Unlimited Inner Potential with Katya! Oxygen’s new Registration Consultant

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by Holly Darling

Our new Oxygenation Registration Consultant, Katya, interviewed below, also happens to be a warrior of inner strength, which she cultivates (in herself and those lucky enough to be around her) through her Buddhist, psychotherapy, and tango practices.

As a Buddhist, she chants and studies philosophy in order to uncover inner unlimited potential, and foster self-empowerment. In this practice, every problem is an opportunity for growth and everyone has the capacity for enlightenment in the present moment. Beautiful!

As a psychotherapist, she helps people navigate through the array of their experiences and feelings to find balance and strength for finding self-acceptance and hope.

As a tango dancer, the challenge of staying in the moment propels Katya to keep dancing in order to discover higher and higher tango plateaus and heights. In tango and in becoming the Oxygenator, Katya has developed a stronger sense of connectedness.

 

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Persevere, because there’s nothing like it !

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by Mitra Martin

Beyond being our Runner Up Tango KaBloom winner, Edith Chen is an Asian American Studies Professor at Cal State Northridge. She’s been to almost every salsa joint in the US and now she’s on the Tango path. And she says that the most important things in her life are diet, exercise, friends, and sleep ! Hear that ? So not all Tango characters are 100% nocturnal.  Edith and I had soup & sangria at Pitfire Pizza this week and talked about the role Tango plays in her life and her experiences in the community. Bottom line, “There’s nothing like it.”

How did you start Tango ?

Well dance wasn’t something that was necessarily encouraged in my household…but I’ve always liked dancing since I was little. There has always been this inner dancer within.

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An Interview With Tango KaBloom 3-Year Winner, Solomon Russell

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by Mitra Martin

The Most Stupendously Convivial Individual Oxygen Tango knows : Solomon Lamont Russell !

I [That's me, Mitra] met Solomon Russell at Orlando Paiva’s Tango Masquerade festival in Burbank in 2008. My friend Nick Jones introduced us; Solomon had taken Nick’s very fun intro classes at the fest and was intrigued to learn more Tango.

Since then, Solomon has become involved in the Tango community in LA and at Oxygen. With a graduate degree in Computer Science from UCLA, Solomon is a dancer, a meditator, and a high school teacher. He’s currently working on a book and the working title is “The Best High School Computer Science Book Ever.”

Solomon has won Oxygen Tango’s community-growing contest Tango KaBloom three years in a row, by inspiring the most individuals each year to try Tango. So for his unmatched persistence, determination, and coolness in growing the Tango community, we honor Solomon Russell with the Stupendous Conviviality Award !

Mr. Russell took the time to speak with me from his home in West LA. Our conversation touched on topics like how Tango and salsa are different; how Tango and meditation are similar; and what a different Tango can make in someone’s life.

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