International Festival of Contact Improvisation Tango Wuppertal 4.- 9. February 2025
After the amazing restart, we do it again! We fill the Insel, place of art, culture, dance theatre and Tango Argentino!
The Festival focusses to support on a vivid exchange about Contact Improvisation, Tango und ContacTango.
I´m very proud of that amazing professional and experienced teachers team, which couldn´t be better this year:
Confirmed:
- Andrea Varas Muñoz, Gießen, Germany – Tango Basics, Deep Tango
- Gabriele Koch, Wuppertal, Germany – Juicy Contact – Juicy Tango
- Gregory Bonnault & Valérie GuyotFrance – ContacTango – TangoContact
- Ido Maron, Israel – Contact basics – Contact Andvanced
- Julian Elizari Romeo, Berlin, Argentin – TangoContact – ContacTango
- Lydia Nassal, Austria – ContacTango – TangoContact
- Raffaele Rufo, Italy – TangoContact – ContacTango
and more
Registration possible now: info@gabrielekoch.net
We have a lot of space to exchange intensiv within a group of wonderful people, built connection, experiment, cuddle, play, dive deep into embodiment and float together.
The Festival offers capacity for dancers of any level to experience the fusion of Tango Argentino und Contact Improvisation and catch playfulness, intensity and freedom in this symbiosis.
FULL PACKAGE
6 days of classes, research, jamilongas, exchange etc plus 4 meals on the full days Tuesday evening -Sunday afternoon
Early Bird till 15.12.2024: 460,-€ (after 510,-€)
For a specific amount of participants we can provide housing in apartments nearby for 25,-€/night – double rooms, three bed rooms, 4 + 6 people appartments are available.
WEEKEND SPECIAL
Friday afternoon to Sunday afternoon including 1 meal on saturday
Early Bird till 15.12.2024: 210,-€ (after 240,-€)
Registration: info@gabrielekoch.net www.gabrielekoch.net
Andrea Varas Muñoz, Gießen, Germany – Tango Basics, Deep Tango
My life is dancing. From a young age, I started with folk ballet, then Irish step, until I discovered tango 25 years ago. 18 years ago, I opened the Tango11 school. Since then, I have been teaching internationally at festivals and marathons, where I offer everything from workshops to X sessions/laboratories.
Classes:
- Organic tango technique for all levels – understanding of body dynamics.
- Organic leg wraps.
Gabriele Koch, Wuppertal, Germany – Juicy Contact – Juicy Tango
Gabriele Koch lives in Wuppertal. She has been dancing and teaching dance for more than 25 years, with 20 years dedicated to Tango and approximately the same amount of time researching ContacTango. For the past 13 years, she has been the founder and organizer of the international Festival of Contact and Tango. The festival is dedicated to lively exchange and research in the realm of Contactango.
Gaby is a Somatic Movement Educator for Body-Mind Centering® and has long incorporated the connection with our body into her work. She is interested in constantly discovering new paths, breaking patterns, and finding subtlety and freedom in dance.
Classes;
Welcome Class Wednesday: Tuning into ContacTango
Welcome Class Friday: Tuning into ContacTango
Gregory Bonnault & Valérie Guyot, France – ContacTango – TangoContact
Grégory is a dancer trained in classical and contemporary styles. He has been performing professionally for 20 years with various dance companies and is training in Argentine tango with Federico Rodriguez Moreno.
Valérie, a trained circus artist, has also been performing professionally for 20 years with different circus and street theater companies, and she is training in Argentine tango with Federico Rodriguez Moreno. Together, they founded their performance company, Toquedetango, in 2017. The goals of the workshops are to find a comfortable and dynamic dance.
Intermediate-advanced program Video Video | Facebook and Video Grégory Bonnault & Valérie Guyot
1 .Pendulum walk, double dissociation, on-pivot
2. Organic sequence: sacada, alteration, colgadas, ganchos
3. Scale for improvisation
Ido Maron, Israel – Contact basics – Contact Andvanced
Ido is a longtime movement enthusiast, exploring movement via Capoeira, Tai-chi, classic dance, contemporary dance and even folk dancing. Has been performing in various kinds of dance theater creations – from Operas to children’s fairy tales brought on stage, contemporary, commercial, and more. Today he is mostly fascinated about the influence that emotional patterns have on movement patterns and vice versa. Ido has been teaching contact improvisation since 2021. His classes focus on how increasing dancers’ awareness of their own bodies can create a richer, fuller connection between them and their dance partner/s.
