Contact Tango in London: THIS MONTH > Thursday 3 April 2025
Join us in these fun, creative partnering fusion sessions, inspired and rooted mainly in Tango Argentino and Contact Improvisation dance style and techniques. Contact Tango timidly emerged around 3 decades ago and is now danced and enjoyed by a niche group of enthusiasts on three continents,
most recently in Argentina and the USA. If you enjoy or would like to try a partner dance, you are welcome to join!
ABSOLUTE BEGINNERS WELCOME!
7 - 8 PM: CLASS. A few ideas to get us in focus and moving. This month facilitated by the fabulous Kathy Crick.
8 - 9 PM: jaMilonga. Is it a CI Jam? Is it a Tango's Milonga? Neither and both and more!! DJ Shuffle will 'play' an eclectic mix of music from a pre-selected playlist to inspire and accompany our dance. Requests are welcome!
< Please arrive at 6.30 PM if you wish to warm up. Space is also available from 9 to 9.30 PM for warm-down >
BE AWARE CI DANCERS: Recorded music will be played (classical, ambient, traditional and electronic tangos, jazz, etc.). The floor is not sprung, so be careful with lifts and falls. These classes rarely offer floor or lifting exercises. Most lifts are discouraged in the jaMilonga (unless you are a pro!).
BE AWARE TANGO DANCERS: Cortinas and tandas are not used. The music will include some traditional tangos. Navigation is not restricted to anti-clockwise. These classes rarely offer sequences of steps.
KATHY CRICK teaches Improvisation, Contact Improvisation, and Choreography at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance, London.
She is interested in improvisation as an integrated technical, compositional and performance practice, considering the layers of play between structure and spontaneity. Over a period of thirty-five years, Kathy has worked variously as a performer, collaborator, and teacher with artists from the fields of dance, theatre, music and moving image. She has contributed to many Dance and Performing Arts programmes in Higher Education in the UK and in independent community settings. Other influences include studies in education, psychology, shiatsu, anatomy, and somatic practice.
PLEASE NOTE:
If you wish to warm up, please arrive around 6.30 PM. Space is also available from 9 to 9.30 PM for warm-down.
Practice shoes or socks are recommended. No rubber soles.
Please be sensible and sensitive with yourself and others. Opt for gentler and safer options. Try taking creative risks rather than physical risks!
Have a question? Send me a message: info(at)adrianapegorer(.)com or on 07974 619 570
Admission: £8-15 Please book online using the button below.
You can change the amount to suit your situation (£8 to £15). Invoices are available on request.
ADDRESS: The Ringcross Community Centre
60 Lough Road, Islington, London, Greater London, England N7 8RH, UK
Map: https://maps.app.goo.gl/DQcYt9iCTtzQcBq28
Take a look at the maps below for directions.
Sessions in 2025 are on the first Thursday of the month except for MAY:
6 March
3 April
8 May 2nd Thursday of the month!
5 June
3 July
NO August session
4 September
2 October
See you there!
Contact Tango in LONDON: the story
We usually meet on the first Thursday of the month @ The Ringcross Community Centre in North London, a short walk from Caledonian Road, Holloway Road or Highbury and Islington stations. These sessions started on the 1st of February 2024. Curiously, on the 1st of February 2009 I also started my monthly sessions @ the Siobhan Davies Studios near Elephant & Castle, after offering various classes and workshops in London and abroad. I could not have planned or imagined a better start! Those sessions were informed mainly by release-based techniques and were therefore called: 'Tango Release'. Those ran for four years and included several guest teachers, including Charlotte Riviero and Alex Baybutt.
I started both Contact Improvisation and Argentine Tango around 1995. When taking some CI classes, I would think, "This could be really useful in Tango!" My first Contact Tango workshop was at the Camden Arts Centre in 1999. After many years, I started thinking, "This could be really useful in Contact Improvisation!" (Some of this thinking process can be found in my articles - links at the bottom of the page).
So happy to be back where I began, in North London. I am looking forward to sharing my dance with you!
Sessions for 2025 are on the first Thursday of the month, except the May session:
6 March
3 April > with fabulous guest teacher Kathy Crick!
8 May > 2nd Thursday of the month! (due to the Bank Holiday, the session has moved)
5 June
3 July
- No August session -
4 September
2 October
Adriana Pegorer is an interdisciplinary dance artist interested in the interweaving of forms. She has devised and performed several experimental works that mix choreography with improvisation, videos, and new technology.
She belongs to the first generation of Contact Tango practitioners, having started to mix Tango and CI during her BA in Dance and Related Arts at Chichester University (1998-2001). She choreographed 'Adagio, con brio' in 2005 and revisited that duet for a quartet in 2008. Her monthly Tango Release sessions in London ran from 2008 to 2013, and her International Tango Diferente research week in Ponderosa (Berlin) ran from 2012 to 2015.
She has taught and performed at festivals in the UK and abroad, including Germany, Sweden, Spain, Italy, France, Belgium and the USA.
She has taught Tango Argentino courses at the City Literature College in London since 2016.
Her writings include 'Performing Gender in Milongas of Buenos Aires' (2008); 'Tango Diferente: Exploring Tango and CI at Ponderosa' (2013), ‘It Takes Two to Win' (2015), and ‘Why Contact Tango?’ (2020) which was translated into German and Spanish.
6 June and 5 September 2024: Class facilitated by Kathy
Kathy Crick teaches Improvisation, Contact Improvisation, and Choreography at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance, London. She is interested in improvisation as an integrated technical, compositional and performance practice, considering the layers of play between structure and spontaneity. Over a period of thirty-five years, Kathy has worked variously as a performer, collaborator, and teacher with artists from the fields of dance, theatre, music and moving image. She has contributed to many Dance and Performing Arts programmes in Higher Education in the UK and in independent community settings. Other influences include studies in education, psychology, shiatsu, anatomy, and somatic practice.
Kathy and I performed an improvised duet at the TangoDiferenteLondon2012. The event also included the teaching and demonstration dancing by Queer Tango London and Freedom Tango (Peter Baldock).
The event was supported by the Big Dance Micro Grant Award and it welcomed visually impaired people.
What is Contact Tango?
Check these links:
Tango Diferente 2012 video by Adriana Pegorer
Tango Diferente 2013 video by Tobias Funke
Wuppertal Contact Tango Festival 2016 video by Adriana Pegorer
Why ContacTango? Contact Quarterly Winter/Spring2020 Vol.45.1
Join the Facebook group CONTACT TANGO AROUND THE WORLD for more details on International Festivals and workshops.
Little video from first session in February:
