Esquina Tango

Co-founder of Esquina Tango, Monica is the operational director and events co-director. She began teaching tango in 1997, in Austin, Texas. Her career in tango began as a teanager in her hometown of Buenos Aires, Argentina.  Her family moved to the States taking her along when she was 17. In Austin,  her love for the arts did not leave but rather intensified. Parallel to working in college, where she studied theatre, Monica found herself in search of other tango lovers in town.  Slowly she found some other enthusiast and they started practicing in a living room; with time curious eyes began joining them and slowly but surely the living room became too small and they had to move to a bigger spot. This was the birth of the Austin Argentine tango community.

Monica has trained with masters like Nito & Elba, Carolina & Diego, Lorena Ermocida, as well as many other renowned teachers. By the time the idea of Esquina Tango was materialized, Monica had already been teaching tango to the Austin community for 10 years.  Her motivation for teaching was and continues to be to share her love for the dance, the music, and the culture. Her incentive is to get people “out in the street” dancing. Her charisma and warm personality engages students. Monica’s tango teaching style helps dancers build on their technical abilities while placing relevance on the connection of leading/following and on dancing to the music. Furthermore, Monica works towards creating dancers that have great social skills and etiquette in the “Milongas”.

Esquina Tango has been an amazing dream come true for the continuation of building of social dancers along with a community of wonderful people of friends. At Esquina Tango teaching goes beyond the mere act of conveying information, it’s the creating links and crossroads between people, sharing, and making the love for dance and music contagious.

A native of Tijuana, Baja California, Alfonso grew up listening to various danceable music genres such as Cumbia and Norteño. His love of dance developed when he took his first salsa class in 2011 in San Diego, CA. He initially learned Afro-Cuban folkloric dancing to bring variety to his salsa dancing and has now fallen in love with the genre.

Anthony cut his Latin dance teeth as a regular in Houston’s intense Latin dance scene beginning around 2005. After becoming an instructor and performer there in 2010, and 

traveling all across Texas to perform at major Latin dance Congresses and Festivals in Houston, Dallas, San Antonio, and Austin, Anthony relocated to Austin in 2015, bringing his decade of Latin dance experience, his energy and a deep passion for the music and dances he loves to the local dance scene here. Since 2015 he has taught all over the Austin Latin dance scene, including at some popular venues and studios like Shoal Crossing, Dance International, Sterling Events, and with Inspired Movement, both at the current location, and back before 2016 when IM was at Esquina. He also spent a year from 2016-2017 teaching Latin dance in Costa Rica, before returning to Texas in May 2017. He currently is one of the instructors every Thursday at Moonfire Lounge, and also teaches private lessons and hosts private group dance events around the Austin area. In addition to Bachata, Anthony also teaches Salsa, Mambo, and Cha Cha.

Born to a Puerto Rican father in the Army and a native Texan mother, Jason Lozada found his passion for Latin dances watching a young couple dance salsa in a talent competition. It was soon after that that he was taking his first lesson from his aunt in Bayamón, Puerto Rico in 1995.

Since then Jason has performed and competed at numerous events around the state of Texas. He has taught classes and workshops, and also founded Central Texas Salsa in 2002. He is the creator of the Boogalu, a mini Salsa Congress, and was the first to bring to Texas such names as; Jamie Josephson (New York), Rene Geits (Salsa Lovers Miami), and DJ Nelson Torres (New York). Jason was also the manager and co-creator of the all-girls dance team Fuerza Latina. Further dance pursuits include the co-creation of the Austin All-Stars dance team and co-creation of the salsa promotion group, Salsa Spirit.

In his continuing pursuit of dance education, Jason has attended Salsa Congresses and events around the world. He has taken classes from such notable instructors as Jayson Molina, Nelson Torres, Thomas Guerrero of Santo Rico, Jamie Josephson, Diana Dieppa, Eddie Torres, Azucena Perez, Victor & Burju, Magna Gopal, Juan Calderon, Gordon Neil, Milton Cobo, Andy Cruz, Troy Anthony, Rebecca Aleman and many others.

Jason specializes in New York style on-2 salsa. He also dances Cuban styles as well as West Coast on-1 style salsa and has a keen interest in Afro-Cuban/Puerto Rican techniques. Jason also teaches cha cha cha, bachata, and merengue. Jason is married to his lovely wife and dance partner Liliana and they have two sons.

Melissa Corpus is a Dancer, Teacher and Choreographer in Austin, Texas. Since 2010, she has been teaching samba no pe focusing on footwork, technique and the joy of the Brazilian spirit. Melissa has worked with Austin Samba, the largest samba school in the United States, as a choreographer, director and principal dancer. She has traveled to Brazil and throughout the United States to study with Patrick Carvalho and members of Cia Dom, Ana Laidley, Rosangela Silvestre, Danielle Lima, Rodrigo Marques and Pedro Rosa. In 2014, she paraded in Rio de Janeiro with the legendary G.R.E.S. Estação Primeira de Mangueira.

