On July 27, during the Festival of Arts of Saint-Sauveur (FASS), the show of Social Tango Project will be presented. Founded in 2010 in Buenos Aires by the choreographer Agustina Videla and the businessman Ramon de Oliveira Cezar, the company proposes a choreographic language of tango and exposes the public to its social aspect by inviting them, in the second part of the evening, to take part in a milonga, a public ball where everyone can dance.
“It’s the story of a woman who finds herself a little alone and who takes the leap to go on an adventure, who tries to learn something new and she discovers the milonga. The play follows her path,” says Agustina Videla.
From a young age, she was interested in several styles of dance and learned tango as a teenager in her hometown of Buenos Aires. She quickly traveled around Europe to represent Argentina as a tango dancer. She danced for the 1998 Universal Exhibition in Lisbon.
“I had a very rich international career. I gave tango demonstrations and I also taught a lot,” she remembers. “Sometimes, very far from the native country of tango, I saw people discover a real passion, sometimes completely change their lives for tango. I met lots of people who discovered a dance, but also and above all a social space.”
Although this characteristic of tango was very present and rooted in Buenos Aires, it was only when she moved away from home that she was “struck” by this particularity. “When I had my children and settled into a more sedentary life, talking with Ramon, who was a social dancer, we realized that we wanted to do a tango show that spoke to this reality,” she recalls.
For Agustina Videla, the challenge was to choreograph a dance based on total improvisation. “It was a decision to bring a choreographic language to tango because most of the time, even what we see from tango professionals, it doesn’t really interest the public, it seems too simple,” she thinks. So, to develop Social Tango Project, she decided to focus on sensitivity rather than the spectacular. “We wanted to keep the true meaning that dance has for us and show that it was for everyone,” she adds. For the gestures, she was inspired by the tools of contemporary choreographic composition, but keeping the influences of tango. Thus, 90% of Social Tango Project is choreographed, with several moments synchronized between the ten dancers. “The collective dimension is important in the spirit of tango. “Also, a group of people who feel each other’s energy has a lot of impact,” she assures. “We also kept small parts for the natural side of improvisation.”
Making the community shine
In addition to the dancers, four musicians and a singer are present on stage. For Mme Videla, it was very important to highlight an entire community. “Tango is a culture that is expressed in different forms. For many people in Buenos Aires, for example, it is almost only music. There is a lot of sung tango, for example. In Argentina, in general, dance has a lot of strength, but there are also words, poetry that count,” explains the artist. In addition, projections by Argentine photographer Nora Lezano complete the artistic proposal. It is a photo shoot done at 5 a.m., in milongas, in Buenos Aires, in the middle of July. “It is a very touristy time, so we were able to photograph people from all over the world who come together around tango,” describes the choreographer. We wanted to show the person behind the dancer and how such different people can all come together in the same place to dance together.”
Finally, to further highlight the community aspect of tango, the company invites eight dancers from the city where it performs to come on stage. And the tango community “is big” in Canada, according to the founder of Social Tango Project. “It allows us to connect with them. Sometimes, we also organize free classes a few days after or before the show. It allows us to expand the international tango community even more. For the dancers, we invite them to simply come on stage. We rehearse with them the day of the performance and there is a key moment where they can come and improvise,” she elaborates.
Still in this spirit of exchange, Social Tango Project opens the dance floor to all the curious who came to see the show. In general, a short course is also offered to put people more at ease. Thus, with Social Tango Project, Agustina Vileda hopes to make tango accessible to as many people as possible and to transmit the love she has for this dance. “I love tango as much as the first day, if not more. It is a very symbolic dance. We need another to move forward. Alone, we can’t. And it is a beautiful metaphor for life, I think. And this language, through dance, is fantastic,” she concludes. Improvisation makes dance fun. We discover how the other listens to music, how they interpret it, what movement they give to sounds. So we never get bored!”