🐊Gator Tango Festivalito🪗
Schedule
Fri, 12 Jun, 2026 at 05:30 pm to Sun, 14 Jun, 2026 at 11:59 pm
UTC-04:00Location
Gainesville, Florida | Gainesville, FL
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🐊Gator Tango Festivalito🪗🎶 Together with Andrés Amarilla, Meredith Klein, Ignacio Ondartz, Juan Villareal and Patricio Crom
Organized by Miha Kim with Gainesville Tango
🗓️ Friday - Sunday June 12 - 14, 2026
Friday-Saturday
📍 THE Alchemy Club
602 S Main Street,
Gainesville, Florida
• 🕺🏻Workshops, 🎉Milonga, Show 🎭, Live Music 🎼
• 🍷 Bring your favorite bottle!
• 🧀Refreshments, water and cafe on premises
• 🌎If you are able, feel free to bring your own bottle/cup
Sunday
📍 🛶 Ichetucknee Springs
• 👙Don‘t forget your bathing suit
📍 🏡 Private residence - address to be provided to registrants
• 🥟 Empanada making workshop
• 🎶🥟🍷House concert, empanadas and wine
✨Sometimes the stars align and we said yes. We are grateful for another opportunity to welcome back our Maestro Andres Amarilla and Meredith Klein, and for the first time in Florida, Ignacio Ondartz, Juan Villareal, and Patricio Crom. We are over the moon and tickled to be with Ignacio Ondartz (a new creation - ask him what he's been up to), a beautiful voice in tango, Juan Villareal, and the internationally leading tango duo, Juan Villareal and Patricio Crom who create magic when tango dancers are in the room! It is an honor to be with all of these extraordinary artists. Let's enjoy our togetherness on the dance floor, in tango and musicality workshops, on a trip to the infamous cold springs, by learning to make Argentine empanadas and by listening to one another and tango at a local house concert. We are planning for an intimate weekend with connection, music, dance and nature. Say hello and introduce yourself to someone you don't know. Talk a little less, listen a little more and dance with heart. Never stop learning or growing. Be kind. Andres once said, “Tango doesn’t wait for you.” Now let’s make some magic! Vamos! ✨
🎤 With LIVE tango singer/guitarist Juan Villareal and guitarist Patricio Crom from Buenos Aires 🇦🇷
Juan Villarreal and Patricio Crom began their activity in 2010, playing tangos in milongas and clubs in Buenos Aires city. From the beginning, the Villarreal Crom duo tried to find a unique aesthetic and style that, over the years and recordings, solidified the sound that characterizes them.
Today, they are one of the most recognized duos in the tango scene in Buenos Aires and the world, having embarked on countless tours across Latin America, Europe, and the United States. And having participated in numerous festivals and venues such as the CCK Symphonic Hall "Ballena Azul" in Buenos Aires, La Locura Tango Musik Festival in Innsbruck Austria, Lyon Tango Festival and Philadelphia Tango Festival among others.
They have released 5 albums: “De corte romántico (2012),” “Cinco otoños (2015),” “En la luna de Valencia (2017),” “D’Arienzo en guitarras (2022)”, “Moderno trovador (2023),” which consists entirely of their own compositions and their latest release, “Live in Zagreb,” recorded live in that city in 2024.
In 2022, they graced the cover of the renowned German magazine “Tangodanza,” the world’s most widely circulated tango magazine.
https://villarrealcrom.com/en/videos-2/
with 🎧 DJ Ignacio Ondartz from Buenos Aires, Philadelphia
SAT night Milonga 9pm-12am
ALL Levels workshop on musicality for dancers
by Juan and Pato 7:30-9pm SAT night
💃 No partner needed! We encourage learning one or both roles as proposer and or interpreter! In 2026, many women are leading, men are dancing in heels, and we are all inclusive! We are intentional about creating safe dance spaces so please let us know if you see or experience anything less than safe.
🎟️ Enjoy the discount for the all inclusive FULL PASS to enjoy the entire weekend of activities in this little secret town called Gainesville!
🤫🎶🌳🎭🐊
⸻
💻 REGISTER and save your spot HERE
👉 www.gatortango.com
🎓additional discounts
• Teens — 50 % off
• Students under 30 (with ID) — 20 % off
• Please email Miha at [email protected] if you are under financial hardship to learn about work exchange.
• If you would like to make a donation to support this community initiative of tango and to assist with the many costs involved with this event and or future events, we would be grateful.
🙏venmo.com/u/Miha-Kim-1
⸻
Ignacio Ondartz is a tango artist with a 24-year trajectory in the art form.
Born in Mar del Plata, province of Buenos Aires, Ignacio began studying tango in 2000 in his hometown with Julio Valdez, the most important referent for tango dance in the city. Mr. Valdez is renowned in Mar del Plata, and beyond, as a teacher, choreographer and organizer of the oldest tango practice (Milonga) in the city.
Ignacio benefited, in his study of tango dance, from having a solid musical foundation and training. He had pursued classical guitar studies at the music conservatory of the city of Mar del Plata “Luis Gianneo,” in his adolescence, and later studied classical voice as well. This background in music gave him a significant head start when he started to pursue tango dance.
In 2002, he joined the Tango Ballet ‘Nueva Generación’ directed by Julio Valdez, with which he performed as a dancer in various institutions and on many different stages. The Ballet performed both in tango spaces and events, and for the general public.
In the same year, Ignacio began to serve as teaching assistant for several teachers and tango masters in Mar del Plata such as Enrique Ringa, Walter Rodriguez and Claudio Fortes.
In 2004, he decided to commit even more fully to tango by moving to the city of Buenos Aires, the birthplace of tango, and best place in the world to deepen one’s tango studies and involvement.
