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My love for the Argentine tango began in 1995 when I saw "Forever Tango" on the stage in San Francisco. I have been hooked ever since I laid eyes on the pairs of dancers, whirling in giros, dancing the passionate tango. In the years afterwards, I have learned from many different teachers in order to perfect my tango, and consequently have taught and performed tango in Argentina, the United States, Italy, Japan, Thailand and Vietnam.

I have been living in Buenos Aires for over three years now, after having visited Argentina once a year from several weeks to a month since 2001. In the pursuit of forming my own philosophy of tango, I have studied with many and varied Argentine tango masters and choreographers such as Carlos & Maria Rivarola, Juan Carlos Copes, Carlos Gavito, Claudio Gonzalez, Francisco Forquera & Carolina Bonaventura, Verónica Salmerón, Gabriel Misse, Carlos Copello, Martin Ojeda, Guillermina Quiroga, Claudio Villagra, Mariano "Chicho" Frumboli, Gustavo Naveira & Giselle Anne, Marcelo & Analia.

My dance training has its roots in classical ballet, jazz, modern and contemporary dance, flamenco and Spanish dance, ballroom social dance and salsa. I have studied ballet with ex-principal dancer of the famed Teatro Colón Alejandro Totto; and at the Estudio Julio Bocca, with Ricardo Rivas, Silvia Bazilis, Daniel Negroni. I have studied Flamenco with Alicia Fiuri, Néstor Spada in Buenos Aires, and with Rosa Montoya in San Francisco.

Also a poet, writer, painter, photographer, singer (tangos, bel canto), and educator, I left my native Vietnam on the last day of the evacuation of Saigon. My first book of poems, Song of the Cicadas, won the 2000 Juniper Prize, the 2002 Great Lakes Colleges Association's New Writers Awards for Poetry and was a finalist for the Poetry Society of America's Norma Farber First Book Award.  My other books of poetry include Why is the Edge Always Windy?; Tango, Tangoing: Poems & Art, the bilingual Spanish / English edition, Tango, Tangueando: Poemas & Dibujos and Love Poem to Tofu and Other Poems (chapbook). A Wallace E. Stegner Fellow in poetry for two years at Stanford University and a Fulbright Fellow in Vietnam, I received my Master of Fine Arts from the University of Arizona.  My poetry has been frequently anthologized to include in Best American Poetry, The Pushcart Book of Poetry: Best Poems from 30 Years of the Pushcart Prize; Asian American Poetry —The Next Generation; Language for a New Century: Contemporary Poetry from the Middle East, Asia and Beyond (Norton); Force Majeure (Indonesia); Black Dog, Black Night: Contemporary Vietnamese Poetry; Jungle Crows: a Tokyo Expatriate anthology and has appeared in leading American literary journals.  I have read my poetry, lectured and/or given academic presentations in Argentina, Germany, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Switzerland, United States, Thailand and Vietnam. My paintings and photographs have been exhibited for one year at the Capitol House in Washington D.C., for six months at the Dallas Museum of Art, the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, in galleries in the San Francisco Bay Area, in public exhibitions in Tokyo, Bali, Bangkok, Buenos Aires and Seoul. I have taught at the University of Maryland in Tokyo, Stanford University and the University of Arizona.
My new book Force of the Heart: Tango, Art, of drawings, paintings, and a poem, inspired by the tango, has just been released.

I lived in Tokyo for six years. Now, based in Buenos Aires, I travel frequently. I am fluent in Spanish, French, Italian, Vietnamese and English of course, and speak some Japanese and Thai. I am available to perform, teach, present workshops, give lectures and readings.

ESPANOL:

Mi amor por el tango argentino empezó en 1995 cuando ví el show “Forever Tango” en San Francisco. Me enamoré inmediatamente cuando ví las parejas apasionadas que bailaron el tango. Desde este tiempo, me dediqué a aprender y a perfeccionar mi tango, aprendiendo de muchos maestros distintos. Después bailé y enseñé en los Estados Unidos, Italia, Japon, Tailandia, Vietnam y Argentina.

Desde el 2001 cada año una vez, estuve visitando Buenos Aires; y desde hace más de tres años que estoy radicada en Buenos Aires. En la búsqueda de formar mi propia filosofía del tango, estudié con muchos diversos maestros y coreógrafos de tango, como Carlos y María Rivarola, Carlos Gavito, Juan Carlos Copes, Claudio Gonzalez, Francisco Forquera y Carolina Bonaventura, Gabriel Misse, Verónica Salmerón, Martin Ojeda, Carlos Copello, Guillermina Quiroga, Claudio Villagra, Mariano "Chicho" Frumboli, Gustavo Naveira y Giselle Anne, Marcelo y Analia.

Mi formación como bailarina empezó con el baile clásico ballet, el flamenco y el baile clásico español, los bailes de salón (ballroom) y mucha salsa. Nacida en Saigon, Vietnam, emigré a los EE.UU. con mi familia como refugiada después de la guerra. Soy también escritora/poetisa, y artista plástica. Mi cuarto libro, Tango, Tangueando: Poemas & Dibujos, explora la psicología y la pasión de este baile. Visitar: www.monglan.com  

VIDEOS

La Confitería Ideal, Unitango Milonga, Buenos Aires, 23 marzo, 2012, with Walter Champin (invited dancer). "La Milonga"

La Elegancia en el Tango: La Confitería Ideal, Unitango Milonga, Buenos Aires, 23 marzo, 2012, with Walter Champin (invited dancer). "Un Tango, un Vals."

Tango, paintings, & poetry: a video which encompasses my three loves. A poetry reading in Buenos Aires, in the famous milonga Canning, El Parakultural, 2010, from my book, Tango, Tangueando (bilingual version). And, an improvised tango performance with the celebrated Pampa Cortés (of Forever Tango), 2009.

More tango, this time dancing the milonga with Pampa Cortés, more paintings and poetry:

I competed in the Campeonato Metropolitano, Milongueros del Mundo, in Buenos Aires, on August 6, 2011. Here is a video in which my partner and I passed on to the finals. In this competition, we were not allowed to do any kicks, voleos above the knee, etc.

Buenos Aires, February 14, 2011: Here is an improvisation with Lautaro Peyrelongue at the opening of my art exhibit, "Sin Lágrimas" (Without Tears -- Paintings on Canvas), at Tango Escuela Carlos Copello, in Buenos Aires.

Buenos Aires, August 18, 2010: Here are two dances with Ricardo Guzman in La Garufa Milonga, Ciudad Cultural Konex. Earlier, I had given a bilingual Spanish-English dramatic presentation of my book, Tango, Tangueando: Poemas & Dibujos. (Tango, Tangoing: Poems & Art)

See you on the dance floor!