The UK Tango Festival and Championship

Posted on May 11, 2015

This year’s UK Tango Festival and Championship will take place from June 5 to 7 in central London with workshops, milongas, performances and the UK Tango Championships 2015.

The festival opens on Friday, June 5 at Conway Hall, Red Lion Square (WC1). From 5.30pm to 7pm, registration and ID checks will take place for competing couples, with the doors opening to the general public at 7pm.

The opening evening will include a 30-minute workshop “Spanish for Tangueros”, followed by the salon and stage categories of the championship, and a milonga from 9pm to 2am, with music from DJ Nicolas Wan Park and a performance by Fernando Galera and Silvina Valz.

On Saturday, June 6, workshops will take place during the afternoon (look out for more information on the website), with the doors of Edward Lumley Hall, the Royal College of Surgeons (WC2), opening to the public at 6.15pm. There will be performances by tango schools from 6.30pm until 6.50pm, with the championship semi-finals taking place from 7pm to 8pm. DJ Marcelo Rojas will play music for the milonga from 8pm until 1am, with a performance by Demián Garcia and Fátima Vitale.

Evening activities on June 7 will open at 6pm at Edward Lumley Hall, with the championship final taking place from 6.20pm until 7pm. Damián Boggio will provide the music for the closing-night milonga, with Facundo de la Cruz and Paola Sanz dancing in the festival’s final performance.

Picture: Kat Gorna and Benny Malsov perform stage tango

Photograph: Sidonie Gaucher

Nicola Rayner

Nicola Rayner was editor of Dance Today from 2010 to 2015. She has written for a number of publications including The Guardian, The Independent and Time Out Buenos Aires, where she cut her teeth as a dance journalist working on the tango section. Today she continues to dance everything from ballroom to breakdance, with varying degrees of success. Her debut novel, The Girl Before You, was published last year in paperback, ebook and audiobook.