PIONEER​

Founding the first all-woman tango company

 

Before settling in New York, Valeria was awarded Best Soloist (1990) and Best Modern Dance Choreography (1997) at dance festivals in Rosario, Argentina.

 

Once in the U.S., Valeria organized the first milonga in New York and partnered iconic dancers like Carlos Gavito and Omar Vega. In 1996 she founded, co-directed, choreographed, and danced for the first all-woman tango company in the world: TangoMujer. The company showed how tango can be used as abstract language, independent of gender and how it can tell non traditional stories. They toured the U.S. supported by two New England Foundation for the Arts grants, and performed internationally.

 

Tango + theatrical expertise leads to stage and film work

 

Valeria’s education in tango, dance and theater has led her to be…

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• The Co-Choreographer of the Musical Evita that run at New York City Center in Oct-Nov 20219  (voted number 4 of best musicals of 2019 by Broadwayworld.com)

• The choreographer for "Fabulation, or the Re-Education of Undine" written by Two Times Pulitzer Price Winner Lynn Nottage and directed by Lileana Blain-Cruz at Signature Theater, 42nd St.

• The dramaturge and rehearsal director for Reciprocity Collaborative in residence at Jacobs Pillow in 2018 and featured at Jacobs Pilllow festival 2019 and selected for The Dance Gallery Festival 2018.

• The choreographer for the film The Caller, featuring Frank Langella and Elliot Gould

• The choreographer for several plays, such as Let’s Speak Tango, Locos de Contento, Doña Flor y Sus Dos Maridos, (for which she earned an HOLA Award for Outstanding Choreography in 2008 and has been running at Repertorio Español for the last ten years), and Tango Fever (which earned her a second HOLA Award for Outstanding Choreography, 2013)

• The coach for legendary Broadway choreographers Graciela Daniele's Gardens of Anuncia and  Lorin Lataro's Scandalous

• The choreographer for a tango-contortion number for Circo de la Luna

• Character in the movie "Los Monos" directed by Alejandro Landes (Sundance Film festival Special Jury Award)

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With her company Valetango, Valeria created the shows Tango Intimo and Tango por Ellos, which, with humor and wit, highlighted tango’s potential for theatrical commentary on gender, societal expectations, and power struggles

 

Tango Intimo: nominated for two ACE Awards – Best Direction and Best Production (2009)

Tango por Ellos: received the ACE Award for Best Choreography (2010)

 

Prestigious performances around the world…

 

Valeria has danced for the President of Argentina at the Metropolitan Opera House, Lincoln Center, shared the stage with Placido Domingo and the Washington Opera at DAR Constitution Hall in Washington, DC, and her work has been presented at Jacobs Pillow Dance Festival, Colorado Dance Festival, the U.S. State Department, Town Hall and Lincoln Center in New York, NYU’s Skirball Center, Herbst Theater of San Francisco, Tanzhaus in Dusseldorf, Podewil Festival, and at Haus der Kulturen der Welt in Berlin.

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“One of New York City’s best tango instructors” –The New York Post

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Valeria has taught at Smith College, Hunter College, and Mount Holyoke College. Since 2010 she is adjunct professor at NYU Tisch, Musical Theater, Drama Department. She was named the Spring 2017 Resident Fellow at the Center for Ballet and the Arts of NYU and, since then, she begun developing Valetango's latest project: "Trust me.Trust me not",  in collaboration with Orlando Reyes Ibarra and Rodney Hamilton, under the direction of Orlando Pabotoy.

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Valeria has been featured in documentaries such as PBS’s Surrender Tango and Tango in Berlin, in films such as Dance the Gender and Venuz Boys and on TV programs internationally. She has danced for the promotion of Julio Iglesias and YoYo Ma’s tango CDs.

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Most recently, Ms Solomonoff work with Ilya Vidrin's "Reciprocity Collaborative" was selected to open the very first week long "Partnering and Science Lab" at Jacobs Pillow Dance Festival. Among the collaborators were Wendy Whelan, Brian Brooks and Sylvain Lafortune. The group currently has a partnering research residency at ArtLab, Harvard University.