Classes
1. Rolling point & All that jazz Contact Improvisation fundamentals
2 Leaning & Pushing Different qualities in CI
3. Head to Toe Lifting and Balancing in C
Julian Elizari Romeo, Berlin, Argentin – TangoContact – ContacTango
Julian, born in 1974 in Bs. As. , Argentina, is a passionate dancer and teacher with over 25 years of experience in teaching Tango across Europe and Argentina. He started his journey under traditional tango teachers (milongueros) in Argentina, which sparked his interest in other partner dances and led him to explore various techniques, including Contact Improvisation. At 22, Julian earned his degree from the National Institute of Physical Education in Bs. As. and has since focused on developing his dance practice through somatic techniques. In recent years, he has worked on inclusive projects, teaching and performing with individuals of varying abilities.
Currently, Julian teaches Tango in Berlin and conducts Contact Impro and Contactango workshops at various events and dance festivals throughout Europe.
1. Connecting Bridges from Our Centers of Gravity Through Different Functional and Organic Dance Embraces.**
2. Breaking the Gravity with My Off-Axis Movements (Colgadas and Volcadas) in Interaction with My Partner.**
3. ** The Mechanics of The Lineal and Circular Ganchos
Lydia Nassal, Austria – ContacTango – TangoContact
So far in my life, I have experienced over 20 different dance styles, fully following the goal I set for myself as a little girl – to learn all the dances of the world 😉
My dance journey began with circle dances and folklore, followed by tap dance, ballet, and a degree in dance, acting, and singing with a dance focus on jazz, ballet, modern, and musical. During this time, I also learned Argentine Tango and explored many other dance styles.
…but no dance has ever captivated me as much as Contact Tango, and it fills me with deep joy to share this gift with others. Since 2021, I have been co-leading the „Contact Tango Summercamp“ in Tuscany with Sebastian Mayer. Since there has been no Contact Tango in my hometown of Salzburg, I have also started offering workshops and dance evenings here since early 2024, and I am very excited to establish this community.
Classes
1. Basics of leading & following, giving impulses, and understanding the difference and connection between Tango and CI
2. Contact Tango as a danced conversation, e.g., how to truly listen to the other body, presence, what possibilities I have to respond, following or resisting in different gradations, entering contact, exiting contact, etc.
Raffaele Rufo, Italy – TangoContact – ContacTango
Short bio
Raffaele Rufo is a somatic dance practitioner and an artistic researcher and facilitator working with touch, movement and improvisation as gateways to individual and social transformation. He studied with several Argentine tango masters and was trained in Contact Improvisation and various contemporary forms of improvisational dance and somatic movement. Across twenty years of professional experience in Europe and Australia Raffaele has worked with dance and theatre groups, school and university students, festivals and local communities and was involved as choreographer and director in a wide range of performance projects. In 2020 he received a PhD in Dance and Performance from Deakin University Melbourne for his research on somatic touch in the tango dance. Raffaele proposes a tactile, kinesthetic and affective process of investigation of the thresholds between Tango and Contact as spaces of contamination and co-liberation. More info: https://www.raffaelerufo.com/tango-contact
Raffaele Rufo, PhD Arts Research ~ Performance ~ Curation Dance ~ Movement ~ Eco-Somatic Education
Classes
1. The third space – A class on sharing weight and off-axis movement.
Contact-tango class
2. The three spheres – A class on spirals and the differentiation of movements.
Somatic movement into contact improv into tango class
3. Tango musicality – A class on listening and interpretation skills.
Tango-based class
International Festival of Contact Improvisation Tango Barnin
International Festival of Contact Improvisation & Tango Barnin
Save you place at the amazing farmhouse beside the lake in Barnin… just for a bunch of crazylovely ContacTango Aficonados!
- Cacu Lucero
- Pipaluk Hansen
- Valentina Vitolo
and more …
SUPPORTER PRICE: If you have sufficient means, we warmly invite you to add an amount of 20 – 50,-€ to the festival price. This way, we will support young people or individuals with fewer resources from challenging regions by 100%, enabling them to participate in the festival. If you fall into this category, please apply informally via email.
Stay overnight
double rooms, three bed rooms, 4 + 6 people appartments are available
Camping 20-25,-€/night
Please register soon!
The details:
Alon Ritter & Gabriele Koch
Alon Ritter:
Alon Ritter is a certified Feldenkrais practitioner with a BA in music education. Specialising in Somatic Dance, Tango, Contact improvisation, Voice & Movement Improvisation, and embodiment as a way of life. His unique methods and approach as well as his background in Mindfulness and theraphy have made his courses taught after internationally in the last decade. Alon also leads regular classes and private lessons at festivals and theatre academies where he works closely with artists to maximise their creative and physical potential as performers.
https://www.alonritter.com
Gabriele Koch:
Gabriele Koch lives in Wuppertal. She has been dancing and teaching dance for 25 years, with 20 years dedicated to Tango and approximately the same amount of time researching ContacTango. For the past 11 years, she has been the founder and organizer of the international Festival of Contact and Tango, which has moved from Wuppertal to Beichlingen. The festival is dedicated to lively exchange and research in the realm of Contactango.
