Fay
Villanueva
was destined from birth to be a performer.
Her mother was an accomplished opera singer;
her father a singing star on radio. While
growing up in Santa Barbara, Martha Graham
was often her baby-sitter. Fay began studying
ballet at an early age, and later spent
many years studying, performing, and teaching
the folkloric dances of the Philippines
and Polynesia. After majoring in Piano
& Voice at the University of Santo
Tomás, Fay continued to pursue
vocal studies with noted teachers, and
made three concert tours of Germany as
a soprano soloist with Santa Barbara's
own Edelweiss Choir. Fay's most recent
stage appearance was in the Santa Barbara
Grand Opera production of Die Fledermaus,
for which she created the waltz choreography.
In 1991, Fay began studying Argentine
Tango under Alberto Toledano & Loreen
Arbus, who arranged for her to give public
exhibitions of Tango after only a few
months of training. Fay has furthered
her studies under many of the best-known
Argentine master-teachers, and teaches
and performs Argentine Tango in Santa
Barbara.
Brian
Griffin
got his first exposure to Argentine Tango
at a 1988 workshop by the legendary maestro
Orlando Paiva. In 1990, the critically-acclaimed
Forever Tango performed at the Arlington
Theater; the first mournful notes of the
bandoneón cut through him como
un puñal en la carne, and he knew
he had to learn this dance.
In
1991, he began studying the intricacies
of the authentic Tango with Alberto Toledano
& Loreen Arbus. Since then, Brian
has had the good fortune to study with
many of the living legends of Argentine
Tango, such as Nito & Elba García,
Orlando Paiva, Juan Bruno, Lampazo, Nestor
Ray, and Juan Carlos Copes. As a teacher,
Brian has also been influenced by the
best of the modern generation of tangueros.
The methods of Daniel Trenner, Rebecca
Shulman, Fabián Salas, and Gustavo
Naveira have been particularly influential.
In
addition to his usual local teaching &
performing schedule, Brian regularly lectures
and gives demonstrations of Argentine
Tango for the Dance Department at UCSB.
