3 - november 00

They all were the age in which a bandoneòn is a big thing
Pier Paolo Pasolini - The dream of one thing

After the victorious premiere of Corazon Quebrado at the International Festival of Nervi, Nueva Compania Tangueros comes back to Italy and Switzerland towards the end of November with a short tour of Tangueros Four Nights, the show that Mariachiara Michieli and Marco Castellani have centred on the innovative Tango of the Sixties.
The Four Nights the title refers to, have been spent in as many famous night-spots by a bunch of young dancers devoted to the raising Nuevo Tango and to its thorny beauty, in that enchanted swingin' Buenos Aires, which is now completly gone. We opted for giving large space in this monographic issue right to them young Tangueros who first had been promised freedom, and then convicted to exile and desperation. Here you will find some advance news on the pièce, authors and performers, as well as a fair selection of reviews, whereas in-depth informations and the Alessandro Zunino's photos are available at our website.
Finally, this November Newsletter ends off by delivering the essential directions on dates, hours, Theatres, box offices..

Underground Buenos Aires

When Astor Piazzolla dedicated the third movement of his "Histoire du Tango" to the Night Club 1960, he was probably paying his tribute to one of the most emblematic Tango places in the Tango history. Those legendary night spots (among them: the Gotan, the 676, the Caño 14, El Puchero Misterioso, El Taller Garibaldi) feeded and sheltered many of the genial creators of the so-called Nuevo Tango. We are of course speaking of the swingin’ Buenos Aires of the Sixties, when in Argentina as well as all over the world, the winds of change were blowing. After those incredible years, nothing was ever the same, not even a music so deeply rooted in the popular soul, like the Tango undoubtedly was.
In those scanty, poor clubs, many Tango musicians such as Astor Piazzolla, Eduardo Rovira, Cèsar Stroscio, Horacio Salgàn, Osvaldo Pugliese or free-jazz men like Steve Lacy and Enrico Rava, had the opportunity to play their own music in total freedom. Also the revolutionary poets Juan Gelman and Paco Urondo came and read their flaming verses almost every night. Even several outstanding tangueros such as Anibal Troilo, Roberto Goyeneche or Susana Rinaldi, after their profitable performances in the Avenida Corrientes’ theaters, used to drop in at dawn for "the last Tango but one" with the angry young men. In a word, in those clubs and in those years, the Tango lived a happy season in which the innovating and the traditionalist opposite bastions were not too stranger to themselves and to each others. Afterwards, the deadly military dictatorship came to destroy the whole social (and artistic) tissue: they tortured, they killed, they exiled. In consequence of this, even the toughest milongueros, in their most clandestine ballrooms, gave up the dancing for ten years.
Tangueros Four Nights takes up the thread of that broken scene and restarts from the raw Tango that was partially foreseen in those creative workshops over thirty years ago. This show blends together the romantic Tango of the golden age (the endless three-minutes melodramas) with the Nuevo Tango's thorny beauty. "Tangueros Four Nights - as a critic has recently written - stages a show with no story, no scenes, no tears of salt. They play and dance the freedom of a lost underground Buenos Aires."

El Andariego (The Wanderer) is a place that only exists in our imagination: in a certain way it represents the revolution’s premises, the first steps. The Tango of this section is danced on the ground, intensely but restrainedly, it is a sort of controlled fire. It is Romantic Tango with a tension to innovation. We have selected the music among the Osvaldo Pugliese’s repertory and arrangements because Mr. Pugliese was the man who marked the Tango scene the most, at the end of the Fifties.

Berretìn (Love crazy) was the name of a real club that took place at a sideway of Avenida Corrientes, the avenue that never sleeps. This choreography has been inspired by the new way of falling in love experienced by the new generation: free, passionate and ironic. The three tunes’ common rhythm is the vals criollo, which is the most romantic and apparently simple Argentine dance. Nevertheless, we dare to say that very few pairs can dance the vals criollo well, even in Buenos Aires. Besides, these arrangements are very sophisticated.

