Concerto for Bandoneon and Orchestra
Roberto Galvan is an Argentinian-Italian
choreographer, dance teacher, photographer and opera director presently
residing in Holland. So far in his career he has created more than 70 pieces
working together with companies such as Norddans, TWA Nuremberg and the Szeged
Contemporary Ballet. From 1996 to 2000 he was director of the theatre of
Giessen, while as choreographer and dance teacher he worked all over Europe.
Buenos Aires - a young city that started to develop at
the end of the 19th century – was filled with lonely male
immigrants, mainly Italians and Spaniards, and also Germans and Englishmen.
Naturally such a society lead to the inevitable rise of prostitution. These
young men desired much more than merely sexual contact, they needed tenderness
and eroticism. Yet it was hard for them to connect, since they had to work hard
every day of the week to make enough money to have their families follow them
one day.
In the bordellos small bands of flute, guitar and
violin players played music for the guests of the institution to dance with the
girls working there. Some of the musicians were also immigrants. The music
played was a mixture of Sicilian songs, Paso Doble and Habanera, and thus tango
was born. In the beginning it was joyful and sarcastic, but when the Germans
joined in with their accordions, the tone turned melancholic, and tango became
what it is like today: tragic, powerful, arrogant. For a long time only
prostitutes danced to it, men had to learn the steps later.
I tried to make a choreograpy that expresses the
essence of tango, the energic and agressive characteristics of men and the
sensitive and melancholic world of women, mixed with the temperament and
endless battle of couples. All that is only a fragment of tango which is not
only a dance/music style, but also a philosophy and a way of life for hte
people of Buenos Aires.
Roberto
Galvan
