Laurie Vega began learning Argentine style tango in 1997 under local instruction. In 1998, she co-founded Tango Argentino of Dallas (T.A.D.) and served on its board for over two years. On occasion, she organizes workshops, hosts La Mariposa Milonga, a monthly tango party, and teaches weekly. She has taught in all of T.A.D.'s Tangothons and in Mexico. In addition, she has acted as a tango media consultant. Since 2000, she has performed with and choreographed tangos for professional theater and dance groups (the first Texan and Dallasite to do so), charity groups, major corporations, cultural festivals, weddings, private parties, and the State Fair of Texas. In 2006, she represented Argentina and performed its tango at The Majestic Theater.
A devoted student of the tango, Laurie has taken numerous workshops and private lessons with Juan Carlos and Johanna Copes, Osvaldo Zotto and Lorena Ermocida, Diego di Falco and Carlolina Zokalski, Guillermo Merlo and Fernanda Ghi, Gustavo Naveira and Giselle Anne, Fabian Salas and Carolina del Rivero, Facundo and Kelly Posadas, Nito and Elba Garcia, Luciana Valle and Alex Krebs, Miguel Zotto,
Julio Balmaceda and Corina de la Rosa
and many others. Since 2001 to the present, she has been studying intensively with Oscar Mandagaran, a former dancer with the internationally acclaimed, world touring show “Forever Tango.”
Laurie's focus on dancing is on technique, elegance, musicality and improvisation. She has been complemented for her embellishments and foot work, her smoothness and finesse, her “feather” lightness, her torque and flexibility, and her dramatic, creative choreographies. She has been described as a highly interpretative, emotional dancer with a good ear. As a trainer, she has been noted in Dallas and critiqued in Buenos Aires as “excellent” and “phenomenal.” As a teacher, her goal is to inspire others to discover the passion for something … the joy of tango, to transcend physical barriers and become beautiful forms of movement meshed with music, to find a universe of human expression in life itself.
