Marisa & Oliver

Background before tango...
Oliver Koch (German) received a training as a dance teacher and a stage dancer in Hamburg and at the Rotterdam Dance Academy. He started his career as a dancer with Rosas, the well known contemporary dance company of Belgian choreographer Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker. With Rosas he danced in the performances Erts, Woud, Just Before, Achterland, Drumming, I said I, In Real Time and others. Oliver also danced with the companies of Michèle Anne De Mey and Feria Musica (circus). He had a leading role in the dance films Les Noces and Love Sonnets (Thierry De Mey). In 1993 Oliver Koch discovered Argentine tango. It was a revelation and tango immediately occupied an important place in his life and dance career. For many years Oliver combined his work as a modern dancer with his passion to dance and teach tango. At the end of 2001, he left Rosas in order to dedicate himself totally to his career in tango. Marisa van Andel grew up in a Dutch family in Northern Italy. As a very young child already, she followed regular and frequent dance lessons of all kinds. Yet, when she left school, she opted for the university and in 1986 she left Italy moving to Brussels to study journalism and European studies. She started to dance tango in 1994 and immediately got passionate. In 1998 Marisa succeeded in combining her passion for dance with her job, when she became promotion and press officer with the Rosas dance company of choreographer Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker. After office hours she worked as a tango dancer and teacher. At the end of 2001 she left Rosas in order to dedicate herself fully to tango.

Tango background and training...
Marisa & Oliver met on the Brussels tango scene in 1996; they are dance partners and in life since then.  They were trained by old tango maestros such as Pepito Avellaneda, Eduardo Arquimbau, Mingo Pugliese... as well as by younger teachers, among which Gustavo Naveira, Pablo Veron, Julio Balmaceda & Corina De La Rosa, Gabriel d'Angio & Natalia Games, Geraldine Rojas & Javier Rodriguez and Claudia Codega & Esteban Moreno. Oliver & Marisa regularly travel to Argentina to improve their technique and dancing style working with the best teachers and milongueros.

About the dance style...
Over the past 10 years Marisa and Oliver have developed their own dancing and teaching style, combining the intimacy and the close embrace of the tango de salón with the creativity and playfulness of the tango fantasía. They created in 1999 "Al compás del corazón", a non-profit association with the aim of  developing, promoting and teaching tango in Belgium. Al compás del corazón (the title of a famous tango meaning "to the beat of the heart") is the aim of Marisa and Oliver's tango... The intimacy in their tango dance comes from a non verbal communication in which leading and following are no longer coming from muscular force, but from the heart and soul... They permanently search the energy, the connection that is created between two persons when the melodies of he tango give birth to a dance of pure improvisation. Permanently feeling  and listening to each-other, they give free flow to a game full of challenges and surprises. Oliver and Marisa's tango is a harmonious proof of the association between intimacy and a skillful game of legs and feet.

About the teaching...
Marisa & Oliver's teaching focuses on improvisation. The main quality of their pedagogic approach consists in the permanent and progressive analysis of the basic structures of the tango. By  teaching traditional or original figures, they focus on the techniques and details of leading and following, the active role and elegance of the movements of the lady, the constant maintaining of the individual and shared axis, as well as harmony, fluidity, synchronisation and interpretation of the music.

About the tango career...
Oliver and Marisa have been teaching and performing since 1996 all over Belgium and the Netherlands, as well as in Italy, France, Germany, the UK, Austria, Switzerland, the USA and Buenos Aires. They collaborated with several dance and theatre companies, such as Larbi Cherkaoui, Ensemble Leporello and Tiempo Bruto. They danced for TV programmes, trailers and commercials, as well as in several tango shows ans festivals with renown orchestras as Tango al Sur with Dirk Van Esbroek, Alfredo Marcucci's Veritango, Los Reyes del Tango, Color Tango, Silencio, Quinteto Zárate, Tango Dorado and the New York Tango Trio. They have choreographed, created and danced in several theatres throughout Europe the successful show Ensueños de tango (2003), with 4 dancers and 5 musicians of Quinteto Zárate on stage. When seeing the première of Ensueños in The Netherlands, well-known theatre and TV actor and director Frank Groothof invited Marisa and Oliver to be the lead dancers in his new performance, Orpheus. In December 2005 this theatre and dance performance to live music was successfully created in The Netherlands, followed by a tour in 2006 in about 60 theatres. End 2005 Oliver and Marisa worked for the TV show "Let's Dance" (VT4), choregraphing and teaching Belgian celebrities 5 tangos which all scored very high points from the jury.

