Tango Workshop with Brigitta Winkler:  "Polarity + Presence"

Thoughtfully engaged, Tango proposes an enticing contradiction:

It asks each of us as dancer to fully claim and inhabit our own distinctive body, perspective and role — and yet ...

At the same time, to somehow also stay fully open, available, and in tune with something outside ourselves — a set of similar but opposing factors that are dynamically embodied in another wholly distinctive person:  Our Partner.

How we understand, experience and find our way into this dichotomy — not only to survive the encounter, but to flourish — is both a primary puzzle and one of the most enduring mysteries of the dance.

As partners in Tango, we relate like the two poles of a magnet, north and south. We are simultaneously both separate and together, each distinguishing and defining the other — indeed, making the other possible — as we contribute our mutual energies to the creation of an emergent third thing, The Couple, which floats between and all around, caressing us like an unseen magnetic field.

In this way, Tango invites us to step both deeper into - and - utterly beyond ourselves — to have the courage and tenacity to touch, know and honor something important and essential about ourselves in this moment ... and then to summon the will to bring these insights forward with fearless vulnerability and an uncompromising generosity as we meet and embrace our partner on the dance floor.

For a compelling journey into the very heart of these mysteries, please join us on April 3 as the incomparable Brigitta Winkler returns to Ojai to offer us "Polarity + Presence"...

In this 90-minute workshop, Brigitta will help us take full measure of the various qualities, factors and challenges involved ... and then guide us as we explore evocative strategies for how to balance, blend, negotiate and amplify the many "creative tensions" inherent in the dance ... all while staying utterly sensitive and exquisitely responsive — not only to each other, but also to the sublime and artful "3rd Partner" of Tango, the magnetic relationship that rises to envelope us both.

And after "Polarity + Presence," please plan to linger on as Brigitta supervises the Guided Práctica, and then joins us for a special extended edition of our long-running Monday Night milonga, Ojai's "Tango Incident."

With more than 35 years of background + experience in Tango, the iconic dancer, teacher + innovator Brigitta Winkler is celebrated world-wide for her vast knowledge + unparalleled insight into the form. Brigitta's previous visits to Ojai — in 2014, 2015 and 2016 — filled the room with dancers as we delved into the subtleties of expressive following + effortless leading, explored Brigitta's incisive take on vals, and plumbed the depths of Tango's exquisite intimacy. To experience these pleasures up close + in person, please join us (again!) for another utterly memorable night of Tango with Brigitta Winkler.

When: 

Monday — April 3, 2017

Where: 

Ojai Art Center - in the Gallery - 113 S. Montgomery, Ojai

Workshop:

7:00 - 8:30 p.m. - an Extended 90-minute Session

Supervised Práctica: 

8:30 - 9:00 p.m. — following the Workshop  ...

"Tango Incident":

9:00 - 10:30 p.m. — Ojai's renowned milonga

Cost:

$20 / Dancer for this Special Workshop + Práctica

        2-for-1 / Students with I.D. ...

        "Tango Incident" only — by donation

— All Levels Workshop —

— Newer + More Experienced Dancers Both Welcome —

More About Brigitta Winkler

Brigitta with Tomás Howlin Celebrated as a major figure of the modern Tango Renaissance, Brigitta Winkler relishes both tradition and innovation, and brings more than 30 years' experience to the dance floor. She spent some years in Paris studying with Virulazo, a star of Tango Argentino. At that time she met Coco Orlando Diaz, and they began performing together at Les Trottoirs de Buenos Aires in Paris. In 1986, they toured to Montreal and Toronto. Brigitta traveled often to Buenos Aires to study with such noted dancers as Juan Carlos Copes, Antonio Todaro, Pepito Avellaneda, Gustavo Naveira, and Eduardo Arquimbau. In 1987 she opened Tanzart with Angelika Fischer, where she hosted Arquimbau's visits to Berlin. In 1994 Brigitta choreographed and danced in the Tango Marathon in the Theaterhaus Stuttgart and Tango Vision in the Podewil Berlin. In 1996, she was a co-founder of the influential all-women collective and performance group Tango Mujer. These days, Brigitta travels widely and teaches regularly at major Tango Festivals throughout the United States, Germany, Italy and Russia, and in 2005 she opened her own Tangocenter called Phynix Tanzt in Berlin. Before coming to Ojai this year, Brigitta will teach workshops in Washington DC, Virginia, Atlanta, Annapolis, Honolulu, Maui, and San Francisco. After Ojai, she will return to the east coast, where she will offer another workshop in Montreal and teach privately in New York before returning to Europe in the fall. And during the long weekend just before her workshop, Brigitta and our very own Debbie Edwards will present "La Valle Rosada" - Ojai Women's Tango Retreat, an intensive weekend of study, practice and bonding for women who lead + follow tango.

Clockwise from top left:  Brigitta Winkler with ... Angelika Fischer, Korey Ireland, J. Abling, Homer Ladas, and Tango Mujer.

“Brigitta always brings something new to her classes. Familiar topics are looked at with a different lens. It always amazes me on how after being in her classes I can work for months on precisely those things, feeling them fresh again !”

   — Fabienne Bongard — of Tango Mujer, formerly with Dance Manhattan, now dancing in
         Los Angeles where she co-hosted the open-role Libertad + has taught at Oxygen Tango.

"Brigitta Winkler has deep tango wisdom and irresistible sparkle. Unique in the tango universe, Brigitta is an inspiring and playful teacher and a veritable treasure trove of tango fabulousness accumulated over her 30+ years of devotion to the dance form."

   — Sharna Fabiano — of Tango Mujer, formerly with Tango Mercurio in Washington, DC,
         now in Los Angeles where she recently earned her MFA in Dance from UCLA. Sharna
         and her partner Isaac Oboka have both taught at Oxygen Tango.

Links to More About Brigitta ...

Brigitta's Website     — background, bio, links, video ... Tango Mujer     — the influential all-women collective,         co-founded by Brigitta Phynix Tanzt     — Brigitta's Tangocenter in Berlin Tango Donna     — women's tango retreat with Brigitta         in Tuscany, October 2017 Brigitta on Facebook
	Brigitta leading ... following ...
Video of Brigitta Winkler's Dancing: Brigitta's Own Selection — from nearly 1,000 videos of her dancing available on youtube.