Tango Buenos Aires, one of Argentina’s great cultural exports, known throughout the Americas, Europe and the Far East as the most authentic and uncompromising representative of the tango, will perform their acclaimed full length production Song of Eva Peron at Valley Performing Arts Center January 23, 2015 at 8pm.
Tango Buenos Aires was created for the “Jazmines” festival at the famous Buenos Aires cabaret “Michelangelo” by renowned composer and tango director Osvaldo Requena. The company met with tremendous success and was immediately added to the season of the General San Martin Municipal Theatre.
In 1986, the company traveled to the United States in order to represent Argentina at the Latin-American Festival, which took place at the Delacorte Theatre in New York City’s Central Park. This began a whirlwind of international tours and television appearances globally, that continues to the present day, and solidified Tango Buenos Aires reputation as one of the top tango companies worldwide.
The current artistic director of the company is Rosario Bauza and the music director is Fernando Marzan. Song of Eva Peron was created by noted choreographer Héctor Falcón, a longtime associate of Tango Buenos Aires.
Song of Eva Peron tells the story of Argentine history’s most popular figure through 25 dances in two acts. From her extremely humble beginnings in Argentina’s rural Pampas region through her years as an actress in Buenos Aires, her meeting politician and future Argentine president Juan Peron, her time as the first lady of Argentina, and her sad death from cancer at age 33, Song of Eva Peron communicates the true legend of Eva Peron through the most celebrated cultural expression of Argentina, tango.
Prior to the show from 6:45-7:30pm Valley Performing Arts Center will host a “Classroom in the Courtyard: Pre-Concert Lecture” with CSUN professors of Kinesiology, the scientific study of human movement, Joanne DiVito and Jacqueline Eusanio. They will discuss “From Buenos Aires to Blackpool: The Intrigue and Passion of the Tango.” The free lecture will take place in Kurland Hall in the Valley Performing Arts Complex behind the ticket office.
Undeniably one of the most provocative and popular dances of today, few art forms share the historic exoticism of the dance once known as the baile con corté. Professors DiVito and Eusanio will take attendees on the enthralling journey of the tango from its risqué origins in the barrios of Argentina, through its shocking impact in Paris and the tangomania that swept across Europe and North America. Follow the composers, musicians, and dancers who were instrumental in igniting the tango flame and developing the tango into the dramatic and elegant dance it is today. Learn how the International Standard Ballroom tango evolved from the Argentine tango, and how to recognize the two different but equally dramatic and intriguing styles of dance. With its nostalgic songs of lament, melancholy cries of the bandoneόn, and flashing legwork, the tango claims one of the most infatuating rags-to-riches stories ever told.
Tickets range from $40 – $55 and can be purchased at http://www.valleyperformingartscenter.org/calendar/tango-buenos-aires/.