We have named the third section Gotàn (Tango spelled backwards) after an incredible place that runned from 1963 to 1969 at Calle Talcahuano 360. All the best Nuevo Tango’s creators (Astor Piazzolla, Eduardo Rovira…) performed here: Gotàn was the hub of the Buenos Aires’ underground scene. The choreographic composition is more articulated; sometimes the indissoluble Tango pair splits, there is violence and perhaps desperation; we can also notice the influence from other languages, such as the contemporary dance or the rock’n roll. We tried to imagine a choreographic interpretation to the new music given by a bunch of young Tango dancers. Our orchestra, the Sexteto Canyengue, is our ideal band since they can play very well either the Piazzolla’s music and the Pugliese’s style. And they are young and open-minded, just like those Gotàn goers in the Sixties.

Authors and Performers

Tangueros Four Nights was created, produced and directed by Mariachiara Michieli e Marco Castellani during the austral winter of 1998-1999. The show, after a few trial previews, opened at Teatro Ciak in Milano in March 1999. The first version was with eight dancers. The present version with ten dancers was created in May 2000.

"The pièce revealed itself a well-structured and graceful choreographic artwork, with no concessions to the folkloristic-passionate taste, but rich in intersting references to the social and cultural context. Especially the choreography named Gotàn stands out for intensity and pathos: in here the dance relates with tragic awareness the voiceless pain of the victims of oppression, the dictatorship's cruelty. The dancers are very good in technique and expression. Unreserved praise to Sexteto Canyengue."
Maria José Di Marco - Corriere del Mezzogiorno, 10 marzo 1999

"The dance leaks out sensuality and sentiment. No acrobatics, no excess. The four couples of dancers parade in front of the band with elegant postures. Far from that certain showy attitude that have contaminated the late interpretations of Tango. Languor and emotion, energy and distress: all the paradoxes that feed the mistery of this dance, have been re-written for the stage by the authress. Her complex steps give us a charming geography of wistful tones, poignant nostalgia and stolen tensions ."
Elena Franceschini - Alto Adige, 4 aprile 1999

"Since 1992, Tangueros has changed a lot, but not in the will to measure oneself with the deepest nature of Tango, which actually provides the Company with a style even more incisive and elegant than ever. Mariachiara Michieli’s latest and very sophisticated creation proves all that. Her extraordinary troupe of dancers (Sabrina and Ruben Veliz among them) and the superb Sexteto Canyengue melt wonderfully together. This passion for rescueing a dialogue with music, not built upon the stock combination between strong accents and sensational attitudes, induces Ms. Michieli to create refined choreographies in which the dancers' movements articulate with the melodic lines and the different instruments alternatively."
Francesca Pedroni - Danza & Danza, maggio 1999

"The Tangueros have chosen the toughest way: just Nuevo Tango from the Sixties, the post-peronist swingin' Buenos Aires, Piazzolla and Pugliese, no glamour. The dance is very stylized, with few acrobatic moments; it doesn't come to terms with the showy stuff too much. The Sexteto Canyengue's mastery stands out but, frankly speaking, two acts of plain and cerebral Nuevo Tango try sorely even the coarsest insomnia."
Sergio Trombetta - Panorama, febbraio 2000

"It is the most elegant and sophisticated in the world, the Tango that Nueva Compania Tangueros brought to Parma after four years at Teatro Regio's summer festival. The new Tangueros of today consists of five couples of young dancers from Buenos Aires, but the Company's spirit did not change; if anything, it seems to be even more sophisticated in its concept, in its way to dance the Tango. There is no trace of the kitschy folklore that is quite typical of many Argentine shows: there is just dance in here, plain style, elegance and beauty, and the conquered audience replies with endless cheers."
Valentina Bonelli - Gazzetta di Parma, 26 luglio 2000