Contango (dance)
Contango is a ballroom dancing and a fusion of Argentine tango with elements of contact improvisation and free dance. Mutual following and leading creates an intuitive flow of movement through improvisation. Variable dance postures, creative moves for arms and legs and some interaction principles bring creativity and inspiration to this couple dance.
On the dance floor, at contango milongas, the couples dance alone and in groups of three. It is easy to find new dance partners thanks to this open setting and partly fluid partner changes in Contango. Contango enables harmonious dances in the field of tension between closeness and autonomy. Elegant, sensual and close to the heart.
Unlike in most ballroom dances and Tango Argentino , men and women have the same design options in contango dance.
Compare Contango with Neotango and Tango Nuevo
There are some similarities between Tango Nuevo or Neotango and Contango. They have in common the type of music, more flexible dance postures than in Tango Argentino, the improvised flow of movement, the variation of closeness, decorations with the legs, colgada and volcada.
In contrast to Tango Nuevo, the leadership role in Contango changes freely back and forth. Through this expansion of the man-woman roles, unpredictable and innovative dance situations as well as an intuitive flow arise for the dancers again and again.
The arms and hands have a particularly large number of options for following each other, reading, hugging and with gestural expression in the room. The dance posture changes in mutual reshaping, nestling, hugging and sometimes people dance without direct body contact. Both dance partners can freely create the right dance posture together.
Music at Contango
The music at Contango is diverse and ranges from classical tango to atmospheric non-tangos to electro tango music.
Variants of the Contango
Variants of this dance form are also called Contactango and Contact Tango.
History of the Contango
At the beginning of the 21st century, individual dancers began to explore the connection between tango and contact improvisation. Among others Leilani Weiss with Javier Cura in Berlin, Gabi Koch in Wuppertal, 2006 Peter Krempelsetzer in Munich, to name just a few names. From this, different styles of Contango, Contact Tango and Contactango began to form, which are still in development and which are increasingly spreading.
literature
- Klaus Kieser: Fusion Contango - Tango Argentino & Contact Improvisation . Ed .: Tangodanza. 1st edition. Issue 1/2013, No. 53 . Tangodanza journal, March 2013, p. 74, 75 .
- Klaus Kieser: Contango practice . In: Tanz - magazine for ballet, dance and performance . June 2013. The Theaterverlag - Friedrich GmbH, Berlin June 2013, p. 74 .
Web links
- Tobias Funke, Katrin Stelzer: www.contact-tango.de. February 18, 2020, accessed March 4, 2020 .
- Karl Weingart: Contactango in Switzerland. March 4, 2020, accessed on March 4, 2020 (Swiss Standard German).
- Peter Krempelsetzer: Video about Contango. In: Youtube. Peter Krempelsetzer, June 17, 2014, accessed on March 3, 2020 (German).
- Peter Krempelsetzer: Video from the early days. In: youtube. November 16, 2009, accessed on March 3, 2020 (German).
- Tobias Funke, Katrin Stelzer: Contango Festival Wuppertal. March 6, 2020, accessed on March 6, 2020 (German).
- Javier Cura & Lydia Nassall: Contango Performance. In: youtube. June 11, 2011, accessed March 6, 2020 .
- Gabriele Koch: Contango Festival 2013. November 6, 2013, accessed on March 11, 2020 (German).
- Gabriele Koch: 7th ContacTango Festival Wuppertal 2019. Accessed on March 11, 2020 .
- Leilani Weiss: Collage - Research Festival Contactango. Retrieved March 11, 2020 .
- Peter Krempelsetzer: Contango description. March 1, 2020, accessed on March 11, 2020 (German).