Italian-born Tiziana Perinotti (MissT) started her journey at A.C.T. in the summer '13 intensive music theater program. Recently she's been acting, dancing, singing, and flute playing in theaters in "In The Still Of The Night" A.C.T. Production by A.C.T. Theater Director Frances E. Devlin, and Music Director Naomi Sanchez, in "Projected Voyages", and Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream", and also played a lead role in "A Bridge To A Border" the latest movie by Sundance and Cannes award-winning director Rob Nilsson now premiering at the Mill Valley Film Festival. Her T4Tango award-winning documentary is now available on Amazon. She also enjoys doing improv, voice-over, modeling, song and screen/play writing, singing, dancing, playing flute, martial arts, yoga, basketball, brain science, psychology, mindful meditation, and doing community service.
Count Glover , Co-Founder, of Studio 1924 in downtown Oakland, CA, is a professional dancer, teacher and choreographer of Argentine Tango. He has studied with some of the world's most renowned tango maestros. He is a well rounded, versatile dancer and performer, with a Tap and Ballet background that began at the age of two with his grandmother dance company in Chicago. Count is also a well received social dancer of tango and is adept at all forms of tango from all time periods and considered one of the best dancers of Argentine Tango in San Francisco.
Count has performed in the Bay Area and around the U.S. and Argentina in many stage performances, he was a featured artist at the restaurant Destinos in San Francisco and also a principal dancer for the MonTango Orchestra base in the Bay area since 2000. Count is currently the featured dancer in the ensemble Tango del Cielo. Count has also been featured on the KRON Channel 4 program “Latin Eyes” and various documentaries about tango.
He has performed in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Washington, Michigan, Chicago, New York, and Miami. In 2000, he won first place in the west coast Tango competition organized by the Argentine government and in 2002 was a finalist in the world Tango competition held in Miami.
Dancing since the age of 5, Lisette began her training in gymnastics and continued her education in Hula, Ballet, Jazz, Modern, Ballroom, Theater and finally Argentine Tango where she feels that she found her home.
She received her B.A. degree in Speech Communications with a concentration in film and television production with her minor in Theater from Northeastern University in Boston.
Lisette has worked in the Film industry since 1991 and was a Lotus Award Winning Producer for Best PSA while she lived in Canada. Her love of theater began as a child and she has had many leading roles in such shows as "Nude with Violin", "Curse of the Starving Class", "Working" and "Tango Fatal".
She has danced in and done choreography for Northeastern Dance Theater, Ballet Pampa Argentina, Three Short films, music videos, and television performances for KQED, San Francisco and Univision.
Lisette has performed with some of the most well known dancers in Argentine Tango today, Jorge Torres, Roberto Reis, Claudio Espera, Humberto Decima, Facundo Posadas, Eduardo Saucedo and Pampa Cortes to name a few.
She has trained U.S.A. Argentine Tango Champions and was a finalist herself in 2014.
Lisette teaches and performs all around the Bay Area and the United States as well as in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
An elegant dancer and patient teacher, her focus is on the techniques necessary for smooth, powerful and beautiful dancing.
Presently she is Directing and shooting her own documentary on Tango.
Heren Patel - a recent graduate of the San Francisco State University's Theatre Arts Program, is acting in his first professional production in the Bay Area with Love Junkies the Musical. His new found love for theatre has driven him to new heights, such as acting, directing, singing, and dancing. He was inspired to do so through his love for Bollywood movies. His acting works include: Seminar, Gruesome Playground Injuries, and Evening Primrose, under SF State's celebrated Brown Bag Theatre, and has also been a part of new works in SF State's Fringe Festival. In 2013, Heren also had the grand opportunity to work for New Musical Theater of San Francisco's premiere of Chance: The Musical, where he assistant directed under legendary Broadway and Off-Broadway director; Robert Kalfin. He says that he found his second family when working for New Musical Theater of San Francisco, and will never forget to mention that. Currently, Heren serves Theatre Bay Area, the largest theatre services organization in the Bay, as an intern, and has been loving it so far. Heren will also be assuming the role of Amitabha in Enacte's production of Merchant On Venice in the middle of November of this year. In the future, Heren hopes to aspire to his childhood dream of becoming a Bollywood actor by moving to Mumbai, and hopefully making more friends. Heren would like to congratulate and give thanks to the entire team of Love Junkies the Musical for giving him such a superb and wonderful experience.
