Esquina Tango

Allison Crenshaw began her Latin dance journey in 2016 when she moved to Austin, TX. Starting with salsa and bachata, Allison made connections and friendships in the Latin dance community and developed a strong passion for dancing. She first discovered and began learning Brazilian Zouk in 2017 and it has been her true love ever since. Allison spent two years deeply learning Zouk through weekly apprenticeships with Hannah Miller-Jones, Favian Bustos, Nhat Ho, Gigi Ho, and Richelle Crotty and has continued her education and training through weekly classes, weekenders, congresses, and private lessons. Allison believes strongly that safety, connection, and kindness are the principles upon which we should continue to build our local Zouk community.

Cliff Clive has trained in Brazilian Zouk for five years in Seattle, and DJed for nearly as long, before moving to Austin in 2021, and was the organizer of Seattle's Northwest Zouk Fest in 2018. He has also studied Hridaya yoga and integrates its mindfulness and internal body awareness in his approach to learning and practicing the dance and feeling a more intuitive connection with dance partners.

Lorena Ermocida is an internationally renowned Argentine Tango dancer, teacher and choreographer. In 1992, she graduated from the National Classic and Contemporary Dance School Maria Ruanova in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and has played key roles in various international musical theatre productions, such as Sólo Tango, Gotan (dancer and assistant choreographer), Tango x 2, including dancing in a special show of Tango Argentino. From 1999 to 2008, Lorena also toured the world and was the female solo tango dancer with Julio Iglesias’ on his global concert tours. Lorena has been part of several tango shows such as La Casa de Osvaldo Piro, La Veda, Homero Manzi, La Esquina Carlos Gardel and Tango Porteño. In these last two shows, she danced with world-renowned Juan Carlos Copes. As for TV and film, Lorena Ermocida was a cast member of Grandes Valores del Tango, an Argentine television show. She also danced in Alan Parker’s 1996 film Evita. Finally, Lorena was featured in the RAI documentary El Tango a Passo Di. As a famous “Show Tango” and “Tango Salón” dancer, Lorena is a member of the panel of judges for both the Buenos Aires Metropolitan Tango Championship and, in a number of countries, the Tango World Championship. Furthermore, she has danced in some of the most important theaters in the world, such as New York’s Metropolitan Opera House, London’s Royal Albert Hall, The Paris Opera, The Hollywood Bowl, The Sydney Opera House, and, of course, Buenos Aires’ Luna Park and Teatro Colón.

Since 1994, Lorena has taken part as a performer and dance teacher at the most important tango festivals worldwide. In Buenos Aires, she performed and taught seminars and classes at Lady’s Tango Festival from 1997 to 2020, Tango Salón Extremo annually since 2012, CITA (1999-2001-2002-2004 and 2016), and in various years at Tango BA Festival and Mundial (Tango World Cup) and at Centro Cultural Kirchner CCK. Large and well-known festivals at which Lorena has had important roles include Sydney Tango Salón Festival and Festival Pablito’s (both in Sydney, Australia), Sunny Tango Festival in Crete (Greece), Tango Sun Festival Jurmala (Latvia), International Tango Torino Festival (Turin, Italy), Tanotango International Tango Festival (Naples, Italy), Istanbul Express (Turkey), Seoul Metropolitan Tango Championship and Festival (South Korea), Florianópolis Tango Festival and Florianópolis Tango Bienal (Florianópolis, Brazil), Internationales Hamburger Winter Tango Festival (Germany), and Tango Fantasy in Miami (USA). The list goes on, including major tango events throughout the world in major cities like San Francisco, Porto, Madrid, Valencia, Sitges, Rome, Bologna, Amsterdam, Freiburg, Moscow, Ankara, Beijing, Shenzhen, Shanghai, Taipei, Koushon, Tainan, and Manila. When she is not traveling abroad, Lorena also teaches in Buenos Aires at the popular weekly tango “practica” Cheek to Cheek.

Angie and Audrey are a Queer Latinx couple with a mission to decolonize society’s mentality by uplifting Afro-Latinx culture, history, and gender-free expression in dance. Angie started her formal training at age 14 in her hometown Colombia. Audrey was born in the Dominican Republic, where her training began in ballet at the age of 4. Though trained in a variety of dances throughout the years, it wasn’t until they both reconnected with their roots, through Afro Latin dances that they began their journey as a performing duo. Angie and Audrey specialize in salsa and afro cuban dance movement. They perform Salsa on 2, most times fusioned with flamenco dance, Afro cuban, modern, and hip hop/phunk.

Michelle Wald FMPT, LMT, Certified Health Coach

30 years as a Physical Therapist, 20 year practitioner in Aston® Kinetics with advanced Certification.  Michelle is known as the “Body Whisperer” and is passionate about optimal health and wellness and helping people recover from injury and pain.  

This class will introduce children ages 7-9 to the building blocks of dance. Using a thematic approach, students will develop foundational skills in dance performance and choreography. Genre's will be diverse and will focus on the dance forms, dance artists, music and themes that honor the impactful role of Latinx culture in the global dance arts. The class will focus on the whole child, developing cognitive and kinesthetic skills, individual and community expression and the joy of expression through dance. No experience is necessary. 

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.

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.

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.

Ginny is a Registered Yoga Teacher (RYT-200) with Yoga Alliance and has been a yoga practitioner for more than 12 years. Holding peace and power in equal measure, she facilitates Vinyasa classes to nurture the mind, body, and spirit.

Carolyn Barreno and Stefan Trandafirescu are full-time professional dancers who recently relocated from the San Francisco Bay Area, drawn by Austin’s one-of-a-kind culture and incredibly friendly people. Carolyn began teaching Salsa, Bachata, and American Style Ballroom in San Francisco in 2005. Having competed, performed, and trained extensively in Latin American dance, she was one of the most respected instructors and recognized Salseras in the area. Carolyn has enjoyed a number of distinctions, including 2016 & 2015 World Professional Rising Star Rhythm Finalist, 2010 World Latin Dance Cup Professional Large Team Champion, 2011 and 2009 World Latin Dance Cup Professional Team Finalist, to name a few. Stefan began teaching International Style Latin & Ballroom dancing in his home country of Romania in 2001, and Bachata and Salsa in 2005. He danced competitively since the early age of 8, and holds numerous titles and accolades, including Romanian National Latin Champion (Junior and Under 21 divisions). He moved to Silicon Valley in 2013, where he later opened his own dance studio. Carolyn and Stefan partnered in 2018 to dance together professionally and quickly became inseparable. They are known for their fun and lively classes, but also for offering a level of detail and technique in their instruction not found in many other places.

Together Christopher and Allyson have a combined 25 years of dancing experience! Christopher specializes in Two-step, Salsa and Cumbia and is from Mexico City. Allyson, a native Texan, is an avid two-stepper. They both regularly enjoy dancing around town and thrive in Austin; where the Live Music Capital of the World does not disappoint.