Social Tango, a black and white milonga that seeks to win new followers onto the dance floor

Social Tango, a dance show. Artistic direction and choreography: Agustina Videla. Performers: Lucia Aspiroz Larosa, Emmanuel Casale, Lily Chenlo, Cynthia Diaz, Iara Duarte, Sebastian Fernandez, Bruno Mayo, Yanina Muzica, Jesus Paez, Josefina Stellato, Marcela Vespasiano, Roberto Zuccarino. Music direction: Fulvio Giraudo. Starting point: Pablo Distuto. Audiovisual direction: Nora Lizano. Art direction and lighting design: Marcelo Cuervo. Wardrobe: Laura Sol Torrecilla. Upcoming features: March 31 and April 1 at 8:00 pm at the May 25 Cultural Center, Trionferrato Street 4444.

Our opinion: good

Aerial footage of present-day Buenos Aires. Documentary photos of Milonga Buenos Aires these days. Fragments from interviews with ancient Milongeros. Black and white unite and plant a flag on the nostalgic side. “Let’s go back to before, give me your arm and let’s go,” Ariel Varneren sings. This verse from “Mariposita” appears to be the motto of the show.

Her dancing tangos, her arrangements, and Laura Sol Torrecilla’s impeccable costumes, everything references the ’40s, but it’s no piece of time. Social Tango He exists in the present, though he’s going through the dance phase in an alternate universe in which tango reigns supreme as it has for eight decades.

The style of the show is educational and advocacy: it seeks to expand the network of milongas lovers among the public in this and other countries. Which is why it is a remake of the show that premiered in 2013 and which, touring around the world, will soon return to various stages in the United States and Canada. And Buenos Aires fans will also be able to enjoy a free performance at the Borges Cultural Center on Thursday, March 30, at 7:00 p.m.

Agustina Videla strives for a balanced distribution of objects in space. and consistency in executing the steps. Symmetry, mirror movements, and repetitions abound, as if it were a class exercise to be copied. Although the dialogues are incomprehensible from seats farther back from the stage, the bodies clearly convey the difference between moments in class and on the dance floor.

On stage, the social event of Milonga is recreated in all its codes: the sense of rotation and use of space, the moment of the show with the dancers sitting on the floor. Alternate pairs at the end of each batch. And it is this last detail that the protagonist, played by Lucia Aspiroz La Rosa, understands: she goes to the milonga to dance with many different people. no singularities.

This idea returns in a section of the documentary, where the interviewees assert that what they like most is that milonga blurs boundaries of nationality, age, and class. And that everyone dances with everyone.

Although the boundaries between the sexes do not appear very blurry on the scene, here all the couples take turns, but not so much the roles in the dance. The only woman shown leading other companions is Lily Chinlow. She also dances in a dress, but in flat shoes, with a leading role in all the moments that stir up the milonga and a didactic role in the moments that stir up the stake. Other tango details gay It is a delicious dance between men, which Emmanuel Casale and Bruno Maio perform in a brotherly and playful tone.

It’s 70 minutes of tangos, milongas, and waltzes toned down gently Written by Ariel Varneren and Eliana Sosa and Dance Without Fireworks. Everything works neatly and accurately. The only time this structure is broken next to the fourth wall is when eight dancers from Buenos Aires’ tango community are called in as mock students. There, styles become refreshingly diverse and personal.

When a quintet of live musicians becomes the protagonists, parts of Nora Lizano’s documentary recorded in Buenos Aires’ milongas are played behind them. His highly trained eye for portraiture searches for facial expressions and close-ups within the embrace of the runway. Also from Lezano is the photography gallery Milongawhich is shown in the Green Room of the Cultural Center and at the end of the concerts a milonga is installed between the performers and the audience.

Each of these details that amplify the milonguera experience to the public confirms Agustina Videla’s intention to include more followers in the milonguera community without borders, where embracing is the only common language.