That year, Ignacio joined the cast of the Show, “Piel de Tango,” created and directed by Dina Emed. In that show, he shared the stage with other outstanding dancers such as the future World Champion in stage category Hugo Mastrolorenzo. He spent three seasons with the show, performing on various famed stages of Buenos Aires, including Confiteria La Ideal, Paseo la Plaza and Salón Sur, among others.
Through his involvement with the dance company, he also began teaching at the Tango School of Dina Emed.
In 2005 & 2006, Ignacio participate in the Congress of Argentine Tango as an assistant to Eduardo Saucedo.
From 2004, when he moved to Buenos Aires, to the present, Ignacio has never stopped improving his dance and professional training, taking classes, seminars and workshops with renowned masters of the genre like Fabian Salas, Chicho Frumboli, Julio Balmaceda and Corina de La Rosa, Mauricio Castro, and Gustavo Naveira, among many others.
In 2015, he was part of the theater show, “El tango ha muerto,” which received great reviews from newspaper and radio critics.
In 2020 and 2022, he was featured in films by the director, dancer and producer Amira Campora: “Tango19” and “Piernas de Tango.”
Today, Ignacio is known throughout the Buenos Aires tango scene as an insightful and generous teacher, as a favorite DJ who works with a number of different milongas (tango events), and as a specialist in initiating tourists to the intricacies of the Buenos Aires tango experience. He works with groups, both of foreign tango dancers, and tourists who are getting their first experience ever of tango, as a tour guide, teacher, and dance assistant / accompanist in the milongas (social dances). Dancers from around the world seek out his tour guide services, both because of his professional excellence in tango, and also his immense personal warmth that sets everyone around him at ease. He has an unusual ability to decipher the Buenos Aires tango scene and make it accessible to foreigners. He specializes in helping outsiders enjoy the feeling of being insiders in the Buenos Aires tango scene.
In his teaching, he prioritizes giving students just enough structure so that they can enter into the game of tango and discover their own personal dance, and their ability to connect with, relate to and “find” any other partner. He loves watching his students find their own path in the dance, and at the same time, keeps pushing himself to rethink and rediscover what is possible within the tango embrace and in each tango connection.
Born and raised in Buenos Aires, Andres Amarilla began dancing tango in 1987 at age 11. While still a child, he studied with and performed in the dance companies of three of the greatest tangueros of all time: Gustavo Naveira, Juan Carlos Copes, and Rodolfo Dinzel. After 10 years of intensive immersion in the music, culture and movement of traditional Argentine Tango, Andres became part of a small group of young people seeking to push the limits of the traditional art form. Together, they analyzed and codified the movements, sequences and rules of traditional tango and began to play with the “grammar” of the tango language, thereby developing uncounted new sequences of movements, and giving birth to a new means of teaching, dancing and thinking about tango. This way of analyzing tango has become the basis of most good tango pedagogy in the world today.
A greatly sought-after teacher, Andres has taught in more than 70 cities worldwide, including Istanbul, Beirut, Warsaw, Gdansk, Moscow, Sydney, Brisbane, Belo Horizonte, Buenos Aires, San Francisco, Vancouver, Montreal, and New York, among many others. In 2008, Andres and his dance partner, Meredith Klein, founded the Philadelphia Argentine Tango School. Until Covid-19, Andres was splitting his year between Philadelphia and traveling to teach in other parts of the world.
https://andresamarilla.com/
https://www.philadelphiatangoschool.com/andres
Meredith Klein has been dancing tango for 27 years, including three years spent living in Buenos Aires. Meredith directs the Philadelphia Argentine Tango School (since 2008), the Philadelphia Tango Festival (since 2010), Milonga Tours (offering tango tours of Buenos Aires for dancers since 2009), and the tango record label Bochinche Records (since 2023).
Before tango, Meredith came from a background in music, and has made it her life’s mission to help tango dancers and tango musicians understand each other a little better. Her Bochinche Records released Psicoporteño by Tipica Messiez in June 2023. The next year, Bochinche released La inevitable tentacion de ir a contramano by Sexteto Fantasma, which was nominated for a Latin Grammy Award for “Best Tango Album.” On December 11, 2025, Bochinche released the first triple album in the history of tango, Icónico y Barrial by Orquesta Misteriosa Buenos Aires. Three albums are forthcoming in 2026.
Meredith has taught and performed with Andres Amarilla in more than 40 cities worldwide, including Istanbul, Sydney and Byron Bay (Australia), Gdansk and Brzeg (Poland), Belo Horizonte (Brazil), Beirut (Lebanon), Nicosia (Cyprus), Vancouver and Montreal (Canada), and more than 30 cities in the United States.
Meredith has completed a Diploma in Tango at the University of Buenos Aires in Argentina. She has also completed Dr. Madeleine Hackney’s Teacher Training in Adapted Tango Classes for Older Individuals and Those with Movement Disorders.
In July 2024, Meredith became one of very few foreigners in the world to be named an “Academic” of the National Academy of Tango in Buenos Aires, a program of the Argentine Ministry of Culture and Department of Education.
https://www.philadelphiatangoschool.com/meredith
👉 Message Miha Kim for registration and LIMITED private lessons.
Private lesson with Andres $125/hr
Private lesson with Meredith $125/hr
Private lesson with both Andres/Ignacio & Meredith $200/hr
Follow us @Gainesville_tango
Follow @TangoBreakdown for Andres’ upcoming tours & online classes.
💐 Special thanks to the Philadelphia Argentine Tango School for lending us their registration system. We could not have done any of this without your support.
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Where is it happening?
Gainesville, Florida, United StatesEvent Location & Nearby Stays:
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