Teachers at the CITF for 2024

Information about this year's teachers is below. Please click on their names for more details.

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Jolanta Dickson and Daina Milikauskienė

Jolanta and Daina in party mood in Kaunas.

Jolanta Dickson

To dance is to breathe, to let your soul enjoy the music ...

Ever since Jolanta can remember, she has wanted to dance. Her first "performance" was at her parent's New Year's party when she was five years old. Then, several years passed with countless nights at discos, nightclubs, a few classes in ballroom and salsa, until in 2007, she discovered tango. She quickly fell in love with the sensual tango - you may even say addicted.

Jolanta's tango journey started in Cheltenham, where she learned her first steps. However, learning the basiscs was never going to be enough, so she has worked to improve and to study this complex and multi-dimensional dance.

She has tried to pick up the best from such masters as Juan Manuel Acosta, Alejandra Mantiñan, Gustavo Rosas and Gisela Natoli, Yanina Quiñones and Neri Pilu, Sofie Martinez and Julia Uruty to name but a few.

Jolanta loves dancing canyengue, which she has studied with Graciela Guerriera and Osvaldo Perez.

Jolanta started teaching tango back in 2011. Currently, she offers individual lessons for those wishing to improve their tango experience or who are wanting to begin their tango journey.

Daina Milikauskienė

Daina’s dancing journey started when she was 8 years old with ballroom classes. She continued her ballroom and Latin dance adventure into her adulthood, taking part in a number of competitions and winning several awards. She started dance teaching when she was 15 by giving ballroom classes to children.

Daina's introduction to tango was 15 years ago when she took her first tango steps with Adrian and Jolanta. She continued her tango journey with Carlos and Brigita Rodriguez in Lithuania. She has also extensively studied tango technique with Alejandra Mañtinan.

Daina runs a regular tango practice and classes in Kaunas, Lithuania. She is also a trained psychology therapist and uses dance and movement in her therapy sessions.



Jolanta and Daina have known each other for over 30 years and are excited to be teaching together at this year's CITF.

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Jolanta Dickson and Adrian Barsby

Jolanta and Adrian dancing canyengue.

Jolanta and Adrian have danced together for over ten years. They are serious hobby dancers and especially enjoy dancing canyengue.

As well as being the organisers of the festival, they will be teaching a couple of workshops over the course of the weekend. They first performed at the Cheltenham Town Hall as part of the Cheltenham International Dance Festival in 2013 and were so smitten by the atmosphere and the quality of the floor that they decided there just had to be a tango festival there. The rest is history!

Together with Janet Earl, Adrian ran Tango Cheltenham for over fifteen years, during which time, they saw tango really take off in the surrounding areas, some of it as a direct consequence of their own teaching.

Jolanta and Adrian started teaching together in 2011 and continue to teach together during each Tango Festathon in Cheltenham as well as pursuing their own projects.