Ilene Marder

Sunday Tango Tea Party, playing for us: Ilene Marder, “La Rubia Del Norte”, is one of New York City’s most popular, in-demand Argentine Tango DJ’s, and a pioneering organizer of Tango in New York’s Hudson Valley. She founded Woodstock Tango 16 years ago, hosting the region’s most popular monthly milongas, bringing in extraordinary visiting artists each month for the first comprehensive Argentine Tango guest artist workshop program in NYS outside of NYC. Ilene was also in demand as a popular teacher of absolute beginning dancers, focusing on Embrace, Connection and Musicality. Woodstock Tango was twice named the “Best Place to Learn Argentine Tango in the Hudson Valley” (HV Magazine). Having studied music since the age of seven, Ilene is widely praised for the quality of her tandas and great taste in selecting the most inspiring music for dancing, She is one of the relatively few non-Argentine’s to be regularly invited to play at the tango salons of Buenos Aires, Argentina (Salon Canning, Porteño y Bailarin, Parque Patricios Festival), creating a seamless, integral experience from start to finish, using the many diverse styles of classic tango to create an exciting and deeply satisfying journey for dancers . Her ability to read and energize a crowd keeps her floors packed with happy dancers all night long. She is a traditional “musicalizadora”, known for her “good taste”, playing tandas of the most beautiful and dazzling tango ever recorded- and is very adept at offering some lovely danceable surprises from the modern tango world. Ilene doesn’t rely on pre-determined playlists, but chooses music on-the-fly appropriate to the moment and the dancers. Besides DJing NYC’s top milongas (The All Night Milonga, La Nacional, Milonga Rosa, the Astoria Tango Club, Lincoln Center, NYC Tango Festivals & Championships, among others), She was resident DJ at the venerable Stardust Dance Weekends for three years; inaugurated, produced, DJ’d and taught Bard College’s prestigious Special Tango Night for four years, and DJ’d the NYC Tango National Championships working with maestroJorge Torres many times. Most recently, she DJ’d at NYC’s Lincoln Center and for Chicago’s Milonguero Encuentro. Ilene has also played at festivals and milongas in Boston, Miami, Tampa, Sarasota, Gulfport, Toronto, Philadelphia, Las Vegas, Vermont, and New Jersey, among others. Over the years she has developed a Meet the Music program to better acquaint dancers with the key orchestras of the Golden Age of Tango, and highlight newer modern orquestas playing our favorite classics. Passionate about dancing as well as DJing, Ilene has studied privately with almost all of the exceptional guiding artists who taught at Woodstock, and considers her principle teachers to be Dario Da Silva, Junior Cervila, Omar Vega, and Daniela Arcuri. …. – Read Ilene’s thoughts on Tango Djing in this interview: http://supersabinotango.blogspot.it/2013/03/ilene-marder-i-am-always-building.htm