ASTOR. A century of Tango

Concert of Dance
with
Mario Stefano Pietrodarchi
and the dancers of Balletto di Roma

The Balletto di Roma dance company embarks on a new journey within the sounds and sensations of tango with Astor, a production created to honor the 100th anniversary of Astor Piazzolla (Mar del Plata, March 11, 1921), one of the leading performers and composers of this art form. Born in the suburbs of Buenos Aires, Tango emerged from a need to communicate between different languages, cultures and traditions, reminding us of who we are, where we came from and what events have united distant cultures in a common place by overcoming oceans and borders. It is within those very oceans that one can find a thread which unites or divides worlds and desires. A place characterized by vast distances where the chance of going adrift is high, where the rhythm of departures and homecomings ebbs and floods with the rolling waves.
Astor, a new production by Balletto di Roma, is a “dance concert” in which Piazzolla’s music will be arranged by Luca Salvadori, performed live by brilliant and globally acclaimed bandoneon player Mario Stefano Pietrodarchi in a novel expression of danced artistic harmony. A production where every breath and sigh of movement through music forms syllables that show us Piazzolla’s human fragility, mirroring anyone who has experienced an imposed separation, a dematerialized relationship, an interrupted connection or a broken life. On stage, Valerio Longo harnesses the inspiring presence of Mario Stefano Pietrodarchi and channels the exquisite scenes of Carlo Cerri, leading eight dancers from the Balletto di Roma in a transformative voyage. One where breaths, embraces and unions will be at the center of intense, abstract choreographies, seamlessly incorporated in the undulating magic of the bandoneon. To design the contours of the protagonists will be the costumes made by Silvia Califano, assiduous collaborator of Balletto di Roma and of the most important Italian and foreign theaters.
The key idea is courage: the virtue declaimed in the immortal texts of Jorge Luis Borges in his tangos and milongas, that was critical to Piazzolla’s role in breaking the musical norms of tango Viejo thus giving life to the nuevo tango that made him famous worldwide.
Blending the compositional elements of this concert/opus will be trusted to the mastery and experience of Carlos Branca, a globally acclaimed Argentinian director with a profound knowledge of Piazzolla’s world.
Astor evokes the feelings of today’s voyagers, of humankind as a whole, by surpassing the technical and ritual purity of tango and reinforcing the energy, desires and palpitations that we feel. A concert where spirits blossom through the audacity of kisses and embraces denied by that which has shattered everything but our desire to hold one another close once again.

Premiere

Video

Gallery

Director’s Notes

Credits