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About The Book
The Queer Tango Book – Ideas, Images and Inspiration in the 21st Century is the first of its kind: a unique, international anthology of writings and artworks about Queer Tango from dancers, activists, academics, artist and others, some of whom are key figures in the Queer Tango movement.
Contributions range from personal experiences, to opinion pieces, to outright polemics, setting out what it can be, could be or should be. Above all, it captures and documents something of the spirit of Queer Tango with a view to stimulating further debate and social dancing. As contributors to The Queer Tango Book vividly demonstrate, the effects of some of the creative ideas originating within and supporting the LGBT community, are now felt beyond it, challenging, changing and enriching how the Argentinian tango is danced in the 21st century.

The Queer Tango Book – Ideas, Images and Inspiration in the 21st Century
Edited by Birthe Havmoeller, Ray Batchelor and Olaya Aramo
Published by Queertangobook.org, March 2015
Ebook and PDF
ISBN 978-87-998024-0-1 (HTML)
ISBN 978-87-998024-1-8 (PDF).

The dancers, writers and artists who are sharing their insights in The Queer Tango Book:
Alex Gastel (Germany), Alice Heigh (Russia), Belén Castellano (Spain), Birthe Havmoeller (Denmark), Carlos Blanco (Mexico), Carolina De Beus (Belgium), Chelsea Eng and Tango Con*Fusión (USA), Claudio Gonzalez (Argentina), Con Artist (USA), Denise Lew (England), Edgardo Fernández Sesma (Argentina), Gigi Gamble (USA), Guilia Cerulli (Italy), Helen ‘La Vikinga’ Halldórsdóttir (Iceland/Argentina), Hilda Hisas (Argentina), Juliet McMains (USA), Kristín Bjarnadóttir (Sweden), Laura Valentino (USA/Iceland), Laurie Ann Greenberg (USA), Marc Vanzwoll (USA), Mariana Docampo (Argentina), Miguel Kanai (USA), Mila Morandi (Italy), Natalia Merkulova (Russia), Olaya Aramo (Spain), Paul Fairweather (England), Ray Batchelor (England), Sasha Cagen (USA), Sofía Silva (Spain) and Susana Romero (Argentina).

 

About the Editors of The Queer Tango Book

Birthe Havmoeller / www.queertangobook.org is the creator of the Queer Tango Book Project, co-editing The Queer Tango Book together with Ray Batchelor and Olaya Aramo. Birthe is an independent editor, visual artist and queer arts activist. Fine art photography has been her creative media since 1989. In 2003 she launched ‘Feminine Moments’, an international resource site and blog about fine art made by lesbian, bisexual and queer feminist artist. Birthe identifies as a lesbian and a dual role tango dancer. She was a social dancer, dancing the old Danish couple dances and the Irish set dances before she started dancing tango in 2009. She has made home videos, documenting Queer Tango performances at gala milongas in Berlin, Copenhagen and in her town Aarhus, Denmark.

 

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Ray Batchelor / www.queertangolondon.com, dances, teaches, researches, lectures and writes about Queer Tango. Part of Tim Flynn’s Queer Tango London since 2011, his research projects have included (with Julie Burge and Lionel Cox) Queer Tango workshops for managers learning how – in the fullest sense – to both lead and follow; (with Melanie Parris) Queer Tango workshops for D/deaf people in ‘D/deaf CAN Dance!’; and now, jointly with sports coach, Jack Badu, Queer Tango workshops for footballers in the ‘Football Tango Project’, in which, having danced with one another, players reflect on how best to counter homophobia. Ray lives in London with his partner, Jerome. Read about Ray’s take on Queer Tango.

 

Olaya Aramo / Milonga La Traviesa is a queer tango dancer, teacher and organizer based in Spain. She runs La Traviesa, an alternative feminist milonga and is co-funder of Queer Tango Madrid. She has organized Queer Tango workshops in several Spanish cities such as Madrid, Oviedo, Bilbao and Valencia. She has also co-organised Queer Tango workshops together with LGTB associations in Madrid. She has written several articles on Queer Tango and she is co-creator of the Sonidos exóticos para tres guerras, a concert and book project about the links between music, gender and class in the Hispanic music forms of the 1930s. She understands tango from a feminist and queer perspective, aiming to disassociate tango roles from gender identity, as well as creating LGTBQI friendly tango spaces. From a technical point of view Olaya wants to develop a Queer Tango concept with a milonguero tango sensibility, subverting the milonga codes but maintaining a loving close embrace and the music from the Golden Age of Tango, intending to create a pedagogy which rejects the gendered elements of the traditional milonguero tango pedagogy. In the future she hopes to continue researching about the queer origins of tango.