Touch in Tango as a Form of Contagion

Book Chapters
Written By Raffaele Rufo

Touch in Argentine tango is explored as a kinaesthetic experience of contagion, where movement, sensation and feeling are shared through the body. The duet becomes a space of attunement, where boundaries soften and dancers connect through touch, vulnerability and embodied listening.

Read and download this book chapter

Rufo, Raffaele (2020), ‘Touch in tango as a form of contagion’, in M Sarco-Thomas (ed), Thinking touch in partnering and contact improvisation: Philosophy, pedagogy, practice, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, pp. 129-148, ISBN: 1-5275-5363-9.

Abstract: The chapter discusses how the felt sense of touch involved in dancing Argentine tango can be explored and understood as a kinaesthetic experience of contagion. Rather than taking for granted the blueprint of the tango duet as a starting point—two people standing in front of each other, ready to dance together in an intimate space, focusing on touch—the focus shifts to exploring how the constraints of the form help the dancers engage with each other’s feelings and sensations. This involves experimenting with a range of perceptual modes and practical tools and strategies of movement inquiry borrowed from contemporary and contact dance improvisation. The research conducted in the studio reveals how the transmission of movement impulses through the medium of touch activates the porous and permeable bodily boundaries between the dancers. This in-between is described as a space of uncertainty and vulnerability which cuts across the perceived gap between inside and outside. Contagion is generally intended as the process by which our bodies carry germs, bacteria and viruses that can infect other bodies through touch; used metaphorically, this concept arguably extends to include the possibility that our sensations and feelings also affect others, specifically other dancers, both physically and affectively.

Raffaele Rufo

Raffaele Rufo (PhD) is a dance artist, a facilitator of artistic and cultural processes, and an independent scholar committed to community and land regeneration. His artistic background is entwined with the Australian ensemble ‘Liminal Theatre and Performance’ and with the Argentine Tango dance, which he later combined with Contact Improvisation, Body Weather and somatic movement. After focusing his performance practice on Melbourne’s public urban spaces, Raffaele has explored the questions of roots and exile in Milan and Rome through the ecosomatic relation with the nonhuman and matter. His ongoing and recent creative projects include ‘Rituali di Pa(e)ssaggio’, ‘Danced by the Tree’, ‘Return of the Centaurs’, ‘Ecokinetics’ and ‘Ecosomatic Persephone’. He is co-founder of the International Forum for Eco-Embodied Arts (IFEEA) and collaborates with Teatro del Lido di Ostia as artistic director of ‘La Selva’ Residency. Raffaele holds a Phd in dance and performance from Deakin University and his research has been published in academic journals and book collections.

www.raffaelerufo.com