Dance: BdR, homage to Astor Piazzolla by Valerio Longo

The Ballet of Rome is back in the capital with ‘Astor – A century of Tango’, a new production made in 2021 and signed by Valerio Longo. After its July debut, the show is staged at the Teatro Vascello in Rome on 21, 22 and 23 December. The Compagnia del Balletto di Roma therefore resumes its journey through the suggestions and sounds of tango on the occasion of the centenary of the birth of Astor Piazzolla (Mar del Plata, 11 March 1921), one of the most important musical composers and performers of this art form born at the end of the 19th century in the suburbs of Buenos Aires. “Arising from the need to communicate between different cultures, languages ​​and traditions, tango reminds us who we are, where we come from and what was the path that indissolubly united distant humanity in a common ‘non-place’, crossing oceans and borders – a note from the company reads – The sea is the common thread that unites or separates new worlds and hopes. An immense space to cross where you risk getting lost, a vortex of ebbs and undulatory motion that marks the rhythm of departures and returns ” . A dance concert, ‘Astor’, in which the music of Piazzolla, arranged by Luca Salvadori and performed live at the bandoneón by Mario Stefano Pietrodarchi, brilliant internationally renowned performer, emerge as the real protagonists in a new artistic dance harmony. “A breath, a breath, almost a word, will reveal the frailty of the Piazzola man, but also that of all of us who have suffered a forced distance, a dematerialized relationality – we read again – An interrupted contact, a broken life”. Inspired by the charismatic presence of maestro Pietrodarchi and by the precious images of Carlo Cerri, Valerio Longo takes eight dancers from the Ballet of Rome on a transformative journey in which breaths and hugs return to the center of intense, abstract choreographic actions merged into the wave motion of the bandoneón. . To draw the outlines of the protagonists, the costumes of Silvia Califano, a former pupil of the BdR and historical collaborator. “The key word is ‘courage’ – we can still read in the room notes – The one declaimed by the immortal texts of Jorge Luis Borges in his tangos and milongas, as well as that of Piazzolla himself, who broke the mold of the musicality of the ‘tango viejo’ to arrive at that ‘nuevo tango’ that made him so famous in the world. Directing all the compositional elements of this opera / concert is the skill and experience of Carlos Branca, Argentine director acclaimed on the international scene and profound connoisseur of the Piazzolla man. ‘Astor’ evokes the feelings of today’s travelers of the world, the whole of humanity, going beyond technical and ritual purity of the tango, to strengthen its energies, desires and palpitations all contemporary – they conclude – A concert from which bodies blossom capable of expressing the audacity of a missed breath and that of a denied embrace. mo act of love after a violence that has swept away everything, except the desire to huddle and find each other “.