Teachers
Marcelo
Marcelo “El Chino” Gutierrez is one of that unique and lucky generation of tango professionals/ dancers that “came of age” in an era where tango came to a crossroads and renewed itself in the 2000’s.
He benefited both from being able to study with such old-school masters as the Dinzels, Nito and Elba, the Rivarolas, Teresa Fernández (Todaro system) and Victor Arne; and from being part of the tango revolution that started with Gustavo Naveira and came to be known as Tango Nuevo.
Tango today is a mix of these two: the old and the new; the old understood better through the new; the new reaching back to the old for tradition; the old reaching forward to the new for inspiration; the old and the new intertwined and made stronger through these interactions—and for mutual respect. The best tango professionals of today understand, dance, and teach tango based on this dichotomy.
El Chino started studying tango in 1998. He studied dance and choreography at IUNA (Instituto Universitario Nacional de Arte – Buenos Aires) where he received professional training in choreography, Russian and French classical dance, modern dance, jazz, and yoga.
For the past 10 years, he has worked on developing and perfecting the teaching system he has become so well known and respected for—a system focusing on stability, grounded-ness, comfort, natural body movement, core leading, organic leading and following..etc. Just a few classes with him can drastically improve your dancing and change your entire outlook on tango.
His famous exercises and specialized ideas: “Grounded,” “Standing Leg,” “Push the Floor,” and “The Horse Ride” exercise have been copied by many others. He provides insightful tips, tools, and techniques to help his students achieve self-confidence and self-consciousness to maximize their effort and dance effectiveness.
El Chino is regularly sought out to teach workshops of his system to groups of professional tango dancers around the world and is also well known for his ongoing Cobra (teaching women to lead in tango) classes in Buenos Aires.