Key moments of Marisa & Oliver's tango career

2006
- Orpheus, tour 2006, Theater De Tamboer-Hoogeveen (NL), Theater De Kom-Nieuwegein (NL), Theater De Veste-Delft (NL), Theater De Vest-Alkmaar (NL), Stadsschouwbug Nijmegen (NL), Schouwburg De Meerse-Hoofddorp (NL), Schouwburg Amstelveen (NL), Koninklijke Schouwburg Den Haag (NL), Schouwburg Cuijk NL)
theatre, dance and live music show with actor/director Frank Groothof and Quinteto Zárate.

- Ensueños de tango, tour 2006,  Posthuis Theater- Heerenveen (NL), Theater 't Speelhuis-Helmond (NL), Munttheater-Weert (NL), Jan Van Besouwhuis-Goirle (NL), Schouwburg Amstelveen (NL)
tango show with dancers Birkit Wildenburg & Muzaffer Demiray and Quinteto Zárate.

- Let's Dance 2006, Endemol & VT4
Tango choreographers and teachers (5 choreographies) for the Endemol Television programme  Let's Dance, broadcast on Belgian TV channel VT4.

- 2nd International Brussels Tango Festival (B), 2006
workshops and performances at the tango festival of Brussels, organised by Alma del Sur.

- Tango?Tango! Lille (FR), 2005
special monthly training programme to educate tango teachers organised by the association Tango?Tango!

- Workshops and/or exibitions in Lille (F), Leeuwarden (NL), Antwerpen (B), Siracusa (I), Stuttgart (D), Frayssinette (F).


2005
- Orpheus, tour 2005, Theater De Purmaryn-Purmerend (NL), Theater  De Poorterij-Hoorn (NL), Theater Het Park-Zaltbommel (NL), Theater Nieuwe Buitensociëteit-Zwolle (NL)
theatre, dance and live music show with actor/director Frank Groothof and Quinteto Zárate.

- Ensueños de tango, tour 2005, Theater De Naald- Naaldwijk (NL); Theater van Vlaardingen (NL), Theater Kattendans-Bergeijk (NL), Stadsschouwburg Nijmegen (NL), Cultura-Ede (NL), Theater De Roma-Antwerpen (B), OC De Djoelen-Oud Turnhout (B), NTG Theater-Gent (B)
tango show with dancers Birkit Wildenburg & Muzaffer Demiray and Quinteto Zárate.

- 4th Tango Marathon of Washington DC, USA, 2005
workshops and performances at the tango festival of Washington DC, one of the main festivals in the USA.

- 3rd Tango Festival of Firenze (I), 2005
performance at the tango festival of Firenze, organised by Tango Club.

- 1st International Brussels Tango Festival (B), 2005
workshops and performances at the tango festival of Brussels, organised by Alma del Sur.

- Tango?Tango! Lille (FR), 2005
special monthly training programme to educate tango teachers organised by the association Tango?Tango!

- Workshops and/or exibitions in Lausanne (CH), Cordes (F), Paris (F), Lille (F), Enschede (NL), Utrecht (NL), Edinburgh (UK),  Amsterdam (NL), Brugge (B), Gent (B), Antwerpen (B), Abano Terme (I), Ustica (I), Stuttgart (D), Frayssinette (F)

2004
- Tango Pasión, Concertgebouw Brugge 2004
tango show with Alfredo Marcucci and his musicians of  Sexteto Veritango and with Juan José Mosalini and his ensemble and dancers Jorge Rodriguez and Maria Filali. 

- Ensueños de tango, tour 2004, Isala Theater-Capelle a/d Ijssel, (NL); Schouwburg Middelburg (NL); Schouwburg De Meerse-Hoofddorp (NL); Theater De Vorst-Tilburg (NL), Lux Theater-Nijmegen (NL)
tango show with dancers Birkit Wildenburg & Muzaffer Demiray and Quinteto Zárate.

- Trainingsklasse, Stuttgart 2004
workshops organised by Trainingsklasse Stuttgart.

