April 23-25th Workshop Instructors
Daniel Arredondo & Karen Jaffe
Born in San Rafael, Mendoza, Argentina, Daniel Arredondo may be credited with bringing authentic Argentine tango to Charlotte eight years ago. His tango, and his teaching of the art form, is enriched by his background in martial arts, modern dance, folkloric dance, and competitive ballroom dance. In addition, his childhood memories of watching Argentinean tangueros in his home city of San Rafael inform his dancing to this day. Over the past nine years, Daniel has studied with several world-renowned instructors including Facundo and Kely Posadas, Pablo Veron, Fabian Salas, Gustavo Naveira, Gloria and Eduardo Arquimbau, Osvaldo Zoto, Lorena Ermocida, Susana Miller, Horacio Arcidiacono, Alberto Paz and Valorie Hart, Jorge Firpo. He has performed in many national tango events including Atlanta Tango Exchange, Asheville Regional, Charlotte Latin Fest, Fiesta del Pueblo in Raleigh, Spoleto Tango Festival in Charleston, Argentine Embassy in Washington DC, and over the past several years has taught workshops in many cities including Atlanta, Raleigh, Virginia Beach, Columbia, and Asheville and has collaborated with the Blumenthal Performing Arts Center Education Institute of Charlotte. Meanwhile, in Charlotte he hosts an ongoing free Monday night practica, Charlotte's longest-running tango event, offers weekly classes for dancers of all levels with his partner, Talia Buitrago, and is the founder of Passion For Tango; an organization dedicated to teaching authentic Argentine Tango.
Karen's teaching focuses heavily on lead/follow technique, connection and communication between the partners, and musicality. She encourages her students to practice all movements slowly and intentionally, maintaining proper posture and body alignment, with complete respect for each partner's axis, developing the balance and muscle memory for the movements. Her teaching philosophy also includes perceiving the dance to be a "one step" , moving from a very quiet place, where "less is more", seeing "how little does it take?" Even when working through any given "sequence" of steps, Karen focuses on teaching the skills needed to subtly communicate through each step, to better navigate on the social dance floor. With this philosophy , comes the understanding that there really are no mistakes, only awareness, and adaptation in every moment. The dancers are having a conversation, where each step in essence is an invitation and an answer and even the best dancers cannot possibly anticipate exactly what the partner may actually "say".
Zoe Whittaker
Zoe Whittaker has been dancing, performing & instructing Blues & Savoy style Lindy Hop for over nine years. She emphasizes strong social dance technique and is known for her connection based approach to teaching. Her classes teach solid partner communication that will make your dancing feel comfortable. Some of her professional experiences include teaching and performing blues dance at Herrang Dance Camp in Sweden, teaching connection classes at Lindy Focus III, working as a period dance consultant, choreographer & dancer on the set of George Clooney's movie Leatherheads and directing two years of Orton Academy's Swing & Jazz program (Asheville, NC).
She teaches Blues & Lindy weekly in Charlotte, NC. Some of her more recent events have included teaching at Buenos Aires Blues 2009, the Beyond Blues traveling series with Mihai Banulescu in Raleigh, Virginia Beach & York, Pennsylvania along with master classes in tango & blues at Charlotte's own Blango Nuevo yearly event.
Mike Eblen
Mike can best be described as a dance pirate. He can be seen teaching tango at the University of North Carolina, blues dancing at Westville Pub & with Asheville's Tango Gypsies most weeks. He has performed at Buenos Aires Blues & taught blues/tango master classes at Blango Nuevo. He likes integers, playing tag with Zoe & is also a mad scientist.
Chi Chinaka
Chi brings the body awareness & prowess of years in instructing
martial arts. His experience with Afro-Brazilian fighting dances &
lindy hop have schooled him well. He has been teaching Blues dance, Lindy, Blango & Partner Connection for the last year in Charlotte with Zoe. 
Edwin & Stacey
We were lucky to have Edwin leading the Ballroomin' (Upright) Blues classes this year in Charlotte. He is a tango aficionado & teaches with his wife Stacey. Both dancers have extensive travel & class hours along with backgrounds in body work & yoga. They have studied Argentine Tango under tango masters such as Gustavo Naveira and Gisselle Anne, Homer and Christina Ladas, Daniela Pucci and Luis Bianchi, Pablo Villarraza & Dana Frigoli, Silvina Valz,
Gabriel Misse, and Fabian Salas.
Their emphasis is to use music to inspire, facilitate, drive, and mark body movement and expression. Tango has been one of their main forms of dancing and with it they have developed a way of expressing our understanding of the music and of their selves.
Monica Combs
We are honored to have Monica teaching Yoga for Dancers this year. As a young ballerina and the daughter of a yogini, Monica grew up moving. Her goal is to teach a gentle class that will increase your body awareness while stretching and readying you for your classes ahead.