Photo by Beatrice Murch

Interested in tango, and want to see a show that is a little more intense? Interested in circus, and want to see it done Buenos Aires style? Then ‘Nocturna’, a fusion of tango and circus performed at Centro Cultural Recoleta, is for you.

The show is directed by Gustavo ‘Mono’ Silva, who initially trained as an actor but has now been working in the circus for over 20 years. In 2006 he first put on a show that combined tango and circus, calling it ‘Primer Vuelo’. The name was appropriate, as Mono describes it as a sort of test flight, which he used to feel out whether the combination between the two art forms would really work. It did. The show was a hit, and Mono went ahead with the more ambitious, and more heavily tango-influenced ‘Nocturna’. The project has now been running for three years, with continuing success.

The fusion of tango and circus is certainly powerful. Mono states that, whether or not it is your favourite type of music, “tango resonates in Buenos Aires” and this is the reason that the show works so well. He also tells me that the concept of ‘Nocturna’ was partly inspired by China and Russia, as both of these countries use their national music for circus performances, and it seems logical to him to do the same thing in Argentina. Seen in this context, he tells me that he views this acrobatic performance with an Argentine twist as a “little contribution to the different types of circus around the world”.

Photos by Beatrice Murch

However, even though the tango in ‘Nocturna’ taps into an Argentine tradition, the music itself is anything but traditional. Rather than classic melodies by the likes of Carlos Gardel, the show features tango nuevo – fast-paced electronic tango with strong beats. While the sounds may seem unconventional, they work well with the performance, which is also extremely modern and dynamic. ‘Nocturna’ plays with tango traditions rather than just mimicking them and the electronic music does exactly the same. Moreover, although there are mellower moments, it is often the sheer pace of the tango nuevo that really keeps the performers on their toes.

In fact, staying on their toes is only the beginning. The show begins with all fourteen acrobats gathered on a central flat stage, surrounded by tables and chairs, and with the floor painted to give the idea of a conventional milonga. They begin to dance, but the tango becomes steadily more acrobatic, and the chairs and tables are used as props in gymnastic routines. The show is then separated into twelve narrative sections, with the acrobats performing sequences on the trapeze, the springboard, the tightrope and with hoops. One of the most impressive parts takes place with a double trapeze, as performers fly from one end to the other, catching each other and twisting up and down in ways that you would not imagine were humanly possible.

Each of the 12 sections has a narrative quality, which gives ‘Nocturna’ a theatrical flavour. When the show begins, one of the performers opens book and a voiceover begins to narrate a fairytale. This storybook quality then continues throughout the show, enhanced by dramatic music and lighting. The little narratives have different themes; some are about love and longing, others feature more comedy. Mono tells me that part of the idea behind these narratives is to prevent the show from becoming too abstract. He does not want to use circus to express obscure ideas about art, but instead to keep it extremely concrete and accessible to the audience. Overall, he has a reassuringly practical attitude towards performance, dismissing the idea of “circus romanticism” and saying that the troop is, first and foremost, “a professional team that works well together”.

Mono’s troop performs on the terrace of Centro Cultural Recoleta, with the audience sitting on wooden bleachers and watching the performance from above. Although the fact that ‘Nocturna’ takes place in the open air can make scheduling unpredictable (shows are cancelled when there is bad weather) it also lends it a livelier atmosphere, a little like a street performance. The terrace overlooks Plaza Francia, and the experience of watching the show surrounded by trees and sitting under the stars is truly stunning.

For anyone interested in tango, circus or simply in great performance, ‘Nocturna’ is a must see.

‘Nocturna’ is performed in Centro Cultural Recoleta (Junín 1930) from Thursday to Sunday at 9pm and is scheduled to run until the end of April. On Thursday tickets are priced at $5 for children, $20 for adults. On Friday, Saturday and Sunday regular entrance costs $35. For more information call 011 4803 1040 or visit the website: centroculturalrecoleta.org or buy tickets straight from Ticketek.

