One of the nice things about social dancing—also called ballroom dancing and touch dancing, among other names—as a dance form is that most everyone is familiar with it. One need only have grown up or lived near a theater, a movie house, or, more recently, had a television or computer screen nearby to have seen the dance form. Many people have even done it. That exposure, and the fact that social dancing is designed to bring people together, leads to easy understanding and appreciation. One doesn’t start at a distance, which sometimes occurs when watching classical ballet, for example. Thus, when a wonderful company like Social Tango Project makes its debut at Jacob’s Pillow, as is happening this week, it is extremely easy to just go, sit back, and revel in the prodigious partnering, the shimmering dancing, and the beautiful music.
Social Tango Project comes to the United States from Argentina, “the birthplace of tango,” as the company’s biography notes. Right away, though, one must note that this tango is a historically and culturally different tango than that seen by most Americans in movies and television: That tango is generally closer to what is called “international tango” or “ballroom tango.”
The program presented by Social Tango Project at the Pillow is a seamless hour and 15 minutes of marvelous tango after tango, one flowing into the next. It opens with a series of black-and-white films/videos and stills projected onto a screen behind the stage and silhouetting the musicians staged just in front of the screen. The images, under the direction of filmmaker/videographer and photographer Nora Lezano, were cityscapes, and they were stunningly beautiful. To this viewer, they sensitively and artfully suggested loneliness and isolation. The music that accompanied the images, and the entire performance, played live under the direction of pianist Fulvio Giraudo, was wonderful. From the moment this quartet of musicians began playing, one knew one was in for a feast of brilliantly played tango music. And they did not disappoint.
Walking onto the Pillow stage, and into this setting, came a woman. She looked like an urban professional, who was, therefore, presumably lonely and isolated by definition! She stumbles upon a milonga, which is a party with dancing—tango dancing—and she is slowly swept up into it. Over the course of the performance, the woman becomes part of the milonga and is no longer lonely. While this loose narrative certainly added a nice touch, it was ultimately unnecessary. What really mattered was the dancing, and it was great.
It is worth noting right off the bat that, while tango seems to have a reputation for being a dance that revolves around sexuality, this viewer felt almost none of that during this performance. There was boundless energy, no doubt, but seemingly of a different kind. What these dancers seemed to be saying to their partners, and to the audience, was that they had found something which energized them more than sexuality, and that was the connection and the communication they felt when they were dancing together. And, of course, the rhythm, the music, and the movement they were feeling.
And what these dancers were able to do with the energy of that connection and communication was amazing, especially when they were partnering. For example, their shifts of weight: It was as though the weight which each dancer was passing to their partner, and taking from their partner, could actually be seen by the viewer, as a physical object, as it shifted in the small gap between the dancers’ bodies. The leader would take it; then it would shift to the follower; then back to the leader. Back and forth it went, sometimes very slowly, sometimes blindingly quickly. But it was a tangible thing one could see.
And the way the dancers related to their own weight individually was also remarkable. Dancers are usually either focusing on going down into the floor, or up into the air, or going in both directions at the same time, when they move in space. These dancers looked like they were not moving with any of those intentions, or maybe they were moving with all of them (and then some) at the same time. The result was a levelness and evenness in the dancing, a constant steady hum in the dancers, regardless of the dynamics of the movement, which was very soothing (for lack of a better term). And they often did steps with blazing speed and nonchalance—a flick of a leg here, a series of tiny steps there. It was as if they were saying to the audience: You had better keep your eye on me. Things happen fast around here, without warning. To this viewer, the dancing was most powerful, and it was very powerful indeed, when the ensemble did unison partnering in choreographed patterns on the floor, choreographed diagonals and circles, for example.
On Wednesday night, tango dancers from the Albany Tango Society were invited up on the stage and danced in the milonga created by Social Tango Project. This is in keeping with the heart and soul of tango, and milonga, which involves bringing people in the community together. These local tango dancers acquitted themselves extremely well in performance.
And the Pillow, also reflecting this sense of community, has scheduled a number of community events, workshops, and classes this week that are directly or indirectly connected to Social Tango Project, and to the tango. Information about everything happening at the Pillow, around the tango and otherwise, is available on the Pillow’s website. Social Tango Project will be at Jacob’s Pillow through Sunday, July 21.
