27.1.-1.2.2026 International Festival of Contact Improvisation & Tango Wuppertal
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.
Nach dem großartigen Neustart machen wir es noch einmal! Wir füllen die Insel – ein Ort für Kunst, Kultur, Tanztheater und Tango Argentino!
Das Festival legt den Fokus auf einen lebendigen Austausch über Contact Improvisation, Tango und ContacTango.
I´m very happy about that amazing professional and experienced teachers team:
Ich bin sehr froh auf dieses großartige, professionelle und erfahrene Lehrer*innen-Team:
- Alejandro Gonzales, Arg
- Gisela Navonit, Arg
- Anastasia Bezruchko, NL, Ru
- Claudia Kratzheller, NL
- Ezequiel Sanucci, NL
- Gabriele Koch, Ger
- Nathalie Mann, Fr
Registration starts 15th September: info@gabrielekoch.net
You love to dance, improvise and play arround?
You love to deepen your dance capacity, finetune and improve your dance, if Tango or Contact?
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.
Internationales Festival für Contact Improvisation und Tango in Wuppertal – Das erste ContacTango Festival überhaupt zurück in der „City of Dance“!
Du möchtest einen einfachen Zugang zum Tango Argentino?
Du liebst es zu tanzen, zu improvisieren und spielerisch zu entdecken?
Du willst deine tänzerischen Fähigkeiten vertiefen, verfeinern und verbessern – sei es im Tango oder in der Contact Improvisation?
DAS IST DEIN EVENT!!!
Neben jährlich wechselnden internationalen Lehrer*innen, die ihre vielfältigen Einflüsse teilen, sind auch ehemalige Lehrende eingeladen, das Festival zu unterstützen.
Wir haben viel Raum für intensiven Austausch in einer Gruppe wunderbarer Menschen – um Verbindungen aufzubauen, zu experimentieren, zu kuscheln, zu spielen, tief ins Embodiment einzutauchen und gemeinsam zu fließen.
Das Festival bietet Tänzer*innen aller Erfahrungsstufen die Möglichkeit, die Fusion von Tango Argentino und Contact Improvisation zu erleben – und dabei Verspieltheit, Intensität und Freiheit in dieser einzigartigen Symbiose zu entdecken.
TIMETABLE
DJs:
Alejandro Gonzales
Ezequiel Sanucci
Mike Godyla
Nathalie Mann
Changes possible
Couple Bio
We met at a milonga in Barcelona and have since developed a shared journey in tango. Our work focuses on improvisation and partner communication, elements that connect us deeply to the world of Contact-Tango. As a duo, we aim to share this vision in our classes, workshops, and performances, inviting participants to explore movement, enjoy the dance, and immerse themselves in the authenticity of the dance.
Gisela Navonit
Born in Rosario, Argentina, Gisela trained from a young age in the dance world at the National School of Dance in Rosario, also exploring different techniques of dance and movement. She discovered tango at 15 and has since built a strong career as a teacher and organizer of events in Barcelona and international festivals.
Alejandro González
Born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Alejandro began dancing tango at the age of 12, training in schools and companies that allowed him to combine tradition and artistic exploration. Since 2005 he has been living in Spain, working as a tango teacher and event organizer in Europe and Latin America. Over the past four years, he has taught Contact-Tango classes in festivals and workshops, and is also a recognized DJ within the alternative tango scene.
Workshops:
WS 1: Central Axis awareness
WS 2: Available Joints
WS 3: Play with the suspension
Explotango
www.tango-impro.com
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UDEwF0Zq-vM
Anastasia Bezruchko, NL, Ru
Claudia Kratzheller
The essence of her work:
Trusting your body as compass for embodied communication, to connect, interact and enjoy relationships.
Claudia Kratzheller is passionate about Tango, loves Contact improvisation and has been teaching and dancing both for many years.
After a long career as contemporary dancer she is part of the CI-network in Amsterdam and has been teaching Yoga for over a decade in various studios. Holistic massage treatments are part of her offer, to help people connect to their bodies integrity.
She has worked as a Physical and Vocal Coach in the business world for over 11 years, facilitating international Leadership trainings.
Check for Bio in Full Monty: https://body-linguistics.com/about/ More info on website: https://body-linguistics.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/claudiakratzheller/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bodylinguistic
Workshops:
WS1: pelvic centering and grounding
WS2: liquid lead 360 degrees
WS3: advanced: spiraling in and out of the ground
Ezequiel Sanucci Neotango teacher
Ezequiel Sanucci was born in Buenos Aires and has developed a professional career as a dancer, teacher, and choreographer for more than 30 years in ballet, contemporary dance, and tango at international companies and events around the world. He is an expert and pioneer in Neotango, having created a unique style that blends pure traditional tango with his extensive background in contemporary dance, contact improvisation, ballet, Latin dances, and more. Ezequiel is also one of the pioneers of Contact Tango and Contemporary Tango, having been among the first to fuse these disciplines and create his own distinctive styles. Since 2008, he has been teaching, performing, and DJing neotango, contact tango and traditional tango at major international festivals and events across Europe and Argentina.
Workshops
WS1: Contact Tango Ganchos
WS2: In & Out of Axis
Nathalie Mann:
Do you use the word „tangasm“ ? (If not, I wish you can use it soon !-)
…
I’m first a traditional tango dancer and during the last 30 years, I had various „tangasms“ on the dancefloor.
After a while, I noticed my partners had all in common the practice of Contact-Impro … It took me time till I give a try – now more than 10 years that I share this social dance, that feeds my posture, my soul, and my tango: using my whole body with trust, writing each tanda a new story through in a body communication .
I’m also a somatic educator and I love to open paths for sensitive explorations that feeds our dance. With TangOdyssée, I organise several festivals at the crossroads of argentine tango and contact- improvisation: Les Rencontres Tango-Contact, Contamination Tango, Revelation Tango, Tensegrity – Somatics into Tango….
To find out more: TangOdyssée : https://tangodyssee.com/
The poetry of tango elements.
Tango is a language with its own vocabulary, a physical dialogue that connects us to others through the sense of touch. What is poetry if not an art of language, where aesthetic and playful functions invite us to express our emotions through the intense union of sounds, rhythms and imaginations? Nathalie invites us to redefine the basic elements of tango from their purely sensory roots.
By freeing ourselves from form, we gain access to our inner rhythms and personal melodies, which we can then unite in a poetic and refined imagination!
Workshops:
WS 1: the grace of embrace
WS 2: the joy of modulation
WS 3: the power of intention
Gabriele Koch, Wuppertal, Germany
Gabriele Koch lives in Wuppertal. She dedicated her live to dance and movement exploration. She has been dancing and teaching dance for more than 25 years, including more than 20years of 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, now added by a yearly summer festival in nature in Barnin. The festivals are 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, connecztion and freedom in dance.
Workshops:
WS1: light – juicy and fun – finding ways of connection with depth, creativity and joy
WS2: my – your – our dance – finding our story
FULL PACKAGE
6 days of classes, research, jamilongas, exchange etc plus 4 meals on the full days Tuesday evening -Sunday afternoon
Early Bird till 30.11.2025:
For a specific amount of participants we can provide housing in apartments nearby for 30,-€/night + cleaning + fee – 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 30.11.
Registration: info@gabrielekoch.net www.gabrielekoch.net
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.
FULL PACKAGE
6 Tage Unterricht, Recherche, Jamilongas, Austausch usw. plus 4 Mahlzeiten an den vollen Tagen (Dienstagabend bis Sonntagnachmittag)
Frühbucherpreis 460,-€ (after 510,-€) bis zum 30.11.2025:
Für eine bestimmte Anzahl an Teilnehmer*innen können wir Unterkünfte in nahegelegenen Apartments anbieten: 30,- €/Nacht zzgl. Reinigung und Gebühr – Doppelzimmer, Dreibettzimmer sowie Apartments für 4 oder 6 Personen sind verfügbar.
WOCHENEND-SPECIAL
Freitag Nachmittag bis Sonntag Nachmittag, inklusive 1 Mahlzeit am Samstag
Frühbucher 210,-€ (after 240,-€) bis zum 30.11.
Anmeldung: info@gabrielekoch.net
www.gabrielekoch.net
UNTERSTÜTZER-PREIS: Wenn du über ausreichende finanzielle Mittel verfügst, laden wir dich herzlich ein, den Festivalpreis um einen Betrag von 20–50 € zu erhöhen. Auf diese Weise können wir junge Menschen oder Personen mit weniger Ressourcen aus herausfordernden Regionen zu 100 % unterstützen und ihnen die Teilnahme am Festival ermöglichen. Wenn du selbst zu dieser Gruppe gehörst, kannst du dich formlos per E-Mail bewerben.
4.-9.8.2026 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!
Registration possible now: info@gabrielekoch.net
ContactTango in the summerly magical atmosphere of the beautiful Barnin. After the indescribably amazing festival in the winterly Wuppertal, we enjoy for the second time a complete feeling in the midst of nature just for ourselves, diving deep and with ease into Tango, Contact, and ContactTango!
We are in work … over the next weeks all detail will be updated
- the timetable
- the teacher description
- impressions & information about the location
- booking information
- booking formular
ContactTango in the summerly magical atmosphere of the beautiful Barnin. After the indescribably amazing festival in the winterly Wuppertal, we enjoy for the second time a complete feeling in the midst of nature just for ourselves, diving deep and with ease into Tango, Contact, and ContactTango.
Barnin is surrounded by meadows and forests- There is a private lake space, a fire place and sauna. We can dance the warm summer nights outside, on the open-air dance floor under the starry sky. Nature and dance can connect with the lightness of summer.
THE PLACE:
Amseltango
Lindenstraße 10C 19089 Barnin
Amseltangomaps
Flights to Hamburg or Berlin Train to Schwerin or Crivits
Pick up from Schwerin/Crivitz Shared rides orga
Pictures: Boat at lake; dance studio; area; outside danceplace
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
We can offer double rooms, three bed rooms, 4 + 6 people appartments are available
Camping 20-25,-€/night
Please register soon! Limited Places!