To hear some of the music featured in the show, see the following links: www.gotanproject.com (Gotan Project) www.myspace.com/bajofondomardulce (Bajofondo), www.otrosaires.com (Otros Aires)

“Dance is the mother of all languages” – R. G. Collingwood

Photo by Ellen Knuti

There is a Zimbabwean proverb which declares that “If you can walk, you can dance”. After an hour of dancing with Laila Canteros, I most certainly cannot walk.

Indeed, Laila Canteros’ ‘Introducción a la técnica de danza AfroContemporáneo’ is incredibly physically demanding, yet undeniably exhilarating. She is a teacher, choreographer, performer and now pioneer of a completely organic form of movement. The mode of dance she teaches in her class is a rich blend of styles and techniques which draw from a wealth of experience and training. As a former pupil of a staggering collection of maestros of traditional African performing arts, Canteros’ vast education encompasses the dances of Guinea, Senegal and Cameroon, as well as training in danzas primitivas, Afro-jazz and Afro-Brazilian movement.

‘AfroContemporánea’ fuses the earthy, dynamic and expressive quality of these dances with Canteros’ impressive background in classical and contemporary methods. She also incorporates Técnica Silvestre (a Brazilian style of contemporary dance), a technique which she was taught by Rosangela Silvestre herself, in Brazil.

The result is the conception of an entirely new hybrid dance form, a melting pot of modes of expression. But the product is by no means a finished one. Canteros says she sees her classes as a “project”, an exploration of how this fusion can develop into “a unique language”.

Reference to her dance as a language is apt, given Canteros’ extremely vocal method of teaching. She encourages the group to communicate, ask questions and keep the beat by counting aloud. As she shows us a breakdown of each movement, she sings, illustrating the dynamics of the dance and encouraging us to understand its musicality. The rhythm is provided by two live percussionists who – helpfully – adjust the tempo accordingly when we make mistakes.

Photo by Ellen Knuti

The African drums were an interesting accompaniment to the first half hour, which was a more formal session in contemporary technique. Although intended for beginners, the balletic pliés and tandues would perhaps have proved a struggle for those with no previous experience of classical or contemporary dance. However, the few students who were not as comfortable with the standard of the contemporary element were assisted, as Canteros physically moved and moulded their bodies into the required shapes, explaining how their muscles should feel in these positions.

In contrast, as we embarked upon the dance’s ‘Afro’ component, classical training seemed to rather hinder a full grasp of the required quality of movement. As a classical dancer, I was constantly told not to point my toes, to get lower to the ground and loosen my neck. The key movement was la ondulación (an undulation, reminiscent of ‘the worm’ in break dancing), and Canteros spent most of the class pressing us to “ondula más!” During one particular sequence, my request for clarification of the arms’ position was quite simply met with: “Libres.”

We were challenged. Canteros was adamant that we tested the bounds of our bodies’ capabilities. She told us to use our breath to deepen our stretches, to push a position to the point of unbalance, and she ordered the drummers to quicken the pace of the music, forcing us to do the same with our steps. The experience was invigorating, and if nothing else, ‘Introducción a la técnica de danza AfroContemporáneo’ serves as an excellent work-out.

Of course it was a good deal more than this. If you are looking to be taught a rigid dance technique in a formal manner, this is definitely not the class to attend, although advanced classes focus more on already established techniques of Canteros’ “lenguaje de danza”. The atmosphere in the studio was a celebration of our bodies’ astounding capacity for movement and expression, set to an uplifting drumbeat. Canteros would whoop and clap with genuine excitement when she saw a new take on a sequence. With every skill and style she taught us, we were free to adapt the movement in order to achieve our “greatest expressive potential”.

Photo by Ellen Knuti

Laila Canteros

Although exhausting, the experience of developing as a dancer alongside the dance itself is exciting, and it would be an excellent investment to buy a month’s course of two classes per week. Even without any previous training, Laila Canteros’ class is ultimately a fun and unique experience; plenty can be gained from attending a one-off clase de prueba of such an innovative dance movement at its birthplace here in Argentina.

