|
STEP ASIDE, DANCING WITH THE STARS
Tango’s Elite Gather at Barnard and Columbia for
Four-Day Festival Celebrating Latino/a Heritage Month
updated 10.24.07
New York, NY — ABC’s Dancing with the Stars ain’t got nothing on this.
While the sultry tango is of course a vivid pleasure to watch on television, the experience simply cannot come close to conveying the heat, the passion, and the laser-like intensity that is generated by the dance in person.
Over four days and nights, from October 4 to 7, Barnard College, in conjunction with the World Music Institute and Columbia University, hosted almost 900 tango lovers who came to celebrate the dance that—while created over one hundred years ago in Argentina and Uruguay—has recently experienced a Golden Age resurgence all over the world, obsessing enthusiasts in places as far flung as China, Russia, Germany, Japan, Turkey, Australia and Finland (where it is considered the national dance). Festival participants, ranging in age from 18 to 89, came from 41 different countries for the rare opportunity to see and learn from 30 of the world’s foremost tango dancers, musicians and scholars, many of whom were flown in directly from Buenos Aires for the event.
Mariela Franganillo, one of the most highly regarded tango dancers of her generation and an organizer of the festival, explained the dance’s universal appeal: “It's very personal, like a secret shared. The body is super relaxed, but you are very connected to the partner you are dancing with. You dance inside an embrace, and it is perfect. It is this person-to-person connection that speaks to the hearts of all people of every age and generation, in cities and towns spanning the world.”
Franganillo learned to dance tango in the milongas in Buenos Aires before studying with Gustavo Naveira and dancing with his Tango Troupe in 1990. She then went on to perform, choreograph, and teach extensively, performing most memorably as a featured dancer in the 1996 Broadway show Forever Tango, as well as on a world tour with Julio Iglesias. Franganillo has taught in New York City since 1997.
 |
She, along with Joan Snitzer, tango enthusiast and Director of Barnard’s Visual Arts program, organized the event in part to introduce Argentine tango to even more people during the joyous festivities of Latino/a Heritage Month. “Dancing and music is a big part of Latin culture and brings warmth to all of our lives,” Franganillo said. “This festival celebrates all that and more.” Mitchell Chavez, an organizer of Barnard/Columbia Latino/a Heritage Month and Senior Associate Director of Barnard College Activities, added, “Hosting one of the first ever tango festivals in New York City provided us with a great opportunity to increase student awareness of the different forms of art, culture and life within an extraordinarily diverse community represented by 23 countries.”
Franganillo was joined by an assembly of award-winning and critically-acclaimed dancers, musicians and scholars in the world of tango today, including Pablo Villarraza and Dana Frigoli, Julio Balmaceda and Corina de la Rosa, Pablo Pugliese and Noel Strazza, Sabrina and Ruben Veliz, Natalia Hills and Francisco Forquera, Sara Grdan and Ivan Terrazas, Oscar Martinez Pey, Roxana Fontan, Pablo Hector Pereyra, Humberto Ridolfi, Gustavo Casenave, Pedro Giraudo, Adam Tully, and Matias Rubino.
The four-day festival was jam-packed with activities from morning to night. During the days, participants attended instructional classes of all levels from beginner to advanced, heard scholars lecture about the social history and development of tango, and practiced their new moves at open practicas (practice sessions with live or taped music). In the evenings, attendees were treated to awe-inspiring performances at Symphony Space, on Broadway and 95th Street, from the tango ensemble Tango Connection, the “Voice of Buenos Aires” Roxana Fontan, and virtuoso accordionist Chango Spasiuk, a major innovator of chamamé—a little known folkloric music which blends native Guarani, Creole and European traditions.
But the nights were all about the milongas, social dance parties with live music that are governed by a strict code of rules ranging from how to ask for a dance (one way is to establish eye contact and raise eyebrows and/or make a subtle head nod to the dance floor) to behavior on the dance floor (never teach on the dance floor during a dance) to ending the engagement (“thank you” is a nice way of saying, “I’ve had enough”).
No one should mistake “structured” for stiff though. The milongas held on each of the four nights of the festival at Alfred Lerner Hall were notable for the sheer joy that permeated the air. Tine Herreman, an organizer of the event, started a tango club at Yale in 2003 and has organized two other major festivals. “I just love talking to people at the end of a night of dancing — when they’re happy, tired, had a good time, and tell me how much they enjoyed themselves,” she said. “It makes all the planning and headaches worth it.”
And enjoy themselves they did — as Bianca Solorzano, a CBS correspondent who came to cover the Festival for the CBS Evening News and ended up staying to dance into the wee hours of the night at the Friday milonga, said, “I’m inspired! I can’t wait to start taking tango classes and use what I’ve learned today!”
Tango instruction is available at both Barnard and Columbia, and a milonga is open to the public every month.
For more information, please visit www.nytangofestival.com, www.barnard.edu, or www.worldmusicinstitute.org.
For media inquiries, including arranging interviews with the participants, please contact Joanne Kwong at 212.854.7580 or jkwong@barnard.edu.
About Barnard College
The idea was bold for its time. Founded in 1889, Barnard was the only college in New York City, and one of the few in the nation, where women could receive the same rigorous and challenging education available to men. Today, Barnard is among the strongest liberal arts colleges in the country, and the most sought-after women’s college.
# # # |