Monty's theater roles include 3 separate revivals of the Bay Area favorite, Nina And The Monsters, multiple appearances at The Fringe of Marin and the San Francisco Theater Festival, a two year run in "Point Break Live", the role of "the Dude" in The Big Lebowski LIVE, and Bottom in Midsummer Night's Dream. His film credits include roles in Funny People, My Name is Kahn, The Violent Kind, Fruitvale Station and Bottle Shock. Television credits include Trauma and Parenthood, as well as multiple episodes on the Discovery Channel's Extreme Forensics and I Faked My Own Death. He has studied with many acting schools in the Bay Area, including A.C.T., Berkeley Rep, BATS Improv and The Jean Shelton Actors Lab. When he is not acting, Monty is active as a Napa Valley winemaker, providing many locals theaters and non-profits with house wines and in-kind donations.
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Kirk Benttinen is an Oakland based artist and musician. He studied drum performance and musical composition at the University of Rhode Island and later at Manhattan’s Collective School of Music.
He now explores many creative pursuits including writing, video, installation art, audio installations, performance art, drumming, record producing, songwriting, stand-up comedy and acting. He is also a music educator.
Some of his major recent accomplishments have been large trans-media art projects he calls Phenomena. Phenomena use a number of mediums to engage participants in surprise artistic experiences that aim to provide lasting inspiration.
Love Junkies is his acting debut.
A local bay area resident, Samuel Bo is an aspiring actor currently taking classes at the American Conservatory Theater. Being both an actor and a singer he is very versatile and is a great addition to any cast. Despite this being his first real stage production Sam displays a professionalism, creativity, and work ethic that goes beyond his experience.
Ramada Salieri was born and raised in San Francisco, and started his tango journey in mid 2007. Ramada’s Tango Salon style is described as elegant, smooth, musical, and playful and is noted especially for the deep emotional expression of his dance movements. Also a professional musician, he is able to interpret the complexities of the music of tango, which gives him a distinct advantage that he incorporates into his dance. In 2012, Ramada and his partner finished 1st in the official Argentine Tango USA Championship Salon category. They were sent to Buenos Aires to represent the USA in the annual World Cup Tango competition in that city.
Ramada has been featured in journalism and in documentary films about Argentine Tango, a music composer/producer, and provides sound and lighting for many of the festivals that pass through San Francisco, and is one of the official sound guys for the renowned bandoneonista Seth Asarnow y su Sexteto Tipico. Recent sound and lighting work include that for Nora’s Tango Weekend, the Argentine Tango USA Championship, and the 1st Annual New Orleans Tango Festival.
As Ramada continues his journey, he shares much of the information that he has acquired along the way, and performs in various places throughout the San Francisco Bay Area and beyond.
Ramada was featured in the award winning documentary T4Tango available on Amazon.com.
Originally from Russia, Sonya (Sofya) Nagaslaeva began dance lessons in early childhood. She chafed under traditional ballet style and explored other types of self-expression in art, such as contemporary dance, pop, ballroom and contact improvisation. In 2002 she joined the Musical Theater of V.D. Stefaniev where she performed as a dancer and actress, played several leading roles and got her first experience as a choreographer. In 2007, she moved to the US and in 2008 she was introduced to Argentine Tango. Tango became her biggest passion in life. Sonya trained in Chicago and eventually went to live in Buenos Aires to learn from the greatest maestros of the world.
Photo by: Gary Draluck
Alona Gorer started to dance at the age of 12. She fell in love with tango after seeing the “Forever Tango” show in New York City. While Alona has dabbled in all flavors of the dance, her preferred styles are the exquisitely elegant shades of Salon. She was frequently the featured performer at milongas, and participated in stage productions. Alona took silver in the 2013 Argentine Tango USA Championship (Salon category, partnered with Leo Landa). Her passion for Argentine tango is rivaled only by her passion for one-of-a-kind custom performance dress design. “Love Junkies” features some of her recognizably lavish custom dresses, including the “Diva Ariela” dress. Alona can be frequently found at the milongas throughout the San Francisco Bay Area.
Leo Landa had an intense interest in tango music of all kinds since before he can remember. Upon encountering the dance of Argentine tango, he became a devoted student of the art, quickly turning into an avid tanguero on the local Argentine tango scene. He most enjoys social, intimate styles. Leo has performed at various local milongas and on stage. Leo took silver in the 2013 Argentine Tango USA Championship (Salon category, partnered with Alona Gorer). He can be frequently found at the milongas throughout the San Francisco Bay Area.
