Janeen
Janeen is the founder of Tango Yorkshire, formerly Tango Leeds, and comes to Tango via gymnastics, Salsa, Latin and Ballroom dancing.
In 1999, she organised the very first Tango workshop in Leeds with Federico Mazandarani.
Following the success of the event, she established the first weekly classes in Leeds with help from the late Frank Smith, the only teacher in the North at the time.
Janeen masterminded some of the largest Tango events in the North of England including 2 Tango Festivals in 2004 and 2006 featuring some of the best known artists
including the original world-famous Sexteto Mayor
and UK-based Tango Siempre as well as a multitude of teachers and performers.
In 2010, together with Yohann, she worked on the 'Strictly Learning Dancing' for St Gemma's Hospice which raised £20,000 for the charity and went on to support others.
Women of many talents, she is a professor and attorney at law. She has some 20 years of coaching experience in gymnastics with numerous regional and national medals.
She was involved with the Stage Musical Billy Elliot as the resident Acro teacher in the Billy Elliot Leeds School,
preparing a number talented young actors (including, James Lomas, Liam Mower, Leon Cooke, Travis Yates, Mathew Koon) for their West End debut.
Yohann
After dancing ballroom socially as a teenager, Yohann took his first Argentinian Tango steps with teacher Yazmin Burel from Buenos Aires in 1999.
He moved to Leeds the following year and joined the local Tango class organised by Janeen and taught by the late Frank Smith, the only teacher in the North at the time.
With Frank's coaching, Janeen accompanied Yohann gradually took over teaching and led classes in towns and cities across Yorkshire
including Leeds, York, Sheffield, Harrogate, Bradford, Huddersfield, Dewsbury and Thirsk.
Yohann was also the resident Argentine Tango teacher at the Yorkshire Dance Centre for several years.
As a leading exponent of Argentine Tango in Yorkshire and beyond, Yohann performed at several prestigious venues including the
West Yorkshire Playhouse,
The Carriageworks Theatre, Leeds Town Hall,
Leeds College of Music (The Venue),
Wilton's Music Hall, London and at several more locations and events.
Yohann is also an experienced Tango DJ, playing at small and large milongas and events alike, including Tango Festivals
in Dublin and London.
Besides making learning to dance fun, Yohann strives to focus on good posture, walk and connection as enablers of the dance and
aims to develop the leaders' ability to improvise whilst giving followers the confidence to embellish the dance.
He is a licentiate member of the United Kingdom Alliance of Professional Teachers of Dancing and Kindred Arts, specialising in Argentine Tango.
Yohann relocated to Winchester in 2018 and is supporting Janeen to help grow the local Tango community.
