What: queertango is about improvised movement in an embrace without presumed gender roles. Join us at the Independent Media Center for a community-making event focused on creating safe spaces for improvisation.

Audience: Open to the public, $10 suggested donation (no one turned away for lack of funds)

Host/contact: Tajal Patel and Melih Sener

Location: Stage

When: every other Tuesday from September 5th, 2023; please see the IMC Google Calendar 

6-8pm Workshop: “Ungendered introductions to tango”

8-9pm Open Dance 

(Please arrive in a timely manner, if able, as the workshops emphasize connection and trust-building among attendees—which takes time...)

- Explorations of music and movement as a way of community building.
- Learn to lead & follow and switch roles in an embrace.
- Non-dancers welcome—as is participation without dancing.
- No experience needed. Each week focuses on new topics.

More information: Both components of the portmanteau—queertango—represent both a history and an intention for future tone. Tango is literally an embrace - it is a welcoming, a celebration. It has been a source of solace during times of oppression from the Warsaw Ghetto to the Gezi Park protests in Istanbul. Yet tango has, like most communal endeavors, also accrued traditions of habitual discrimination and privilege. We, therefore, choose a deliberate queer identity for our events to break with such traditions. The term queer represents here not only the welcoming of the lead-follow choices of the dancers regardless of gender or orientation; it represents also a welcoming of new music and new forms of improvisation. Our aim is to create an event that will be as welcoming to those who do not dance or choose to dance in other forms. In the context of the community we aim to form, 'Queer' represents an acknowledgement that the In-between is a far larger space than the endpoints we are often told to inhabit.

SUPPORT: This event is cosponsored by the Urbana-Champaign Independent Media Center, a grassroots organization committed to media, arts, and technology for social change. The UCIMC is supported in part by the Illinois Arts Council and by our membership. Please consider supporting the IMC by becoming a member or giving a donation.

COVID: We anticipate to follow the UIUC and IMC advisories at the time of each event. Please also respect additional individual concerns for mask and vaccination.

The UCIMC is dedicated to accessibility. Our ramp is located at the south entrance. If you have other needs for any event, from access to translation, please contact us at 217-344-8820 OR [email protected].