Next dates for 2024:
Thursday 3 October
Thursday 7 November
See you there!
Sessions will start again
in February/March 2025
Contact Tango in LONDON
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, which ran for 4 years and were called 'Tango Release'. I could not have planned or imagined a better start!
25 Years ago I offered my first Contact Tango workshop at the Camden Arts Centre. Now, I am back where I began, in North London. I am looking forward to sharing my dance with you!
Join us in these fun, creative partnering sessions, mostly inspired by and rooted in Tango Argentino and Contact Improvisation techniques. Contact Tango emerged around 25 years ago in Europe 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 partner dance, dance tango or CI or neither or both or have a background in something else, you are welcome to join! Absolute beginners are most welcome!
The next sessions are:
Thursday 3 October 2024
Thursday 7 November 2024
7-8 PM: CLASS. A few ideas to get us in focus and moving.
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!
Thursday 3 October 2024 with Adriana Pegorer
18.30-21.30 £8-15
'Balancing Acts'
This warm-up class draws from the practice of Scaravelli Yoga and the ‘Small Dance’. We will explore sensing our ever-adjusting verticality and connecting those ‘vertical ties’ to a partner or partners.
Scaravelli Yoga focuses on breath, the spine, and gravity, which is useful for tango and CI dancers, particularly for the spiralling disassociation of the torso and pelvis. I was fortunate to study with John Stirk and Giovanni Felicioni and, since the pandemic, online with Bill Wood.
The ‘Small Dance’ is effectively a standing meditation in which sensations are playfully observed and gently transformed. It was devised by Steve Paxton in the 70s when he initiated what we know as Contact Improvisation in collaboration with other dancers.
BE AWARE CI DANCERS: Recorded music will be played (classical, ambient, traditional and electronic tangos, jazz, etc)
BE AWARE TANGO DANCERS: Cortinas and tandas are not used. The music will include some traditional tangos.
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.
Please note: practice shoes or socks are recommended. No rubber soles.
Please take care of yourself and others when dancing. Always opt for gentler and safer options. Take creative risks rather than physical risks!
Have a question? Send me a message: info(at)adrianapegorer(.)com or on 07974 619 570
Admission: £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
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.
Little video from first session in February:
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, which 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.
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), ‘Why Contact Tango?’ (2020) - which was translated into German and Spanish.