Walter Perez

Walter Perez is a New York-based artist born in Buenos Aires, Argentina. He was introduced to Tango in 1993 as a way of coping with a deep personal loss. What began as a form of therapy became a way of life. He has built up his career as a Tango dancer, teacher and choreographer of Argentine Tango over 29 years. He is the founder and Executive director of Friends of Argentine Tango a nonprofit organization established in 2013.Perez studied Psicologia Social at Nuestro Tiempo, Buenos Aires, Argentina Walter trained with renowned tango master teachers such as: Pepito Avellaneda, Rodolfo Dinzel, Juan Carlos Copes, and Garciela Gonzalez. He also trained on salsa ( Liz Paredes, Eddie Torres, Jimmy Anton) and other Latin social dances. He has performed and taught extensible worldwide at many festivals, dance companies, and theater performances. He appeared as a feature Tango performer in several TV programs and TV commercials as well as in short films and movies. He obtained high reviews on the New York Times.

Together with Leonardo Sardella, in 2010 they created “Malevaje Tango” same sex tango couple dance company; teaching and performing worldwide and since 2015 they are the organizers the NY Queer Tango Weekend, a four days International festival. They are ranked very high on the list of the world's leading Argentine tango dance partners who are able to flawlessly and creatively exchange roles as leader and follower.

Walter and Leonardo are the founders Friends of Argentine Tango,(www.friendsofargentinetango.org) a nonprofit organization with a mission to promote, perform and teach Tango and other Latin social dances as a means of enhancing wellness, cultural enrichment, social engagement and personal growth. They have been advocating for diversity and inclusion on social dancing,inspiring others to embrace and support social dancing as an art form that expresses a universal need to connect with others and with one's own true self.

They are recurrent grantees of LMCC Su-Casa and Creative learning programs. They work for the Brooklyn Public Library Creative Aging programs and for Lifetime Arts; these past and ongoing experiencies with seniors have contributed and deepened their commitment to work with the senior community.