This intimate videoportrait of Irina Jabsa and Guadalupe Santiago showcases the art of contactango, a fusión of contact improvisation and tango. Bringing the principles of contact improvisation into dialogue with tango not only increases tango’s creative range in terms of body shapes, embrace, and vocabulary, but it interrupts tango’s gendered lead/follow binary. The roles of leader and follower are exchanged so frequently and fluidly that the border between the two roles starts to dissolve.
This intimate videoportrait of Irina Jabsa and Guadalupe Santiago showcases the art of contactango, a fusión of contact improvisation and tango. Bringing the principles of contact improvisation into dialogue with tango not only increases tango’s creative range in terms of body shapes, embrace, and vocabulary, but it interrupts tango’s gendered lead/follow binary. The roles of leader and follower are exchanged so frequently and fluidly that the border between the two roles starts to dissolve.
Juliet McMains
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