:: Tango Con*Fusión Company (San Francisco) ::

The women of Tango Con*Fusión bend the gender-related customs of this century-old dance. As collaborative artists they explore the idiom of Argentine Tango beyond its traditional boundaries. As professional performers and teachers of Argentine Tango, with varied backgrounds in contemporary and classical dance, they create a fusion of genres within their choreography.

A couple’s dance morphs to a solo or collective interaction, leaders and followers exchange roles, and free movement is added.

n 2014, the members of Tango Con*Fusión chose to concentrate on the further exploration and analysis of lead-follow, and documenting their lead-follow exchange vocabulary through their “Trading Places” DVD/Teaching program with workshops and performances at tango & other dance-related festivals.

The artists of Tango Con*Fusión include Carolina Rozensztroch, Pier Voulkos, Debbie Goodwin, Christy Coté and Rose Vierling. Joining TCF in 2016 are our newest members: Mira Barakat, Mila Salazar and Jasmine Worrell. The company of 8 women look forward to grow artistically and expand it’s presence in San Francisco, the USA and internationally.

www.tangoconfusion.com/

:: Carlos Blanco & Rey Flores (Mexico City) ::

Carlos and Rey have over 10 years experiance as tango dancers and other dance disciplines. In 2016, they decided to work together and form a dance partnership which has a great public recognition.

Since then, they have played an active role as dancers and instructors, in the tango scene in Mexico, traditional and queer as well as collaborating with international festivals and presenting their work all over Mexico, the US and Europe. Through their dance they like to enlarge the visibility of the LGBTIQ community in the tango and to generate space free from homophobia.

:: Astrid Weiske (Berlin) ::

For more than 20 years Astrid has been dancing Tango Argentino and is well known and respected in the tango communities worldwide as an excellent leading woman and excellent teacher. She has developed strong sensitivity in leading, great creativity in improvisation and playful musicality which stand out as key elements in her dance. But Astrid is recognized also for her skills as a follower which greatly expands her knowledge and understanding of the dance.

Since 2005 she has been teaching in Berlin at "PHYNIXtanzt" Studio, traveling as a guest teacher since many years and accepting invitations to Germany, UK, France, Italy, Russia and also abroad to Argentina, and Canada. She has received invitations to teach and perform at several Festivals such as Queertangofestival Copenhagen, Phantastango Festival (Germany) or Queertango Festival Buenos Aires. In 2011 she founded the 1st. intern. Queer Tango Festival in Berlin which was a great success and has since earned an international reputation.

Her teaching is based on awareness and analysis of natural movement in combination with her profound knowledge of technique, structure of the dance and connection between the couple. This creates a constant dialogue between leaders and followers who share the responsibility of listening and responding to each other, based on a strong connection to the music.

Her exploration of the many techniques of tango, from the very classical to the very experimental, leading and following and other dance forms like contact improvisation or modern dance make her believe that there is no "one" Tango. She believes in a creative, liberating variety and connection of ideas, movements and technique by rsepecting the roots of Argentine Tango. She promotes that fusion to reduce borders, allowing people to find their own expression in the dance.

www.queertango-berlin.de

:: Brigitta Winkler (Berlin/NYC) ::

Brigitta (Berlin/NYC) is one of the world's most renowned teachers and innovative dancers of tango, inspiring legions of dancers worldwide with her creative approach and musical esthetics. She founded or co-founded the internationally acclaimed Tanzart and PHYNIXtanzt schools in Berlin, TangoMujer, and the Tango Teacher Training Network in North America. Brigitta discovered tango in 1980. In Buenos Aires, she studied with legendary dancers, including Juan Carlos Copes, Antonio Todaro, Pepito Avellaneda, Gustavo Naveira and Eduardo Arquimbau. She was among the first to teach tango in both Europe and the United States during tango's current revival. Brigitta co-founded the highly respected Tanzart studio in Berlin in 1987, the internationally acclaimed performance company Tango Mujer in 1996, and co-created the Teacher Training Networkwith Tomás Howlin in 2008. In between world travels, Brigitta teaches regularly in NYC and PHYNIXtanzt in Berlin.

Brigitta combines over 30 years of international experience in tango dance, instruction and performance with techniques of Body Mind Centering. She is an equally gifted resource for both close embrace and open style tango. Her workshops are insightful, creative, and incredibly fun!

"I do know that tango wouldn’t be what it is in the United States and Europe without her. I do know that she is relevant to women like me right now. She advocates for women to dance on their own terms. We must lead and follow, and we must build a sisterhood in tango. She has participated in and created tango retreats just for women like Tango Donna."

www.brigittatango.de
www.tangodonna.com

:: Alejandro Villalobos (Montreal) ::

Born in Mexico, Alejandro Villalobos is a professional dancer specialised in contemporary and classical dance as well as in Mexican folkloric dancing, who graduated from The Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes de Mexico. In Quebec, he has worked for several classical and contemporary dance projects.

He was introduced to Argentine tango in Buenos Aires in 2007 where he studied with several teachers. In 2013 he was invited to teach and perform at Buenos Aires queer tango festival. He now teaches in Montreal and contributes to Montreal's queer tango community by giving regular classes and organizing milongas.

:: Katia Abbondanzieri (Geneva) ::

Katia Abbondanzieri (Tangueradelcirco), physiotherapist in Geneva since 1996, has been dancing tango as leader and follower since 2010.

Her passion for studying and understanding the body since she was a child led her to teach anatomy in various natural therapy schools in Switzerland, France and Belgium for more than 20 years. Her classes in palpatory anatomy, movement anatomy, therapeutic stretching and classic massage are popular with novices eager to understand how their bodies work, as well as experienced therapists who want to deepen their knowledge through their practice.

She also teaches Argentine tango singly or in couples so as to encourage listening and feeling with awareness and subtlety. She set up Anatomy for Tango, to provide biomechanical responses to tanguero(a)s eager for body knowledge, to understand and feel the anatomical subtleties that allow harmony and fluidity in their tango, in both roles.

Katia is now invited in several countries of Europe with Oscar the squeleton, to bring its knowledge in the field of biomechanics and pathology of Tango.

Since 2 years Katia is co-organizer of the Queer Tango Marathon in Geneva.

http://queertango-geneva.ch/festivalito-2019/

:: Marc Vanzwoll (Zürich) ::

Marc Vanzwoll first experienced the power of tango to change Self and Relation to Others while living in California. Over the last nine years, he has been teaching workshops, group classes and private lessons in San Francisco, Boston and, since 2017, Zurich.

Examples of his work include co-creating the Gay Men’s Argentine Tango Classes and Sweet Inspiration Tango in San Francisco; developing and co-hosting the “Letras de Tango” event series focused on the poetry and meaning of tango lyrics in Boston; and creating and teaching a tango curriculum focused on Connection and Movement from Within at Chante Clair, Zurich, including classes in cooperation with QueerTango Zurich.

Marc’s work is grounded in the believe that tango roles have no gender, and in the experience that Tango comes from within, embraces the partner, connects to the music, and is a conversation with all the dancers in the room. One quote that inspires Marc in his tango work is from a Buddhist nun on cooking: “All your five senses must move. The five senses are body, feeling, perception, intention, and consciousness.