Tango Buenos Aires

I'm a sucker for live tango (for filmed tango too, for that matter).  I can never get over the fact that they aren't accidentally kicking each other through the whole performance.  I constantly rue the fact that I am uncoordinated and could never learn to tango - I mean, really tango.

Dance St. Louis brought us, this past weekend, "direct from Buenos Aires, Argentina" Tango Buenos Aires performing "a journey through dance and music of the life of Eva Peron".   The live dance performance was accompanied by live music (always a joy) performed by an ensemble of pianist Fernando Marzon, bandoneon players Marco Antonio Fernandez and Emiliano Guerrero, violinist Mayumi Urgino and bassists Roberto Santocono and Sebastian Noya (there was only one bass in our performance and I don't know which one was playing).

Bandoneons are like accordians - the old fashioned kind - like what the Italian waiter plays in the famous spaghetti scene in Lady and the Tramp.  Some of the music was familiar and some was composed for the performance.  All of the musicians were wonderful but I particularly liked the violinist who had a couple of extensive solos that brought huge rounds of applause from the audience.

You'll notice that I'm speaking more of the music than the dance.  That's because the music in a way seemed the center of the evening.  The dancers sometimes (not always) seemed secondary.  

The "journey" was, of course, all in dance.  If I didn't already have an idea of the biography of Eva Peron (mostly from watching Evita) I probably would have been lost.  But it wouldn't have mattered because most of the dances could have stood alone without a story.  At the end of the first act the men perform Las Boleadoras - these are dances where each man holds an Argentinian tool used to catch cattle in the countryside in each of his hands - ropes with a weight at the end.  The men would swing the two ropes and make clacking noises on the ground with them.  The combination of dance and the rhythmic sounds of the ropes hitting the ground were compelling.  Then one of the men took center stage and performed on his own for a good 10 minutes without any accompaniment other than two box drums that the other dancers drummed.  At times he swung his ropes so fast that it was hard to believe that he wouldn't hit himself with the ropes.   The audience was wowed.

The second act also had some dances between various couples that were exquisitely done.  Strangely, the program never told us the names of the various dancers so I don't know who was who.  It seemed that the female dancers especially were of varying degrees of virtuosi, one of them seemed more of a beginner than the others.  Another was perfect, holding herself straight and haughty - the way you always picture tango dancers - her arms and hands casually elegant and her footwork impeccable.

Tango Buenos Aires has visited St. Louis a number of times previously.  I always enjoy them when I get a chance to see them.  I hope they come back the next time they tour. 

This and That: Dance, Mystery Novels, Blog Comments and Movie Architecture

Some stuff:

Dancer/Choreographer Merce Cunningham has announced that his company will be disbanded after his death because "he thinks his dances have a better chance of surviving over the long haul if his associates concentrate on making them available to other companies instead of keeping his own troupe going."  Terry Teachout writes in the WSJ that this is the most "significant dance-related piece of news to come along in years."

Ian Rankin retired his famous detective John Rebus but he's not retired from writing.  His new detective is Malcom Fox and Rankin auctioned the opening pages of the first Malcom Fox manuscript for charity.  The novel is set for release in September.

I decided to put Sarah Waters' new novel, The Little Stranger, in my pile of vacation reading.  A few weeks ago Waters wrote a column in  The Guardian in which she discussed the relationship of this novel to Josephine Tey's mystery novel, The Franchise Affair.  I read all of Tey's novels years ago and I'm thinking of digging out The Franchise Affair and re-reading it.  But I can't decide whether to read it before or after The Little Stranger.

I got a chuckle out of  post by Scott McLemee at ArtsJournal in which he clarifies that he doesn't think the problem with online communication is too many people thinking they are important or thinking they are part of the conversation.  No, the "issue is people acting like assholes."   Yeah, I think that pretty much sums it up.  I'm pleased that my commenters have (so far) been the exact opposite. :)

Finally, Architect's Journal recently selected the top ten star wars buildings.   What do you think?  I've always wanted to visit the Cloud City, I would have ranked it higher.

