Laura falcoff
08/06/2021 17:34
Clarín.com
Magazine Ñ
Scenarios
Updated 08/06/2021 17:34
Two people moving closely linked, sweaty bodies and heavy breaths;
We could be describing a love scene, but in this case it is also the living portrait of a dance rehearsal.
With such an exchange of fluids, what else could be expected than a semi paralysis of the profession from the planetary spread of Covid
.
But the dance continued active under virtual forms;
certainly a pale substitute for real life, albeit with exhilarating results.
Since the rehearsals began, the words "swabbing", "bubble", "cohabiting couples" and "protocols" became part of the daily vocabulary of professional dance.
Thus began the return to the city of Buenos Aires: the Colón Ballet and the San Martín Contemporary Ballet p
repaired works for a late season but season at last
.
For its part,
independent dance returns little by little in small formats
and the Buenos Aires Ballet is preparing a program for this Sunday, August 8.
Four protagonists speak here of the future they imagine when the Covid is something of the past.
Test.
Paloma Herrera, director of the Colón Ballet (in black), together with the dancer Macarena Giménez in other times.
Photo: Máximo Parpagnoli / TC
Paloma Herrera directs the Colón Theater Ballet.
In 2020 the company presented by streaming recordings from previous years and a new virtual work by Matías Santos, a member of the Ballet
.
But since the end of 2020, with the fluctuating pace of confinements, a brand new play has already begun to be rehearsed live.
“Impossible to think,” says Paloma Herrera, “of the great ballets that we had planned or of bringing in choreographers from abroad.
It was a good opportunity for dancers, like Maximiliano Iglesias, interested in choreographing ".
Herrera continues: "I proposed that he create a piece for streaming under strict conditions: few dancers, no contact between them, no set design or costume changes and with a limited number of musicians. The work was presented for the first time last December, filmed and without an audience. On stage there was scenography from the last opera prior to the pandemic and as there were no technicians to move it, the empty stalls were used as a backdrop, a very interesting effect. "
Although it seemed that in March everything was fixed, things were different: "Even so I put together a season adapted to the pandemic: not
Swan Lake
, which moves a crowd of dancers, wardrobe personnel and technicians and with so much movement backwards like the one seen on stage. I then thought of Giselle, with her two acts and without major changes in scenery. It's like a transitional work "
- How is the first program formed?
–We already had
Vendaval
, by Maximiliano Iglesias, but the evening had to be completed with another work;
I was already in contact with Alejandro Cervera, because he was going to do a
Carmen
for the Ballet, which was finally canceled.
I presented the same conditions to him as to Maximiliano.
Thus, we have a highly contrasted program;
a work by a mature and experienced choreographer like Cervera and another by a young creator in his first experience.
One uses music by Piazzolla;
the other from Tchaikovsky.
And the languages are very different.
–What did the Covid change for a dance company?
- Those who survive I think they will be strengthened.
Those who continued their daily practice at home, even if taken from a piece of furniture, returned to rehearsals very well.
There were no injuries.
When I imagine rehearsing a great production today, like
Romeo and Juliet,
with so many people and movement, I wonder, “How did we ever do something like this?
”.
And yet when we returned to rehearsal, everything flowed, as if we had never stopped.
From zoom to stage
The Ballet Contemporáneo del San Martín practically did not stop
since the quarantine began in March 2020. Its director Andrea Chinetti says: “Two days later we were doing the classes by zoom and we began the assembly, also by zoom,
of Oscar's
Painted Boobs
Araiz, which was to premiere in May.
With material from these tests, a video was made and broadcast to the public.
During the year there were workshops for the creation of some dancers from the company, a work by Diana Theocharidis and another by the French choreographer Sophie Laplane, all virtual.
This year we started rehearsals for the program that we premiered in July, with classes and rehearsals in separate groups and bubbles. "
Ballet of San Martín.
Photo: Carlos Furman
And he adds: "
In 2021 we add an invitation to schools and dance companies in the provinces
to share the Contemporary Ballet classes, once or twice a week. It is an important approach."
- How are the protocols for the Ballet del San Martín?
–For this new program of tribute to Piazzolla,
we have in the cast five couples of cohabitants who interpret the duets;
those who are not, can be in contact for no more than a minute and a half
.
The entrances to the stage are very planned, the rehearsals are with chinstraps, we need many more dressing rooms and the dancers look for their costumes and do their hair and make up on their own.
