"I wish for: a Tango dance, that tells of memories, that speaks of old times... a Tango, that touches the senses, a Tango, that brings up-to-date, that renews, revolutionary... a Tango with all of the classical forms of movement: bending, stretching, getting up, gliding, jumping, catapulting and turning. Further: dragging, stumbling, moving in space, flying, flapping, wavering back and forth."

- from Petroleo's (Carlos Alberto Estévez) testament
born 1913, milonguero from Buenos Aires

TangoMujer is the world's first company of all female tango dancers, co-founded in 1996, and made up of dancers and choreographers from the United States, Argentina, Germany, and Switzerland. TangoMujer has performed at Symphony Space and Town Hall in New York, and at the Podewil Theatre in Berlin in 1998. In 1999, TangoMujer received a National Dance Production grant from New England Foundation for the Arts, which sent the company on tour to seven cities in the 2000-2001 season. In 2003 TangoMujer performed at Jacob's Pillow, Denver Tango Festival, Queens Theatre in the Park, and University of Maryland. In May 2005 they took their show to the Tanzhaus in Dusseldorf, and in 2006 they were a part of Leading Ladies of Tango in San Francisco.

The women of TangoMujer have lived hundreds of nights in Buenos Aires' tango haunts, where the heat of tango beats with such intensity. Their direct experiences of the imperfect but irresistable world of social dance are the wellspring of their feelings for tango. Modern and classical dance, among other movement forms, open and enrich their performances, making their tango wilder, the possibilities limitless. The typical tango show presents a formulaic drama of seduction and jealousy, too predictable to be convincing. TangoMujer is interested in all the other relationships expressible in the language of tango. Some pieces treat the cliches with irony and humor. Others explore tenderness and longing, the experience of solitude, or the energy of the group.

Read the TangoMujer article by Rebecca Shulman

© TangoMujer 2001