Tap Your Troubles Away

It has been a tough week for a variety of reasons.  But the weekend is almost here.  I'm starting the weekend by going to see 42nd Street at the MUNY.  Tap dancing always puts me in a better mood.

Here's two of the greatest tap dancers ever:  Fred Astaire and Eleanor Powell.

Center of Contemporary Art ( COCA)

I was invited to attend a fundraiser a few weeks ago at the Center of Contemporary Art, also known as COCA. It was a performance of dance featuring Antonio Douthat, a principal dancer for The Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. I, who have never been a dancer, am a great fan of the Ailey Company and try to catch them whenever they come to St. Louis so I immediately said yes. And what a great performance it was.

I knew that Douthat was a native St. Louisan and had started dancing at COCA as a teenager. He brought along some friends from Ailey to help him out. They performed some Ailey and some works of their own choreography.

Douthat is a magnificant dancer and you can tell that he comes out of the Ailey tradition. Ailey has said that he likes the line and technical range that classical ballet brings to a dancer's body but he wants to also bring the expressiveness that modern dance brings. The word that always comes to my mind when you mention Ailey is ... strength. Some choreographers will show languid pieces where all the effort is hidden. Not Ailey. Every move is pushed to the limit and ... strong. I've never seen a review of an Ailey work that didn't use the word strong.

And the works that Douthat and his friends brought epitomized strength. For instance, in the work one of them choreographed for the young dancers (which they learned and performed in one week) there were a lot of moves that you might find in a typical yoga class - moves that require strength but that when done properly in class leave the impression of simplicity. Under Douthat's direction the impression is one of strong, STRONG, (but fluid) muscles.

As I said, this was a fundraiser and Douthat was there to give back to a community that made him what he is today - as he fully admits if there had been no COCA he would not be a dancer. Growing up in north St. Louis poverty, for a time he lived at Hope House, a transitional facility for homeless families to offer them support, new skills and a place to live while they try to turn their lives around.

COCA put together a short film in which Douthat explains how he came to dance and to COCA. As Douthat tells it, he and his friends were roaming the streets of the near north side one day when they heard rhythms coming from the basement of a building. Looking into the building they saw a dance class. The teacher allowed them to stand in the back and watch and, although his friends weren't interested, Douthat was. Seeing him move, the teacher told him he could come back, which he did. This was a class for adults, so eventually she called COCA and told them they should see the young man dance. They arranged for him to come attend a class and, as he says, after the class the teacher took him down the hall to the executive director and said "this boy needs a scholarship."

They provided everything for him. Not just lessons, but dance clothes including shoes. And transportation. And tutoring if he needed it. As he said, families have a lot to worry about just putting food on the table and a roof over their head. Dance comes out of what is left over and in his family there was nothing left over. But COCA saw to everything. Eventually he was also able to get into the St. Louis Public School Magnet school for the arts which saw to the rest of his education.

The thing is - this was not an aberration for COCA. This is what they do. If a family can afford to pay then they pay, but COCA also is looking for talented students who could not walk through the door with a check. Through their urban outreach program they reach out to the community, offering programs free of charge.

Since 1993, the Urban Arts Program has made arts education , performance, and hands on experience available to more than 50,000 children who would not otherwise have access to such programs. The philosophy of this program embodies a developmental approach to arts education which considers the physical, emotional, and artistic interests, needs and capabilities of each student. All programming is provided at no cost to the participants, and is sustained entirely by contributions from the local community and national funders.

Through the urban outreach they keep their eyes out for talented students and then offer them the opportunity to come to the COCA facility to take master classes, providing what is needed: tuition, clothing, transportation, tutoring and mentoring.

And it all takes money. Usually the arts are the first programs cut when budgets get tight. COCA fills that gap. COCA also helps talented kids from all schools find classes that could prepare them for a career in the arts. After the performance, they asked us to raise our hands if we were willing to provide $25 to help buy a pair of shoes for a dancer. Lots of hands went up. I suspect some of those hands will contribute more, maybe even the $500 that it takes to provide 1 week of transportation to/from COCA for 25 students.

I wish the film that was shown at the fundraiser was available on youtube. But it isn't. Instead here is a film about Antonio Douthat done about a year ago by the local public television station.



There are a lot of organizations out there that help people achieve better lives. They all need funding. As you receive end of the year requests, consider them.

Paul Taylor

The Paul Taylor Dance Company was in St. Louis last weekend. According to the promoter’s website:

St. Louis scores a Super-Bowl-size touchdown by legendary dancemaker Paul Taylor—the world premiere of his newest work! The 78-year-old choreographer is making a rare foray out of New York to come to our city himself to direct this epochal event. The program will also feature Esplanade, Taylor’s exuberant J.S. Bach classic from 1975, and other masterworks from the astounding career that has led Time magazine to hail Taylor as "the reigning master of modern dance."

Well, that sounded exciting. Of course, I had tickets for Saturday night, not Friday night, so I didn't see the actual premiere. But I was there for the premiere weekend.


Paul Taylor made his debut in the 1950's with Merce Cunningham’s company, but almost immediately became a lead dancer for Martha Graham’s company. Soon, though, he set out on his own, forming his own company and choreographing works which have shaped American Dance.

While Graham's style focused on the intricate movements of the lower body, Taylor's work is distinguished by lively gestures of the upper torso that are fluid and multidimensional.

His style has been called buoyant, sometimes flowing, and witty. He is known for using “everyday gestures” rather than dance moves.

The program both Friday and Saturday night began with Esplanade, a work he choreographed in 1975 which is performed to the Bach concertos in E Major and D Minor. It is a lively piece that is exhausting to watch, involving very natural movements such as running and skipping and jumping performed in natural patterns that made me think of children frolicing in a back yard. The signature moment from the piece comes when most of the cast lies down in a row, on their stomachs, up on their elbows, while the remaining cast member jumps over them in a hopscotch-type manner.

The second work performed was Scudorama, a piece Taylor choreographed in 1963 using music by Clarence Jackson. The epigram for the work is from Dante: "What souls are these who run through this black haze?" And he to me: "these are the nearly soulless whose lives concluded neither blame nor praise." An earlier work than Esplanade, and a much darker work, it still involved natural movement including people jumping over other people. Taylor received a grant to recreate this work this year and what an excellent use of funds that was. Called a seminal work that explores the essence of our humanity,

Scudorama finds that some people lack purpose and will, that their blasted souls can entertain no beneficence. The dance has not been performed in more than 30 years but retains its power to engage audiences and enable them to see our world through Mr. Taylor’s compelling and unique vision.

So we had a lighthearted piece in Esplanade and a dark, perhaps even satirical piece, in Scudorama. It turned out the they were the perfect introduction to the new work, Beloved Renegade. Using the beautiful Poulenc Gloria, the piece is an interpretation of, or perhaps an homage to, Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass. It was the most populated of the works, I counted 15 dancers on stage.

It opened in almost classical form with I am the poet of the body and I am the poet of the soul, lighthearted in a poetic way. But as the piece moves on it becomes darker. The principal male dancer (Walt Whitman? Paul Taylor?)at first observes the other dancers as they frolic, and as one couple dances lovingly (young love?) and then another couple in which the man collapses and appears to be dying. Then a female dancer in almost classical ballerina style shows up to lead the male dancer through his own difficult times - we assumed she was supposed to be death. But maybe she was the poet's muse. At the end the dancer appears to die while death/the muse poses above him. It seemed a thoughtful piece for the 78 year old Taylor. I am not a dancer so I can't expound on Beloved Renegade from a technical point of view, but I can say that I enjoyed it very much and would like to see it again.

Here's a taste (I think this was from when he was a Kennedy Center honoree):