ContacTango Intensive

Innsbruck 16-17 October 2021

Organised by Motion Mode Theatre and Tamara Maksimenko

Street Motion Studio, Innsbruck (Austria)

TRAINING DESCRIPTION:

These workshops are designed for contact improvisers and tango dancers and for dancers and movers more in general. By leveraging the movement tools and the spirit of freedom and emancipation typical of contact improvisation, we will engage the fundamentals of tango not as given techniques or assumptions but as ‘enabling constraints’ to find a deeper sense of freedom and sharing in the dance. The workshops will explore touch and weight as mediums to access the unique space of intimacy and playfulness emerging in tango without having to replicate the external form and the gender-based lead and follow roles of the traditional tango duet. In particular, this is an opportunity to experiment with the unique feeling and expressive possibilities of dancing together with a shared axis by focusing on the key role of the chest in the negotiation between the dancers.

PROGRAM:

Saturday, 16 October:
14.00-16.00 Workshop 1: Finding a shared axis between pelvis and chest
16.00-18.00 Workshop 2: Tango spirals
19:30-21:30 Contact-Tango Jam
Sunday, 17 October:
11.00-13.00 Workshop 3: Kicks and hooks in the duet
14.30-16.30 Workshop 4: Contact lifts in the tango structure

BOOKINGS AND INFOS:

Tamara Maksymenko
Tel +4367763027506
Email: motion.mode.theatre@gmail.com

Registration required: https://docs.google.com/forms/contactango-weekend-innsbruck

FEEDBACK FROM PARTICIPANTS:

“Bellissimo, amoroso, distruttivo, contraegemonico e con tanto sentimento e amore, grazie!” (Marco, Barcelona) 

“A nice way to bring me/us into the feeling of tango.” (Elke, Innsbruck)

“C’est incroyable de partager ces moments tous ensembles en ta presence! Love.” (Charel, Geneve)

TEACHER’S BIO:

In the last decade Raffaele has been researching, teaching and performing tango, contact and contemporary modes of dance improvisation in Europe and Australia. His recent teaching experiences include the International Contact Tango Festival in Wuppertal (Germany) and the Solo and Contact Improvisation Festival in Tirol (Austria). His latest dance work, ‘The Tango Touch’, was performed at La Mama Theatre and the Melbourne Fringe Festival (Australia). In 2020 he was awarded a Ph.D. by Deakin University for the somatic study of touch in tango as an experience of listening between the dancer’s inside and outside worlds. His research was published in international academic journals and book collections. Currently based in Rome, Raffaele’s evolving practice interweaves dance and somatic movement with phenomenology and ecology to explore the reciprocity of perception between body and earth.

Email: raffaele.rufo@gmail.com