Biography
Raquel Makow is an Argentine/ American dancer from a diverse background of dance. She was born in San Francisco, California with a mother from New York and her father from Buenos Aires, Argentina. She was in the performing arts all her life and trained with Ballet, Jazz and Ballroom from 10 years old. At age 15 she began to compete in the latin rhythm of Ballroom dancing. At 15 she also took her very first Tango lesson at Salon Canning in Buenos Aires with her father and attended her first milonga at La Viruta, which was a magical and life changing moment. On every trip down to Buenos Aires to visit family, she would dance Tango. However, Tango was just a distant dream placed on the back burner as she continued her career as a Latin Ballroom dancer. She moved to Portugal at age 19 to dance with Nuno Moreira, with which they became the Portuguese National Champions and won 3rd place in the under 21 category of the WDC World Championships in Paris in 2010. She later moved to the Czech Republic and then Toronto, Canada partnering with different professionals and dancing in various stage shows in theaters throughout the US and Canada with the cast of “Dancing with the Stars”. However at age 22, her passion for Argentine Tango grew stronger and stronger, and she decided to make the leap of faith, to leave the competitive Ballroom world and move to Buenos Aires to live with her grandmother and study Tango. For the first year in Buenos Aires, she lived with her grandmother in a small neighborhood near the famous Club Sunderland, where she trained with Carlitos and Rosa Perez (among many other maestros). There she met her current dance partner, Sebastian Jimenez, who, unknown to Raquel, wanted to dance with her professionally from when they met in 2014. But her life took a different course. In Argentina she studied Tango and danced every night at the milongas while at the same time training all of the top couples of Ballroom dancers in Argentina and Uruguay. She also became a ballroom judge in both Uruguay and Argentina. In 2015 she formed a dance partnership with Maxi Copello, together they were 7 time finalists of the Tango World Championships, placing 2nd in 2020 and 4th in 2021. They performed in Tango shows in the best theaters of Buenos Aires, Teatro Avenida, Teatro Lola Membrives, Teatro Maipo, and the CCK. They traveled throughout the US and Europe performing and teaching at big Tango festivals. When Raquel separated in 2022, she worked with multiple dancers, including Pancho Martinez Pey, and she began to develop her own teaching techniques. She feels passionate about teaching more than just movement and music in her classes and has begun discussing topics like respect, self-worth, and healthy communication. In March of 2024 she created her own solo show of Tango/ Contemporary called “La Apertura de los Ojos” (The Opening of the Eyes). This show is an expression of her own personal struggles, and overcoming her own suffering of abuse. Raquel is not just a Tango Dancer, she dances on the regular Cuban Salsa and Lindy Hop, and takes a variety of dance classes to constantly grow and challenge herself as a dancer. Her most recent partnership is with World Champion, Sebastian Jimenez, with whom she will be based in Lisbon, Portugal. From the first moment they danced and taught together, there was an instant connection and a shared passion for the art of Tango propelling both of them to embarque on a new Tango journey together.