Murat’s tango journey started in 1998. He was born in Turkey with Italian and Croatian roots. Studied art in the academy of fine arts following his parent’s academic carriers. Before he graduated, he met Tango at a local milonga he was forcefully taken in Istanbul. He was fascinated by the improvisational aspect of the dance. Started taking lessons the next morning and he never stopped. After graduating from the academy of fine arts and specializing in fresco and mural making, he chose to continue his studies in The United States. First in New York then in Washington, DC. The times of studying in The George Washington University for the masters of fine arts and starting to teach tango were dated very closely. Murat organized milongas and ran classes in Washington, DC for 6 years. Then moved back to NYC and started working for Dance Manhattan Studios. After accomplishing his tango carrier in both cities and partnering with numbers of NY based dancers, he finally met Michelle. They became friends, then lovers, then dance partners. They married and left NY to start traveling in the country. They worked in most major festivals, universities and tango communities of the time in the States. They have become usual teachers of festivals such as Valentango, Portland and Tucson Tango Festivals. In 2008, they took their travels to international grounds, mostly to Europe. Visited Australia and New Zealand. Annually visited Michelle’s birth place, Hawaii. This is where he started presenting musicality lectures as well as producing acrylic art works representing the visualizations of tango music.

Years passed and life went on. They separated after 10 years of shoulder to shoulder living. Murat moved to Europe and continued his teaching alone. He traveled to Australia and New Zealand to teach, lecture and perform his inspirational skits. He started his 5 year long partnering with Sigrid Van Tilbeurgh in 2015. They worked in Europe and toured in AU and NZ together. Today Murat works half of his schedule with his new partner Silvina Tse and the other half alone. Murat and Michelle occasionally get together to teach. Besides teaching and performing, he continues giving lectures at tango marathons and festivals.

He is actively involved with a motion capture project with Swedish design institute on the subject of making visualizations of dancing. Murat has a number of bases as he calls home. He never stopped traveling as he finds tremendous amount of pleasure in teaching and spreading inspirations for tango dancers around the world. As well as traveling and teaching mostly in Europe, organizing various tango holidays, one can catch him in Hawaii, connecting back to the nature in the beginnings of every year.

Murat lives in Switzerland with his wife and their daughter. For more information about Murat, visit his website at;


http://muraterdemsel.com/