- Druivenfestival Hoeilaart 2004
tangoshow with dancers Birkit Wildenburg & Muzaffer Demiray and Quinteto Zárate.

- Buskergarden Festival, Ferrara 2004
workshops and performance for the yearly Buskergarden Festival.

- Festival Les Milonguettes du Tarn, Cordes 2004
workshops and performance with famous bandoneon player José Luis Betancor on the main festival evening.

- Un Mare di Tango, Genova 2004
tangoshow to live music in the open air theatre of the Port of Genova with dancers Pasquale Bloise & Emmanuelle, Alejandro Angelica and others.

- Festival 4-D Tango, Eindhoven 2004
workshops, show and group choreographies with the orchestra Quinteto Zárate and the dancers Birkit Wildenburg & Muzaffer Demiray. Tangoshow  in the Muziektheater with the tango orchestra Silencio and the dancers Wildenburg & Muzaffer Demiray and Patricia Hilliges & Matteo Panero.

- Workshops and/or exibitions in Salzburg (A), Lausanne (CH), Stuttgart (D), Grafingen (D), Cordes (F), Paris (F), Lyon (F), Ferrara (I), Firenze (I), Padova (I), Ravenna (I), Calampiso (I), Frayssinette (F),  Istanbul (Turkey)

2003
- Trainingsklasse, Stuttgart 2003
workshops and tango show Ensueños de tango with  the dance couple Birkit Wildenburg & Muzaffer Demiray.

- Tangomania, Summerfestival di Bologna, Bologna 2003
performances on the big tango festival of Bologna with the orchestra  Los Reyes del Tango, DJ Felix Picherna and the Argentinean dancers Juan-Carlos Copes & Johana Copes, Javier Rodriguez & Geraldine Rojas, Claudia Codega & Esteban Moreno, Roberto Reis & Lucila Cionci, Demian Garcia & Carolina Bonaventura, and Italians Tobias Bert & Annalisa Di Luzio, Matteo Panero & Patricia Hilliges.

- El Labo, closure party, Paris 2003
performance with the Argentinean dancers Sebastian Missé & Andrea Reyero and the orchestra Septeto Gustavo Gancedo  .

- La Zapada, closure party in Trianon, Utrecht 2003
show and group choreographies with dance couple Birkit Wildenburg & Muzaffer Demiray.

- Festival 4-D Tango, Eindhoven 2003
show and group choreographies with the orchestra Quinteto Zárate and the dancers Birkit Wildenburg & Muzaffer Demiray and Vincent Morelle & Maryline Lefor.

- Al compás del corazón, big winter ball Ons Huis, big winter ball Ons Huis, Brussels 2003
show and group choreographies with the dancers Birkit Wildenburg & Muzaffer Demiray and Vincent Morelle & Maryline Lefor.

- Workshops and/or exibitions in Salzburg (A), Lausanne (CH), Stuttgart (D), Cordes (F), Frayssinette (F), Paris (F), Grafingen (D)


2002
- Aktueel Denken en Leven, Stadsschouwburg Mechelen, 2002
performance on a theater stage with Cuarteto Tango al Sur (Dirk Van Esbroek, Alfredo Marcucci, Juan Masondo, Daniela Rapan).

- Festival Ultimo Tango, La Bombonnière Maastricht, 2002
workshops and performances with the orquesta Septeto Dorado and dance couples Damian Esell & Nancy Louzan and Demian Garcia & Carolina Bonaventura.

- Festival Noches a Media Luz, CC De Doos Hasselt 2002
workshops and performances with the orquesta Sexteto Oblivion and dance couple Andrea Bestvater & Martin la Bruna.

 - Chill2Party Kanaal 2, Tour & Taxis Brussels 2002
performances with common choreographies with dance couples Birkit Wildenburg & Muzaffer Demiray and Vincent Morelle & Maryline Lefor.

- Festival van Vlaanderen, Place Marché aux Poissons Brussels 2002
performance on stage in opening of the concert by Guidon Kremer.

- Birthday party of the 'Baron of the Port,' Haven van Rotterdam 2002
performance on stage with the orquesta Otra, Juan José Mosalini and dance couple Birkit Wildenburg & Muzaffer Demiray.