Contact Impro Tango - Tiger Softness and Strength
weekend 23 – 24 May 2026
A movement and dance workshop and a unique experience on various levels of perception. A return to the body that is created for movement, passion and diversity.
Contact improvisation and tango are movement and dance forms that focus on the relationship with a partner, on passing movement between partners and the circulation of energy that flows between them. This time we will focus on softness, adaptability and precision when dancing with a partner. Our original animal body is superbly designed for this. It has mechanisms that hold up in dynamic conditions, it is perfectly equipped for interaction with the environment, with a partner, with gravity. In this workshop we will activate the movement repertoire we associate with felines. The tiger quality of movement, which has been part of our animal body for millennia, we will learn to use in dance.
We will allow ourselves to break free from the constraints of familiar correct movements, so that our dance stops being a repetition of learned forms and the mind can relax. Dance gains impact and clarity when we learn to follow bodily impulses, natural instincts, when our senses are sharpened and we use the full range of movement possibilities that nature has equipped us with. We will discover how many beautiful new possibilities emerge when we give way to natural impulses that arise from our animal nature.
We will create a richer and more liberating form: open physical expression, freed from superficial rules. A dance in which natural movement possibilities are activated. From the realm of tango we will draw on: clarity of axis and use of spirals, mutual balancing and use of counterbalance, rhythm and melody. From contact improvisation we will study: falls, getting up, connection with the ground, rising, conscious use of centripetal and centrifugal forces, the relationship of the free body to the ground.
Tango combined with contact improvisation is a range of diverse movements that are neither routine nor monotonous and are vitally important for our well-being. They also provide the opportunity to use touch as a tool of communication. They expand the perception of oneself and of the other. They allow us to be creative, playful and grounded and to seek a path to accord.
We will rediscover our own body, which has been shaped by movement and created for movement for millennia. A body that craves constant change and finds new energy in movement that nourishes it. We will gain a different perspective on the body: let us begin to perceive its shapes and movements as the result of relationships to gravity, to space and to a partner, and as the result of our movement intentions. In such a concept of movement we can develop while at the same time enjoying freedom. Instead of control, we devote ourselves to sensory perception that guides us precisely and unerringly, allows us to adapt and evokes a delight in movement.
A workshop for all who see movement and movement creation as a path of discovery, healing, communication and enrichment of their life experience. The work, seemingly focused on movement and the body, has a much broader reach. It allows us to understand our physical self, our physical relationship with society and nature. Insights from biomechanics, somatics and ecology merge within it into the concept of the Ecological Body.
No prior experience with these techniques is needed and no partner is required. We will explore dance as organic, effective movement. We will nourish the flow of movement between us and our partners. Together we will create a movement composition that transcends each of us and at the same time belongs to us both. We both influence it, at first without order, and only gradually do we arrive at harmony.
Javier Cura (Argentina)
Javier Cura is a teacher, visual artist, theater director and movement trainer who has admirably made a name for himself in the field of movement and dance. He has created many performances in Argentina, Colombia, USA, Italy, Germany and Indonesia. At the international level, he teaches contact tango, physical theater and contact improvisation. He is a great dancer who awakens an irresistible desire to move, dance and express with movement.
As a visionary and movement activist, he encourages all who are willing to listen to him to take care of their own vital movement needs. He believes that the all-round diverse movement we reintegrate into our lives has a huge impact on our emotional, physical and mental health, as well as on the ecology of the planet. He is currently working on the „Ecological Body“ project in collaboration with a UN environmental researcher.
“The main goal of my work is to encourage the student to find connections between: an objective view of the body; (physical elements, body scheme: axis, lines of force, center of gravity, anatomy, etc.) subjective understanding of the body (emotional, expressive, creative consciousness and self-perceived body image) and the body in relation to the other; (its community, social and spiritual nature). In each workshop, participants are able to link learned physical activities with their personal creative expression and re-own them. Whatever the participants perceive and experience in the transient context of the workshop can be and often is transferred to the outside world, to their personal social context. It enriches the dance of everyday life. „
The workshop takes place in Prague.
Most participants are signing up on their own, it is not necessary to sign up in pairs.
The workshop is intensive: Saturday and Sunday 9:30 – 17:30, and is open to everyone regardless of age or prior movement experience.
Price 180 EUR. To reserve a place, a deposit of 80 EUR must be paid.
Price 160 EUR when the deposit is paid by 14 May.
