Karina Niebla
09/18/2021 20:07
Clarín.com
Cities
Updated 09/18/2021 20:07
"It's calmer and more orderly, because
there are fewer dancers on stage
."
"But at the same time you feel
more pressure
, because in fewer tangos you have to put all your meat on the grill".
"You have to be careful not to mix a lot of things in an effort to show everything you know."
Those who speak measure what it is like to participate in a festival in pandemic.
And they measure themselves against each other in the highest competition of a genre and a dance:
the Mundial Tango BA
.
It is Saturday afternoon and in the auditorium of the Usina del Arte
the classification in the Track category
begins
.
Couples go through rounds of five or six, and not ten or twelve, as was done before Covid-19.
Others are seen in a different room.
They compete virtually: they
broadcast their dance live by video call
from another province or country, and the jury follows their movements on a giant screen.
This is how 129 of the 268 couples that fight for first place on the track will compete.
In the Scenario category, almost half (38 of 77 in total) participate online.
In the qualifying rounds of Pista Tango, there are fewer pairs on the track.
Photo Emmanuel Fernández
The protocol and
bimodality
not only simplify the lives of dozens of couples who are in other provinces and cannot travel, or who live abroad.
They can also make the participation of those who compete in person more bearable.
“It is much nicer to
dance with more space on stage
.
And everything is done in turns, without crossing so much, with fewer spectators.
That makes us feel a bit calmer ”, rescues Franco Martínez (28) from Fuegian, who along with his fellow countryman and partner Vanessa Vega (28) has just left dancing the three tangos that will define his future in the competition.
All are seen before half of the usual public and qualified by twice the number of jurors at the same time: before there were two rounds of five judges, now it is only one of ten.
"They
dance only once
, due to the current situation," explains driver Carlos Lin, who does not need to name the pandemic so that it is known what he is talking about.
Couples dance only once.
Photo Emmanuel Fernández
It is that in this 18-year-old festival everything remains the same, but not quite.
The posters that block half the seats remind us that this is
an event with sanitary protocol
.
Another reminder is the obligation to
wear a chinstrap at all times
, even for dancers until seconds before going on stage.
"Don't take off your chinstraps!
They reminded us of that all the time.
We
also
had to do a Covid test before competing
”, says Cristian Trinidad (24).
He just finished dancing the three de rigueur tangos with Belén Cabral (28), his partner also in life.
It is her debut in a World Cup and, also, the first formal competition in which Belén participates.
With the milonga as her main experience, she admits that Cristian "controlled her nerves" better than she did.
But they both got a smile of tranquility when at the end of the round they played “Infamia”, by Juan D'Arienzo.
"It's one of our favorite orchestras," she says.
Belén and Cristian, in their debut at the Tango World Cup.
Photo Emmanuel Fernández
The pressure comes not only from being in a World Cup, but from having to “put
all the meat on the grill in fewer tangos
: before you danced eight in two days.
Now, three at a time ”, remarks Cristian.
Vanessa, Franco's partner, agrees and points out a danger: wanting to include an entire menu in just three pieces.
"You have to be careful
not to mix too many things in an effort to show everything you know
, because there may be a piece of junk", admits Vanessa, who, like her partner, values the tranquility of this pandemic festival, compared to previous competencies.
Both participated in the Stage category in 2018 and 2019, and will do the same again this Monday.
On the other hand, Belén and Cristian prefer noise and partying, a spirit more typical of the milonga that they love so much.
“This festival is a lot of mixed feelings, because it was very common to go to an exhibition and it was full of people.
Finding that there are limited entries and fewer couples is rare,
”she admits.
Each couple had three tangos to show off.
Photo Emmanuel Fernández
But what was seen this Saturday is only part of what happens: the rest was a preparation of months, often behind closed doors,
in makeshift rehearsal rooms
until little by little the pandemic began to ease.
Belén adapted a space in her great-aunt's house to be able to rehearse: she moved furniture and put mirrors.
Vanessa and Franco made room in the apartment they share in Balvanera, although it was complicated in the summer.
“With the heat, the floor would get wet and we would slip,” she says.
This year the Tango World Cup once again had a face-to-face event: last year it was done in virtual format.
Photo Emmanuel Fernández
This Saturday
there are no slips on the auditorium's parquet
: “It is the ideal floor.
Soft and worn, ”says Belén.
A scene that will continue to pass stilettos all week.
This Sunday the qualifying rounds of the Track category continue, and on Monday and Tuesday, the Stage ones.
The semifinals of the first category will be on Wednesday and those of the second, on Thursday.
Competitors went from rehearsing in makeshift venues to dancing on the Usina del Arte floor.
Photo Emmanuel Fernández
The final will be on Saturday from 16 to 22 in Diagonal Norte in the open air in hybrid mode.
Each couple will go on stage in person or via streaming and of all those who participate, only one winner per category will come out.
Bi-modality came to work, to birthdays, why shouldn't it come to dance competitions?
NS
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