In addition to Samba, Melissa also teaches, choreographs and performs Salsa, Bachata and Cha Cha Cha. She founded MeliSamba in 2016, a professional Samba performance group, and is excited to spread the Alegria of dance to the Austin community and beyond.  Click here to check her out and book her for fabulous events at!

Mickey has danced socially all her life. When she first saw Argentine Tango in 2009, she fell in love with it, joined Esquina Tango, and has studied it and danced it ever since. She serves on the Esquina Board, chairs the annual Fundraiser, and loves to help beginners gain confidence and enthusiasm for Tango.

Originally from Bolivia, Orazzio has been a Romance languages instructor at University Texas, a Diversity Instructor (Spanish – Portuguese) at Antioch University, a Bi-lingual Staff Development Instructor (Spanish) at State of Texas, and a Spanish Medical Interpreter in the Austin State Hospital. He is a very generous and energetic instructor and likes to bring treats to his students. Orazzio is an passionate Tango dancer as well!!

Who knew dance dynamite came in a small pink package? Robbie Sky, who is easily recognized by her bright pink hair and sunshiny persona, has been a professional dance coach since 2001. She is originally from Albuquerque, New Mexico where she owned and operated Off Broadway Dance Studio. She has trained in over 30 dance styles. Her specialties are Salsa, Bachata, Kizomba and Semba.
Robbie has spent her career studying and understanding dance from all perspectives. She specializes in dancing both roles and can therefore coaches both leaders and followers. The “Sky” is the limit with Robbie because you never know what you are going to get. One thing will always hold true…her goal is to make people fall in love with dancing.

Born in Mexico City, Liliana says that her first dance lesson was on her mother´s womb. Her parents were avid dancers. At age 4 she took Ballet and at age 6 She started dancing Flamenco and Ballet Folklórico in El Instituto Potosino de Bellas Artes in San Luis Potosi. She fell in love with Salsa and the Afro-Cuban rhythms because of her grandfather. He was a salsa lover and one of the biggest influences in Liliana´s passion for music and dance. From an early age, Liliana participated in talent shows and competitions, conquering the stages. It was then that she realized she was born to dance and share this wonderful art with others. In México, Liliana learned different dancing styles such as: Quebradita, Cumbia, Cha Cha Cha, Danzón, and Merengue. In 2008, Liliana moved to San Antonio, TX and started taking dancing lessons in Salsa On1, Bachata, Cha Cha and Casino Rueda at Semeneya Dance Studio with Lee Rios and Lisa Vargas. Shortly after her lessons started, she auditioned for and started performing with Semeneya SDK dance team under the direction of Kenny Del Toro and Lisa Vargas. In 2009 Liliana was introduced to New York Salsa on2 by her husband and dancing partner Jason Lozada. Soon after, Liliana and Jason started teaching, training, and performing together in what had become her favorite dancing style. In the same year, Liliana danced and performed with Jazzy Dance Co. under the direction of Azucena Perez and Carlos León. In 2015 Liliana and Jason co-directed their salsa team “Austin All Stars” Liliana has performed in different Salsa congresses and events like The Laredo Salsa Convention, Latin Beats at Downtown Aquarium- Houston, Dallas Salsa Congress, Texas Salsa Congress, Semeneya´s Black and Red Anniversary Houston Salsa Congress, New York Salsa Congress and more. Since then Liliana has been teaching workshops like, Salsa ladies styling, Salsa On1 and On2, and Bachata/Dominican Bachata.

Stephanie was born in Corpus Christi, Texas where she started dancing at the tender age of 4 years old. She then went on to study with Ballet Nacional for 10 years in Corpus Christi, where she became a featured soloist and dance instructor for all ages. She then moved to Austin Texas in 1998 where she became a Soloist, ensemble dancer, and choreographer with Aztlan Dance Company for 13 years. She is now one of the principal dancers for A’lante one of Austin’s professional Flamenco dance companies.

Originally from Indiana, Ian Bazilio began his dance journey 10 years ago. He started
with salsa and bachata and eventually progressed to learning Kizomba and Brazilian
Zouk. Drawn to the music and movement, Brazilian Zouk soon became his true dance
love. He has traveled within the United States and internationally to train, focusing
especially on teacher development courses in the LambaZouk style. When he’s not on
the dance floor, Ian can be found at the DJ booth bringing joy to dancers on the floor
with his Kizomba and Brazilian Zouk mixes.