Klaus Petritsch,
UKA certified teacher of dance, has trained for a
decade with the masters of the Argentine Tango while
living in London, San Francisco, Buenos Aires and
Sydney. He is now relocating for a year or two to
tropical Cairns, Queensland - Australia!
Klaus comes from a dancing family. His mother was
European champion in Latin ballroom dancing, but he
himself did not start out as a dancer. It was only
in 1994 that he discovered dance.
He joined a "funky jazz dance" class despite
being the only male in the class. In a few months
he had found his dancing feet, and soon moved on to
African dance, hip hop, breakdance, salsa and then
Argentine tango.
Klaus discovered Argentine tango in England while
persuing a career in science. He found that tango
and science have a lot in common: improvisation, creativity,
accuracy - and for Klaus - passion and fun!
Seasoned tangueros will know some of his biggest
influences:
Gustavo Naveira
and Giselle Anne
(structure, technique, musicality)
"Chicho"
Mariano Frumboli and Eugenia Parilla
(structure, technique, musicality)
Sebastian Arce
and Mariana Montes
(creativity, musicality)
Klaus is known for his systematic, clear and analytical
way of teaching the structure and technique of tango.
His way of dancing has been described as "free",
musical, dynamic, fun, comfortable and easy to follow
despite the large repertoire of moves and continuous
experimenting with new ideas.
His motivation to teach Tango mainly results from
a genuine desire to continue being surrounded by happy
creative and inspiring skilled dancers on the social
dance floor. Although a passionate teacher,
he is still very much a social dancer first.
Klaus encourages his students to study with different
teachers trying to learn from the strengths of everyone,
including fellow dancers.
His' favourite quotes are:
"We should consider every day lost on which we
have not danced at least once." -
Friedrich Nietzsche
Ulla Paasonen
has trained and studied Argentine tango together with
Klaus in the UK, US and Argentina.
Ulla discovered Tango during her time in Cambridge
while sharing a house that inevitable drew people
into dance. The addiction to tango took her by surprise.
After training with local and visiting teachers she
followed Klaus to San Francisco, one of the Tango
capitals in North America. The vibrant and open-minded
scene allowed for infinite dancing and learning opportunities.
Two years later she found herself living and dancing
in Buenos Aires.
Today Ulla is assisting Klaus with teaching, organising
and keeping his life in order.
Ulla's favourite quote is:"Learning
starts from wondering."
Here are some videos with
Klaus and different partners from traditional to funky,
nuevo. These are all improvised dance demos not choreographed
shows. [Click them twice to play them.]
1) Klaus and Karen - Improvising to Astor Piazzolla's
"Anos de soledad"
2) Hosanna and Klaus - Improvised Tango Nuevo/Tangofusion
to Alison Moyer's "Windmills of your mind"
3) Klaus and Karen - Improvised Tango Nuevo to Tom
Jones "Sixteen Tons"
4) Klaus and Anne Maree improvise Tango to non-tango
live music
5) Klaus and Hosanna - improvising to "Don Juan"
(Hanibal Troilo)
6) Klaus and Anne Maree - Improvising to Astor Piazzolla's
"Anos de soledad" live
