In January 2016 I embarked on a PhD project on touch in Tango at Deakin University Melbourne. To challenge my embodied habits and assumptions as a tango dancer, deepen my sensitivity, expand my vocabulary and develop practical tools of movement inquiry, in 2017 I have approached contact and contemporary modes of dance improvisation. In particular, by leveraging the kinaesthetic tools and the spirit of freedom and emancipation typical of Contact Improvisation, I have explored the fundamentals of Tango not as given techniques or assumptions but as ‘enabling constraints’ to find a deeper sense of freedom and sharing in the dance. Engaging tango through the ‘lens’ of Contact Improvisation allows the dancer to observe and follow movement dynamics as they unfold in the shared improvisational process through the subtle play of touch, pressure and weight. The doctoral research was conducted in public spaces (first phase) and in dance studios (second phase) but I have never stopped dancing Tango and Contact Improvisation socially since the field work began. The PhD, awarded in March 2020, develops an experimental framework for engaging touch in Tango as an experience of kinaesthetic listening. The process of inquiry led me to articulate both practical and conceptual resources for exploring the somatic-imaginative spaces between the dancer’s inside and outside worlds. …