Gaby is currently undergoing training as a Somatic Movement Practitioner and has long incorporated the connect ion with our body into her work. She is interested in constantly discovering new paths, breaking patterns, and finding subtlety and freedom in dance.
info@gabrielekoch.net
Their classes:
Alon and Gabriele will guide a technical Tango into Contactimpro class of contact tango choreography to invite you later to play with this ideas creatively. The feed the festival with music, introcuction to Jamilonga, leading Performance Evening and Single Classes (Tango, Contact, ContacTango, Embodiment).
Esther Berias
jasminka stenz (CH/D)
Choreographer, performance artist, dance teacher Jasminka Stenz has been dancing Tango Argentino for more than 20 years.
breathing tango
Mariano Laplume
Mariano Laplume’s passion on performatic arts stated 25 years ago in BUENOS AIRES(Arg), where he was born and raised.
His inspirations in music took him into studying Violin and Viola in 1999. As a violist he participated in several projects in different musical styles. He was member of several Argentine TANGO orchestras being the most important the “ Sexteto Milonguero”(BA), touring around the world-
Mariano trained as a Tango dancer in Buenos Aires with some of the most recognized maestros. More than 10 years he partner with Maral Kojayan and worked as teacher in Buenos Aires, London and Rotterdam. As a teacher and Tango Dj he has been collaborating with many schools and tango organizations in Spain, France, Belgium, Germany, UK, Netherlands & Armenia.
As an Alexander Technique practitioner he regularly works in London and Rotterdam. He is an AT teacher in London, UK at the Constructive Teaching Center(The oldest and more prestigious AT school in the world)
In the last years Mariano has been focused in combining his various skills exploring and teaching Argentine tango with several understanding tools from the Alexander Technique and also combining his deep knowledge about Tango music to help and inspire Professionals and Amateur Tango dancers.
Mariano’s work will combine traditional and modern Tango fundamental and Alexander Technique elements as connection in the embrace, organic movement, body tone, figures, technique and poise/posture. There is gonna to be special attention to musical connection/perception/expression individually and in the couple in every workshop.
Ximena Zalazar Firpo
Born in Argentina and Italy, Ximena Zalazar Firpo began her career as a dancer with the Colon Theater in Buenos Aires and the National Ballet of Cuba, before moving to Europe in 1995. After working with choreographers in France and abroad, she was hired by the Ballet de l’Opéra National du Rhin.
Her work has taken her all over the world Through Europe via North and South America.
In 2011, she and Willem Meul founded the Compagnie Estro. They develop artistic projects in collaboration with artists from other disciplines to create multidisciplinary shows.
The Compagnie Estro is dedicated to research, creation and dissemination in line with the creators‘ profession as professional dancers:
- A dozen choreographic works created
- An average of 20 performances in France and abroad per season
- 20 salaried employees (artists and technicians) per season
Ximena also heads up the company’s educational activities and, around her creations, leads large-scale projects over several years with various partners: theaters, cultural structures, socio-cultural centers, festivals, schools in France, Italy, Germany, Argentina, Belgium…
Argentine tango is deeply rooted in her heart and at the center of her artistic interrogations. It links her to her childhood and her family, and is a fertile source of creation, fulfillment and joy. Ximena Zalazar Firpo holds a State Diploma in dance and a degree in Administration and Management of Cultural Enterprises, and is one of the dance experts on the DRAC Grand Est commission.
Ximena likes to put the individual at the center of her pedagogy, using different body techniques (contemporary dance, gyrotonic, Argentine tango, which she practices and teaches regularly). Developing technical ease while respecting each individual’s body and sensibility is central.using exercises, choreographic sequences, improvisations and instant compositions, each dancer will develop his or her own dance in relation to the group.
Live Music by Gabriel Rivano:
Gabriel Rivano (*1958 in Buenos Aires) is an Argentine bandoneon player, guitarist, flutist, and composer, and is considered one of the significant musicians in Argentina in the genre of Tango Argentino. Rivano lives in Buenos Aires. He began his concert career in 1981 as a soloist in various ensembles of tango, folklore, jazz, and classical music. In 1990, he founded his first ensemble, the Gabriel Rivano Quinteto, in Buenos Aires and composed numerous chamber music works and some concerts for this formation. In 1997, his „Concert for Bandoneon, Guitar, and Orchestra“ premiered at the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires.