Nick Wallach

Nick Wallach is a dancer, teacher, and researcher of Argentinian and South American folkloric culture and dance (zamba and chacarera included) who has lived firsthand and shares the limitless ways folklore is danced socially and performatively in urban and rural communities across Argentina and the region. Argentinian folklore has always been a part of his life, from listening to it at a young age, being immersed in it during years living in Salta and Buenos Aires, and while traveling Argentina and the Andes studying, researching, and experiencing it through both popular and academic perspectives. He has learned with masters in folkloric dance from all across Argentina and the region, danced competitively with ballets including Recuerdo Salteño and El Federal, completed academic training in folklore and tango at leading US and Argentinian universities and taught regular classes and performed in the US, Argentina, and Mexico.
Now Nick shares folklore and folkloric dance as community-based practices that foster critical intercultural exchange and resistance to cultural commodification, that connect us with Argentinian and South American history and tradition, that reconnect us with the natural world, and that enable us to find freedom in our own bodies and collectively. He also currently researches the connections between folklore and the environment, as well as between tango and folklore, and he amplifies the art of Argentinian dancers through the online learning community La Diversa that connects dancers in Argentina and the US and provides both with linguistic and cultural tools to deepen their studies and teaching of folklore.