Contact Tango in Padua (Italy)
Liberating the Embrace
Workshops with Raffaele Rufo
Sunday 8 March 2026
Liberating the embrace means loosening up the body and allowing emotional energy to flow through contact. Through simple practices of somatic listening and improvisation, we will explore a more sensitive, present, and dynamic embrace. We will also learn to enter and exit the embrace fluidly, keeping the relationship alive in the dance.
Open to all levels — for movers, contact dancers, tango lovers and beginners who wish to explore dance as transformation, between structure and surrender, listening and play.
*You can join alone or with a partner.
📍Venue: ASD FreeLine Cochabamba 444, Vicolo Conti 14, Padova (Italy)
📞 Info & Bookings: +39 347 0848852
“Liberating the Embrace” — Contact Tango Workshops
Contact Tango combines Argentine tango, contact improvisation, and somatic listening. It is a practice based on contact, breath, and relationship, where structure and freedom coexist. With no fixed roles, it invites you to trust your body and experience dance as a shared experience of presence and transformation.
Contact Tango exercises - the specific approach of TangoSomatics
Documentation of the workshops conducted by Raffaele Rufo (PhD) at the 2026 Padova Contact Tango Spring Intensive on ‘Liberating the Embrace’
Workshops theme: Liberating the Embrace
Liberating the embrace means working on multiple levels: physical, emotional, and relational. On the one hand, freeing the body—in particular the spine, which is the main channel of movement. Just observe how cats move: their backs are mobile and fluid. Our sedentary lifestyle, on the other hand, tends to block the torso, which is also the center of the relationship in tango. On the other hand, freeing the emotional energy that flows through the embrace. Tension and fear influence the way we touch and allow ourselves to be touched. Finally, liberating the embrace also means knowing how to enter and exit contact fluidly, without rigidity or breaks, allowing the relationship with the other to remain alive and dynamic. In the workshops, we will work on these aspects with simple and progressive practices, to make the embrace freer, more fluid, and more present.
Workshops 1 - Living the embrace: Listening, contact, and trust (h15:30-17)
An introductory workshop to explore the quality of contact, weight, and presence in the embrace through simple, slow, and progressive movements.
Workshops 2 - The embrace in movement: From relationship to dance (h17:15-18:45)
A second workshop to evolve the embrace into movement: walking together, entering and exiting contact, letting dance emerge in a fluid and playful way.
Teacher’s Bio
Danzatore, coreografo, e pedagogo della danza e della performance e studioso della percezione sensoriale, Raffaele Rufo ha attraversato i confini tra Europa, Africa e Australia per più di due decenni lavorando con gruppi di danza e teatro, studenti di scuole e università, festival e comunità in una vasta gamma di progetti partecipativi e performativi. Si è avvicinato al tango in Italia negli anni 2000 studiando con diversi maestri della tradizione argentina e partecipando alla compagnia di danza “EfectoTango” diretta da Alejandro Angelica. A Melbourne si è poi formato in Contact-Impro e in diverse forme contemporanee di performance improvvisata (Body Weather) e di movimento somatico (metodo Feldenkrais). Nel 2020 ha conseguito il dottorato di ricerca presso la Deakin University per lo studio del tatto nel Tango come pratica di ascolto somatico. Raffaele è specializzato nell'incontro tra Tango, Contact-Impro e metodo Feldenkrais come spazio di sperimentazione e sviluppo del linguaggio dell'improvvisazione. Ha insegnato il suo approccio unico in diversi festival, tra cui il “Festival Internazionale di Contact Improvisation e Tango Argentino” a Wuppertal (Germania) nel 2018, 2020 e 2025, il “Solo and Contact Improvisation Festival” in Tirolo (Austria) nel 2021 e il festival “Tango Contamination” a Strasburgo nel 2022. https://www.raffaelerufo.com/tango-contact