–What do you imagine will have changed when the pandemic ends?
–First I wonder if the pandemic will ever end. At least
I feel like we're far from over
. They say that human relationships changed in some positive way, although I'm not sure if people are kinder or more understanding. In any case, I think we become aware of the ephemerality of life. But
I think that something that the pandemic is going to leave us is technological tools
.
Dance needs a living presence, of course, but there are many things, like this same interview that we are doing by zoom, we solve them from a distance.
Also something new is that we increased a lot on Instagram the activity of the Ballet thanks to our assistant Diego Poblete.
Every week we upload photos and every Thursday we do a live broadcast, conversations of the dancers with national or foreign personalities.
Against wilting
Federico Fernández, principal dancer at the Teatro Colón, also directs a private company, the
Buenos Aires Ballet, dedicated primarily to the repertoire of academic dance and made up of dancers from official companies
: “At first we saw how our bodies changed and certain ailments appeared;
we were feeling a bit withered
. But since we had time available, we began to connect with each other. In 2020 we presented two recorded performances from our archive and in November, a new program with us on stage and the spectators in their homes. They were one number after another, just a blackout, and
works created especially with distancing
, except
Guillermo Tell
from Bournonville, easy to adapt because the dancers hardly touch each other.
We keep our audience that way and in part it was also renewed, attracted by a different program.
Federico Fernández, founder of Buenos Aires Ballet.
Photo Carlos Villamayor
-How did it turn out to be on stage and there was no applause?
–Extremely rare;
That is why I invited Maricel De Mitri, now retired great dancer from the Teatro Colón, who made an opening: with her voice and her stage weight, she spoke without drama about our situation and our need to dance.
I was proud: the first company that went on stage without having anything
;
because we have nothing.
It would mean that the profession has been punished since before the pandemic, which simply put it in evidence.
Especially for independent artists who are going to have even fewer spaces, if we think about the rooms that had to close.
Independent artists lose, but dance in general loses.
–How do you see the dancers you work with?
- A majority are part of official companies and have a salary;
others don't.
But in all of them there is a huge desire to dance.
We rehearse five or six hours a day and share the same joy and enthusiasm
, as if it were the first performance of our lives at the Teatro Colón.
Self-managed dance
Maximiliano Navarro, a very interesting young choreographer trained at the San Martín Dance Workshop, had started working before the pandemic with four dancers and on two axes: identity and its relationship with the idea of the shadow.
He wanted, on the other hand, that the dancers themselves controlled the lights.
With the arrival of the Covid, his spirits collapsed: “I wondered how to work with the dancers, how to direct each one at home.
Virtual tools seemed very cold to me.
At one point I said to myself, 'why am I doing it?'
And I saw that I was not interested in going that way.
I stopped everything, but I applied to the Prodanza subsidies and that helped me to think carefully about the project, put it into words and regain my enthusiasm.
I went on to create a solo for myself, but my assistant was in Rosario and in the zoom the light effects I was looking for were lost ".
For this reason, he says: "Finally, I adapted the idea for a duet and we started rehearsing at my house because I didn't have money to rent a room. Anyway, we created a bubble between the three of us.
- This extreme situation of confinement, did it lead you to reflections forward?
Contemporary Ballet of San Martín for the work "Piazzolla".
Photo: CTBA Press
–It made me see that it
is possible to continue “doing” in another way
;
I interrupted rehearsals but kept writing and thinking about what things I want to say.
These difficult circumstances showed me that either art expels you because you won't cling to it;
or you hug it and you don't let go of it anymore.
Before we moved in a somewhat automatic way: doing, doing and doing without thinking too much.
Now there was plenty of time to ask ourselves questions.
Dates of return
Stable Ballet of the Teatro Colón
Mixed program with works by Alejandro Cervera and Maximiliano Iglesias.
July performances were rescheduled for September 2,4, 5 and 7.
Freedom 621.
Contemporary Ballet of San Martín
Program in homage to Astor Piazzolla;
works by Ana Itelman and Mauricio Wainrot.
San Martín Theater, Corrientes 1530;
Saturdays and Sundays at 8 pm until September 11.
Buenos Aires Ballet
Inaugurates a series of Ballet Galas at the Astral Theater (Corrientes 1629) with a performance on August 8 at 4:00 p.m.
Claroscuro
by Maximiliano Navarro
Upcoming performances, September 18 and 25 at 8 p.m. At the Air Theater, Bartolomé Miter 4272.