Classes are priced at $30 for a one-off session, or $100 for a month’s course of two sessions per week. Beginner’s classes take place on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 8-9.30pm at Mario Brava 478, Capital Federal, Sala X. To reserve a place or for more information on intermediate and advanced classes, visit http://lailacanteros.blogspot.com, or email lailacanteros@hotmail.com, or call 15-5618-1213.

Photo by Anette Berve

While dancing is generally a popular form of exercise, it is now medically proven that dancing, and especially the Argentine tango, has a great effect medically. People of all ages flock to the milongas and the sound of Gardel fills the air, might this be the fountain of youth long searched for?

‘Tango therapy’ is the term applied to the therapeutic purposes of the dance and is becoming a popular way of increasing the quality of life of many patients. Using dance as therapy is nothing new, as the social setting of a dance hall and the sound of music is known to ease stress and stimulate the brain positively. Through dancing, not only the body is cured, but also it also stimulates the mind and is used to help people suffering with everything from depression, and phobias to schizophrenia.

The tango therapy has recently become a new form of treatment in patients suffering from neurological diseases such as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s. Patients afflicted with the diseases face a future of deteriorating physical and mental state and need a constant stimulation of the mind through for example music.

Previous physical treatment in patients with Parkinson’s included general exercise such as walking, but studies carried out by the Department of Physical Therapy at Washington University in Canada suggests that the coordination in tango proves more effective than any other form of exercise.

Finding the balance

Photo by Samuel Kenny

“We saw that the movements in tango proved helpful particularly regarding balance and walking backwards,” says Dr. Gammon Earhart, assistant professor at Washington University and author of the study. She explains that the motor skills of Parkinson’s patients vanish and especially movements like walking backwards and turning are hard to carry out, making it difficult to perform everyday chores.

After reading a study by Patricia McKinley at a conference of the Society for Neuroscience, which stated that tango improved mobility in generally frail elderly patients, Earhart decided to see if the same results could be achieved in patients with Parkinson’s. Together with Madeleine Hackney, a PhD student and professional ballroom dancer, they conducted a series of tests comparing tango to standard exercise regimes as well as more familiar dances for the Canadians like waltz and fox trot.

“All treatments had some result elements in common, but the treatment using the tango always proved either equal or superior to the other exercise methods,” said Earhart. Improvement in balance and more fluid movements was seen after as little as two weeks of exercise.

Earhart believes that there are some benefits found in dance in general, but that the tango contains some specific manoeuvres that are especially beneficial to people with Parkinson’s. The healing might lie in the fact that the patient needs to be on high alert to plan out the following steps in the complicated dance. The coordination needed to perform the dance stimulates the brain correctly for the patient to improve their balance.

The healing embrace

“I believe tango is beneficial because of the closeness. Through the close embrace with their partner, the patients feel safe and dare to move around more,” says Marisa Maragliano, secretary of Sentimiento Tango, who initiated the first international conference for tango therapy that took place in Rosario two weeks ago.

Photo by Samuel Kenny

“The patients feel like the protagonist when they dance and this improves their self-esteem. The closeness to the partner is vital and the embrace in tango provides a physical connection,” she adds. Maragliano is an active figure in the tango therapy scene and arranges several classes with patients suffering from Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s. Treating the latter is organised through Clínica de Memoria in Rosario.

“Many Alzheimer’s patients become isolated from society and the disease dominates their life. Through attending the dance classes they take part in something social and can again enjoy physical contact and talk to other people,” Maragliano says. For Alzheimer’s patients the stimulation of the mind is vital to combat total deterioration of the memory.

