Curriculum Vitae
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Hugo "Gato" Valdéz
Hugo “Gato” Valdez was born in Buenos Aires to a family of “milongueros”. As a child, he accompanied his
parents to a well-known milonga in the south area of the city called “Bomberos de Lanús”, where he had the
chance to watch the legendary old “milongueros” dance.
Gato started learning tango in the milongas in 1983, first by watching the old “milongueros” dance (the ones
who danced the authentic style popular in those years), and later, by taking many lessons with the great
masters: Fino, Antonio Todaro, Raúl Bravo and Mingo Pugliese.
In 1984, he performed professionally for the first time with the Osvaldo Pugliese orchestra in the film “Tangos, el exilio de Gardel”, directed by Pino Solanas, a film that got the best film award in Venecia
Festival, 1995. |
Gato has also appeared in many films,
such as “Gracias Maestro” (an Argentine film directed by Luis Segura and dedicated to the life of Osvaldo
Pugliese), “Evita”, directed by Alan Parker and “The Tango Lesson”, directed by Sally Potter.
He has also studied drama, performed in many productions as a dancer, and has acted in several one act
farces.
Gato has been teaching tango since 1989, the same year in which he went on his first European tango
tour.
In 1994, he founded the group “La Postango” together with the singers Pablo Banchero and Cardenal
Dominguez.
In 1998 Gato met tango dancer Andrea Monti, with whom he formed a professional tango couple. Since
then, they have been dancing and teaching together very successfully both in Argentina and around the
world, being the most visited countries the USA, England, Italy, Spain, Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia,
Singapore, Indonesia, Brazil and Costa Rica.
Nowadays they proudly run and direct the official argentine tango competition Argentine Tango USA
Festival and USA Official Championship in San Francisco, which is branch of Tango Buenos Aires
Dance World Cup, organized by the Ministry of Culture of Buenos Aires.
Gato has been as an official Judge of the “Mundial de Tango de Buenos Aires” (Tango Buenos
Aires Dance World Cup) which is yearly organized by the Ministry of Culture of the Government of
the City of Buenos Aires.
