Pasi and Maria are talented, warm-hearted, and hard-working choreographers, dancers, teachers, and DJs. They have been dancing Argentine tango since 2000 and teaching together since 2005. They teach all styles of Argentine tango: tango salon, tango nuevo, canyengue and tango escenario. In their teaching they use their experience of Alexander technique for movement analysis, and draw inspiration from their most influential teacher Gustavo Naveira.
Looking back
Pasi’s background is in martial arts, and in social dancing. He quit his professional judo career after representing Finland in the Atlanta olympics in 1996. In addition to judo he has practiced other martial arts like aikido, karate, tai-chi, boxing, etc. for 15 years. He started dancing in 1990 with Finnish social dancing and has been hooked since. Pasi started tango in 2000, and that immediately became his Great Love.
Maria danced ballet and tap dancing in her childhood, but was always attracted to couple dances. She took her first Argentine tango classes already in 1997, and immediately fell in love with this complex and interactive dance. She started Finnish social dancing in 1998 and Lindy hop in 2000. She is still a keen lindy hop dancer, although tango takes up most of her time nowadays. In 2001 she spent a year in Paris studying with many of the greatest tango names of the period. Her first trip to Buenos Aires was in 2003, and since then has spent there several months.
Since 2004 Pasi has spent long periods in Buenos Aires, in the beginning studying mostly with the great Gustavo Naveira. Other influential teachers are the already passed great philosopher and milonguero Carlos Gavito, salon style masters Julio Balmaceda and Corina De La Rosa, tango nuevo icon Chicho Frumboli, and the exceptionally innovative late El Pulpo Esbrez and Luiza Paes. He has also greatly benefitted from classes with maestras like Eugenia Parilla, Lucia Macer and Moira Castellano. Recently Pasi has worked on classical tango salon with old maestros, mainly Carlitos Perez.
Since 2005 Pasi and Maria have worked together. In 2006 they had a wonderful three month period in Buenos Aires. Since then they have visited their maestros almost every year, always open to find new things in the tango world.
Maria graduated in the Summer of 2017 from the University of applied sciences in Oulu, being the first social dance teacher in Finland majoring in Argentine tango. Here you can find Maria’s thoughts on teaching and dancing, and here a short text about their current activities, written in Finnish.
From the early stages, Pasi and Maria have looked to other disciplines to support their teaching and dancing. Especially Alexander technique, taiji and mindfulness have been very beneficial for them and their students. They can also teach all the styles of Finnish social dancing, and besides Argentine tango they often teach Finnish tango workshops as a curiosity while traveling abroad. Their new passion is the Argentine folklore.
Pasi and Maria have toured in North America, Europe, and Scandinavia since the early months of their career together. They teach regularly in festivals in Europe, and are regular guests at various workshops mainly in Northern Europe.
PyM teach classes in Finnish, Swedish and English. Maria speaks fluent Spanish, and is brushing up her French. Pasi speaks fluent Norwegian. They also understand German, and speak it a little.
Pasi and Maria were among the first Argentine tango DJ’s in Finland, and have supported many of the newer generation DJ’s in the first steps of their career. Since 2010 Pasi and Maria are living in Tampere, Finland, and collaborate with the local tango association Tango aMoroso. Since 2015 they are working together with their friends and colleagues Arttu Artkoski and Carina Quiroga as leaders and choreographers for the Tango aMoroso show group.
In Autumn 2017 Pasi and Maria and Carina and Arttu opened a new dance studio in the heart of Tampere, La Fábrica del Tango. The studio is the new center of Argentine tango in co-operation with Tango aMoroso.
…ja suomeksi
Pasi ja Maria ovat taitavia, lämminsydämisiä ja ahkeria argentiinalaisen tangon koreografeja, tanssijoita, opettajia ja DJ:tä. He ovat tanssineet argentiinalaista tangoa vuodesta 2000 ja opettaneet yhdessä vuodesta 2005. Pasi ja Maria käyttävät opetuksessaan mm. Aleksander-tekniikan liikeanalyysiä ja ammentavat inspiraatiota omalta maestroltaan, Gustavo Naveiralta. Maria on valmistunut tanssinopettajaksi Oulun Ammattikorkeakoulusta pääaineenaan argentiinalainen tango ja suomalaiset paritanssit. Täältä voit lukea Marian ajatuksia opettamisesta, ja täältä löytyy vielä pieni teksti suomeksi Pasin ja Marian taustasta.
Syksyllä 2017 Pasi ja Maria perustivat yhdessä Arttu Artkosken ja Carina Quirogan kanssa tanssikoulu La Fábrica del Tangon kauniiseen Klingendahlin tehdasympäristöön. Uuden tanssikoulun myötä argentiinalaisen tangon harrastus laajenee Tampereen seudulla yhteistyössä Tango aMoroso -yhdistyksen kanssa.
Pasista ja Mariasta on laaja haastattelu suomeksi Christerin tangoblogissa.
Pasi y Maria Tango 