For the older Argentine generations, tango triggers a lot of memories, explains Maragliano. Through the music they are brought back to their youth when they were in the milongas, dancing all night. “When the music is put on they instantly recognise the beat, understand which tango to dance and even remember the lyrics and sing along,” she says. “Families tell me their loved ones return from class having lots to tell, something which is unusual for Alzheimer’s patients due to isolation and lack of motivation to participate in any activities.”

At Clínica de Memoria, 30 patients are being treated for Alzheimer’s. Dr. Gerardo Tiezzi, director at the clinic explains that they help patients regain their identity through series of different exercises, now including tango dancing.

“Before we used simple and standard treatment methods like physical exercise and mental stimulation through music. But we noticed that the patients specifically remembered tango lyrics without problem and decided to try and incorporate the tango dancing as a part of the exercise.” He says the feedback has been positive and patients state the dance makes them feel happy.

Photo by Samuel Kenny

The magical ingredient

“Tango therapy deals with how people feel and improving their life quality,” says Earhart. ‘While others look at the spiritual side of it, I am interested in the medical and scientific benefits and I have to admit we did make some very interesting findings.”

The question remains, how is it that tango, with songs of tragic love stories and slow, melancholic music became therapy and not disco, with happier beats, inspiring lyrics and colourful costumes? Actually the meringue and salsa are two other dances proven to have medical effects, but Maragliano believes that the key lies in the fact that tango is one of the few dances where the partners are locked in an intimate, embracing position, creating a stimulating physical contact with healing effects. It is the more spiritual and mental effect that makes it so effective. It definitely is proven to be the embrace that heals.

Photo courtesy of The Chemical Brothers

They are the hottest property in dance music. And ahead of their incredible show at Creamfields ’07 they spoke exclusively with The Argentina Independent.

With six studio albums under their belt, two Grammy awards and nine million records sold worldwide, you could be forgiven for thinking that after 20 years on the scene, it’s time for The Chemical Brothers to get out the pipe and slippers. But not just yet.

After releasing their new album ‘We Are The Night’ to international critical acclaim, the Brothers wowed porteños at Creamfields earlier this month with their best live appearance in Buenos Aires to date, blending a danceable greatest hits set with an incredible light show and a spectacular finale.

I caught up with Tom Rowlands and Ed Simons before the festival. This was their third show in the city – the first being in 1999 at a small club in San Telmo, and only five years later they played to a crowd of 12,000 at Pacha. Obviously excited about the gig, Rowlands began by gushing “Buenos Aires crowds are great – crazy yet cultured.”

The Hermanos Quimicos met while at college in Manchester in 1989 at a time when the city was the centre stage of the most exciting British music scene in living memory. Coinciding with the birth of acid house and early rave music, artists such as The Happy Mondays and The Stone Roses began fusing together indie rock and dance music for the first time in a style that came to be known as ‘Madchester’. Tom and Ed found inspiration while dancing at the legendary Hacienda club; a musically progressive venue owned by the band New Order during the revolutionary era often referred to as the ‘second summer of love’.

Their first DJ residency in 1992 was at ‘Naked Under Leather’, a club as depraved as its name suggests. Originally called ‘The 237 Turbo Nutters’, they earned a reputation as party-starters with their innovative style – mixing hip hop, rock and house. They later renamed themselves the Dust Brothers after the US producers of The Beastie Boys’ Pauls Boutique, until they were threatened with legal action and finally became known as The Chemical Brothers.

Photo courtesy of The Chemical Brothers

Signed to Virgin in 1995, they released their still-fresh first studio album ‘Exit Planet Dust’ that same year. Since then, they have become the godfathers of dance music: likeable, accessible and often giving exposure to lesser known yet talented artists while winning legions of fans from hip hop, indie and other dance music circles.

Reflecting on their long career, Rowlands explains: “The high points have been making albums that I still like, headlining Glastonbury [festival in England], and playing the Hacienda. As for lows, there hasn’t been anything too bad…yet.”

