Juan Carlos Copes

Juan Carlos Copes (May 31, 1931 – January 16, 2021) was an Argentine tango dancer, choreographer, and Broadway performer born in Mataderos, Buenos Aires, who grew up in the Villa Pueyrredón neighborhood of that city. He began attending milongas in Buenos Aires at a young age, and at seventeen took on fourteen-year-old María Nieves as his dance partner. Though Nieves initially described him as a poor dancer, she acknowledged that he improved rapidly. Their first competitive appearance together came in 1955 at Luna Park Stadium, the same year they performed professionally with the Francisco Canaro orchestra.

Copes and Nieves married in Las Vegas in 1964, though the marriage ended in 1973. Despite the personal difficulties between them — which Nieves credited with sharpening their artistry — they continued to perform together for four decades and became known as the "Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers of tango." During the 1960s, Copes was instrumental in developing the modern tango show concept in Buenos Aires, and he is credited as the first to create choreographed tango stage shows. He and Nieves appeared on Broadway at the Alvin Theatre in 1962 and made numerous appearances on The Ed Sullivan Show between 1962 and 1964.

Their production Tango Argentino, which starred Elvira Santamaría and her partner Virulazo, premiered in Paris in 1983 before transferring to Broadway in 1985. The show returned to Broadway in 1999, giving Copes a Broadway presence spanning from 1962 to 1999. His work on Tango Argentino earned him a Tony Award nomination for Best Choreography in 1986.

Beyond Broadway, Copes served as chief choreographer on Ástor Piazzolla's María de Buenos Aires in 1968 and choreographed additional productions including Tangos Para El Mundo, Copes Tango Show, Entre Borges y Piazzolla, and Sentimiento de Tango. His film work encompassed seven productions, among them Raúl de la Torre's Funes, un gran amor (1993), Tango Baile Nuestro with Robert Duvall, Arena de Tango Mío for the BBC, and Carlos Saura's Tango, la película (1998), on which he served as chief choreographer. He also performed at the Juilliard School, Stanford University, the University of Chicago, and the Sorbonne.

Copes played a significant role in the global revival of tango after 1970, and he and Nieves were central figures in the renaissance of Argentine tango that followed the restoration of democracy in Argentina in 1983. The teaching style he developed became known as the "estilo Copes-Nieves," and his students included Robert Duvall, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Julio Bocca, Eleonora Cassano, and Liza Minnelli, as well as instructors from the Fred Astaire Dance Studios.

With his second wife, Myriam Albuernez, Copes had a daughter, Johana, born in 1976. He began performing on stage with Johana in 1994. Copes retired from dancing in 2015 citing health and financial reasons. That same year, German Kral's documentary O Nosso Último Tango examined his long and often turbulent relationship with Nieves. Copes died on January 16, 2021, at a Buenos Aires hospital from COVID-19, having first contracted the disease in December 2020.