango por biomecánica, and has developed a pedagogical approach widely appreciated for its clarity, coherence, and sustainability, supporting dancers and artists in processes of genuine transformation. Founder and artistic director of his own annual festival, he advocates for a living, contemporary tango in which tradition becomes a space for research, dialogue, and creative exploration.

Extra Special Guest Performers TBA

DJs

Karen Johnson

Karen Johnson (she/they) is a queer dual role dancer, TDJ, instructor, and facilitator based in Philadelphia, PA. After studying open role tango, Karen co-founded Philly Queer Tango in 2016. She is passionate about creating and supporting spaces where diverse communities can experience the joy of queer tango. She has taught queer tango across the United States, and is part of the organizing team for La Nuestra Tango in New York City. Her teaching focuses on queer centered embodiment, body acceptance, musicality, and developing individual, personal tango styles for every body. As a TDJ, she builds primarily traditional sets with contemporary and alternative accents, focused on keeping people energized to dance all night long!

María Valentina

María Valentina’s creative and artful construction of tandas create a story, weaving each song and tanda into a beautiful musical tapestry which DJ and dancers weave together throughout the milonga.

& Walter Perez

2026 Program

Thursday, September 3rd, 2026

Opening Night Milonga

8pm – 12am
Intermediate Class
La Nacional (239 W 14 St. Manhattan, NY)
$25
DJ: TBA
Featuring performance(s) by: TBA

Friday, September 6th, 2026

Friday Night Milonga & Drag Night

8pm-12am
Balance Arts Center (W 30th St., Manhattan) 2nd Floor
$25
DJ: TBA
Featuring performance(s) by: TBA

Saturday, September 7th, 2026

Saturday Lunch Picnic & Community Discussion

11:00am – 12:30pm
Location TBA
Free

Intermediate Workshop I: TBA

Workshop I: Description

Workshop Details TBA

1:30pm – 3pm
Manhattan LGBT Center (208 W 13th St., Manhattan – Room 214)
$30
Instructors: TBA

Intermediate Workshop II: TBA

Workshop II Description

3:00pm – 4:30pm
Manhattan LGBT Center (208 W 13th St., Manhattan – Room 214)
$30
Instructors: TBA

Beginner Workshop

Beginner Workshop: Description

Explore the foundations of tango in this newcomer-friendly workshop! Review the fundamentals of embrace, connection, and movement so you can get moving on the dancefloor.

4:30pm – 6pm
Manhattan LGBT Center (208 W 13th St., Manhattan – Room 214)
$20
Instructors: TBA

Saturday Night Milonga

8pm – 12am
Balance Arts Center (W 30th St., Manhattan) 2nd Floor
$25
DJ: TBA Featuring performance(s) by: TBA

Sunday, September 6th, 2025

Sunday Afternoon Milonga

2pm – 6pm
1138 Eastern Parkway, Brooklyn NY
$25
DJ: TBA