I then reminded him of the last time they played in Buenos Aires to which he responded, “ah yes, that was a disaster – a freak storm hit the concert and we couldn’t continue – and so the Creamfields show will be a chance to come back and finish what we started!”

They used to be notoriously inseparable, but now Tom is married with children and living in the English countryside, while Ed is reportedly giving Lily Allen something to ‘smile’ about. Both have admitted that they rarely go clubbing these days, so I asked them if it was hard to keep up with a scene which they had grown out of, in terms of crowd participation at least: “I think we manage to keep relevant by enjoying what we do, still putting in the hours necessary in the studio to come up with interesting things and luckily still wanting to make music that people actually want to listen to… We experience crowds, music, and clubs every time we do a gig, which is about four times a week at the moment, so our ears are open to everything we hear.” So despite the changes in lifestyles, their fingers still seem to be firmly on the button when it comes to filling dancefloors, creating chart-topping singles, and playing legendary live sets.

But surely it must be easier to come up with exciting new material working with every synth they ever wanted to get their hands on? They beg to differ, commenting that ‘however many instruments or studio equipment you have, an idea is still as difficult to come by – having an expensive word processor doesn’t make writing a novel any easier’. Ed insists that for a band that has produced six or seven albums, it takes a lot of convincing that the new one will be as good or better than their previous work.

Photo courtesy of The Chemical Brothers

‘We are the night’ has an impressive list of featured artists but that doesn’t distract from the fact that this is one of the most coherently diverse albums to date. Fatlip, famed as the charismatic rapper from the hip-hop group Pharcyde, features on the wonderfully bizarre single The Salmon Dance. And the brothers even feature Bill Bassett on the title track, a Canadian beat poet from the late ’60s. The album also features young up-and-comings like the Klaxons, Ali Love, and Texan rockers Midlake on the final track ‘The pills won’t help you now’, which, contrary to its title, is similar to the downbeat mood of LCD Soundsystem’s latest closing track ‘New York I love you’.

Having worked with men-and-women-of-the-moment throughout their career, they reveal their all time wish list to include: “Jack White and Jimi Hendrix – although we couldn’t sample Jimi, as that would be boring – we need him in the flesh!”

On this note, and perhaps while considering how best to set up an Ouija board in their hotel room to talk to Mr. Hendrix in person, the Brothers’ parting comments about their future are ‘onwards and upwards’, insisting they are still bursting with ideas.

I get the feeling that they are not planning on hanging up the headphones any time soon, nor should they.

Akram Khan, the internationally renowned dancer and performer, was born in the UK in 1974 and is of Bangladeshi origin. He began dancing at the age of seven, learning first the northern Indian traditional Kathak dance form. He later went on to study modern dance, graduating from the Northern College of Contemporary Dance with the highest marks ever awarded. After developing a career as a solo artist, he decided to start his own company, The Akram Khan Company, which seeks to explore the relationship between western modern dance techniques and the more traditional Kathak.

As well as being made an Associate Artist at the Royal Festival Hall in London he has won numerous awards including a South Bank Show award in 2005.

More recently Khan has embarked on projects collaborating with other dance artists, including choreographer/performer Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui. The pair created a duet, entitled Zero Degrees, which premiered at Sadler’s Wells Theatre in London in 2005. This month they brought the production to Argentina as part of the Buenos Aires Theatre Festival.

The Argentina Independent had the opportunity to interview Khan whilst he was in the city.

Photos courtesy of The Theatre Festival of Buenos Aires

How would you describe your style of dance?

I would describe the dance as a story-telling art form. It borrows from music, film, the visual arts, theatre and movement to help convey a journey that I had experienced 7/8 years ago. Of course Kathak, the North Indian classical dance form that I have studied since childhood, is the root, or starting point for the movements explored in this work. It is a very dynamic, rhythmical and spiritual dance form, and this is all part of some of the vocabulary explored in the work.

What was it that first attracted you to the world of dance? Did you ever consider carving out a different path?

