Contemporary tango ballet at the Kennedy Center
Argentine choreographer’s convention-testing work wooed dance aficionados last week, when it was presented by the Chamber Dance Project.
Jorge Amarante is a master of enchanting on-stage romance, mood-setting silhouettes, and rhythms that draw in the audience. The Argentine choreographer uses the gentle movements of classical ballet and tango’s racy and quick-paced strides to explore themes such as sex, romance and power struggles. His work has been called “edgy.” And the four pieces presented by the Chamber Dance Project at the Kennedy Center last weekend interpreted thorny relationship issues with a blend of humor and sexuality.
The Project is a collaboration of dancers and musicians interested in redefining contemporary ballet and bringing it to new audiences. Founded in the early 2000s by award-winning choreographer Diane Coburn Brunning, the group has just moved from New York City to Washington D.C. Last week’s performance was the first at the Kennedy Center since relocating. It was the first time Amarante’s work was performed in the United States, as well, along with Coburn’s darkly humorous pieces about romance and power. The program received a glowing review in the Washington Post. “The energy was so high” on opening night, according to Post dance critic Sarah Kaufman, “that when it was over, you still felt the gas pedal was on. A sympathetic kinetic buzz carried you out of the Kennedy Center Terrace Theater.”
One of Coburn’s pieces, titled “EXIT WOUNDS…and then they come home,” the female dancer takes the lead. She toys with her partner with an air both fierce and nonchalant. He follows helplessly, allowing her to pull him, push him around, and literally dance on him as he lies on the stage like a doormat. The more she leads, the stronger he lusts after her. The piece ends comically with the female dancer—head held high—strutting off the stage as he trails quickly behind her on his knees.
This piece, like others in the show, uses the elements of ballet to highlight power struggles in love stories told in soft and elongated movements and brought to life though touch and facial expression. Coburn and Amarante are unafraid to take on delicate subjects. Amarante, who is the artistic director of Agentina’s leading ballet company,“Ballet del Teatro Colón,” also blurs the boundaries between ballet and tango, a dance form so closely associated with his homeland.
In “Sur,” a piece that received a world premiere last week, Amarante juxtaposes the gentle balletic movement with the fast-paced sexual cues of the tango. The piece begins with a couple—fully clothed—dancing a tango. As they exit stage left, another couple—in nude-colored outfits—enters, enters stage right, dancing an even more sensual ballet. In only a few moments, the scene transforms from a seductive night-on-the-town to a titillating night-in. Amarante delicately combines tango and ballet into a mesmerizing avant-garde work.
Coburn saw one of Amarante’s neo tangos at a dance festival in Colombia a few years ago and decided immediately she wanted to bring his work to the Chamber Dance Project.
“It took longer than I had hoped but watch out. He is the real deal. I believe in supporting talent and giving opportunities to those whose works move me,” said Coburn in the NYFA Current last May.
—Bria Baylor
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