PointeTango Dance Company

Welcome to PointeTango Dance Company. Stayed tuned for updates and information about our Canadian tour and new dance show, TANGO in the Dark, featuring PointeTango’s unique blend of Argentine tango and classical ballet.

PointeTango is a unique, “one-of-a-kind” dance company directed by choreographer and dancer, Alexander Richardson and created with lead dancer, Erin Scott-Kafadar. By pushing new boundaries in dance, PointeTango combines the intimacy of Argentine tango with the precision of classical ballet, creating a new dance vocabulary that is both intimate and bold.

PointeTango emerged from the question: ‘What happens when classical ballet meets Argentine tango?’ Having trained and worked in both disciplines of classical ballet and Argentine tango extensively, Erin and Alexander challenged themselves to develop a new dance vocabulary of “pointetango” that respects the codes and connection of the Argentine tango “abrazo” (embrace) while searching for new solutions and opportunities to the challenges encountered when transitioning from heels to pointe shoes. PointeTango is the only dance company in the world to dance authentic, improvised Argentine tango on pointe shoes.

The company’s work has been performed on cruise ships internationally, featured in theatre festivals and dance film projects and they perform regularly in stage shows and milongas in Buenos Aires and Canada. PointeTango has toured their original highly acclaimed shows: Para Dos, Into the Tango and Tango, to the Pointe across Canada in the summers of 2018, 2019 and 2022 respectively to sold-out theatres. Their festival tours have earned them the prestigious Best of Festival award in addition to Favourite Dance Show and Favourite Duo, Best Artistry and the Patron’s Pick awards to name a few. PointeTango had scheduled an international tour for PointeTango’s newest show Tango in the Dark (spring/summer 2020) before the Covid-19 pandemic hit.

As an alternative to presenting live shows, PointeTango continued to share their art by creating video projects for digital distribution and, with a grant from the Canada Council for the Arts, produced an original short film in collaboration with Toronto’s Payadora Tango Ensemble leading them to create a a full-length feature film adapting their stage show to film; Tango in the Dark: the film. The film has received rave reviews and recognition since its digital world premiere in February 2021 and was screened at curated digital programs such as Toronto’s Next Stage Festival, the Aurora Cultural Centre, the London Dance Festival and arts festivals in Prague and in Pittsburgh winning the Best On-Demand show of the festival.

Most recently, PointeTango has toured their new hour-long show Tango, to the Pointe across Canada during the spring/summer of 2022 to theatres in Montreal, Ottawa, Winnipeg, Regina, Halifax, Vancouver and London (ON). PointeTango was awarded a residency at the National Ballet of Canada to work on the creation of Tango, to the Pointe through the support of the NBC’s Open Space Programme. Additionally, they received funding to travel to Victoria, BC where they were invited to perform a sold-out performance at the 2022 World Accordion and Tango Festival.

The company has been awarded a grant from the Canada Council for the Arts to produce a feature-length film for dance entitled In Search of the Abrazo (In Search of the Embrace). And they have also received a grant to produce live presentations of Tango in the Dark in London, Ontario with the Payadora Tango Ensemble in 2023.

PointeTango has begun scheduling a tour for Tango, in the Dark starting in the summer of 2023 to Montreal and Edmonton and with the Payadora Tango Ensemble in Toronto, Cornwall and Port Colborne.

Erin and Alexander were honoured to have Montreal dance reviewer Victor Swoboda write a feature article about PointeTango Dance Company published in the prestigious Dance International magazine in January 2023.

Read the Full Article HERE