To be honest with you, my mother pushed me very hard to learn a classical dance form; originally I had no desire to embark on such a strict and regimented training routine…but I would say that my first real interest towards dance was because of Michael Jackson; I saw his concert on television, and fell in love with his showmanship and command over his audience, through his singing and dancing.

If I was not pushed into dance I think I would have followed the direction of being a musician….

It is exciting to see you and Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui come together; has your own dancing been influenced or changed at all through working so closely with another artist?

Yes. Whenever one works with another, there are exchanges taking place on many different levels, some of which are ideas regarding aspects such as the theme, approaches to creating the work, movement vocabulary, personal interests and just sheer energy that shifts back and forth between Larbi and I. I feel that we have gained a lot from each other, but one of the fundamental reasons for any type of exchange to be possible is the fact that one has to be open, in order to receive and give out. I felt both of us were very open to each other from the beginning.

Graham Watts in Ballet Magazine describes you and Larbi as ‘the most articulate bodies in dance’. Why is this level of clarity of diction and dance so important to your work?

Both Larbi and I noticed a strong connection with each other very early on in the process, and that was to do with the focus on extreme precision and articulation to minute detail; we felt we were able to be like microscopes, which meant we could analyze to the finer point of everything that we did.

I have always been a fanatic towards finding clarity. I suppose because the training I did in Kathak was so much about emphasising chaos, I wanted to somehow find a sense of clarity within that chaos, so that both could exist in the same space.

You seem to have been exposed to a variety of different dance forms and traditions throughout your upbringing and training. How do you feel this has influenced the development and identity of your own style and language? Do you feel you have discovered something new?

I feel our bodies are like ‘carriers’; we carry with us our experience, our history, our culture, our upbringing, our internal politics, our struggles and our opinions, everywhere we go. As artists we use our art form to reflect all that we carry; our bodies are our carriers and our minds are the translators of what we carry.

I feel I have not discovered something new at all, but maybe I have discovered a new way of saying something that has been said so many times before.

Photos courtesy of The Theatre Festival of Buenos Aires

Zero Degrees has been said to explore two ‘transitional points’: that of existing and not existing, and also that silent blind moment that separates life from death, darkness from light, chaos from order. What drew you to study and explore these themes? Where do you think a person’s true identity lies?

When I first went into the studio to research with Larbi, I told him a story which he filmed as I was saying it to him. This story was about a journey I took from Bangladesh to India; a true story, and it took me two hours to relay it. However, many months later, when we decided to revisit the story, we discovered that it already possessed so many things about opposites that we had both always naturally felt an interest towards: life and death; dark and light; beginnings and endings; even questions about identity. I think a person’s true identity lies somewhere where they can never find it, because I believe it is the act of searching for answers that keeps us alive. If we found what we are always silently looking for, then all mystery would be lost.

Your work is powerful in terms of conveying a deep and real message to a wide audience. How important is the story-telling aspect of your work?

I have never felt that I create work for the sense of pure beauty. Everything that I do must have a reason or a purpose in order for me to have the strength or inspiration to do it. We are alive and so we are constantly moving; even in death we continue to move, to decompose. Therefore, in life and in death we are always moving, and as long as we are moving we are telling a story. That is one of the strong aspects of the Indian classical dance forms, based on stories from magical Hindu mythology and Islamic traditions. I have grown up listening to these stories, eventually re-telling them myself through the dance form.

I believe that even if we did not want to tell stories, we would be telling them, because the act of not wanting to tell a story becomes a story in itself.

What influenced your decision to perform Argentina? How do you feel Zero Degrees will be relevant to this culture and time?

It is the second time I will be performing in Argentina. I have been looking forward to presenting work here since our last visit in 2000.

I feel Zero Degrees deals with a universal subject, that of ‘identity’, and so I hope it will try to inspire and provoke the audience towards the questions this piece brings up, which are fundamental to us all, and never more relevant than in this present day of the globalised world we now live in.