American Creative Dance tango also uses a collaborative composition system that began in the salons in Buenos Aires, where each of the partners is creating in performance, but the connection between the dancers is unique, as they are literally, physically connected for the entire performance. As our Tango Performance Paradigm states, the two dancers dance as one, they become a body with four legs and feet, two heads, etc., moving as one.
We also emphasize the connection of the dancers with the music.
Tango Performance Paradigm:
To us, Tango is an improvisational art form where two dancers dance as one and where separation does not exist between music and dance. For dancers to collaborate directly with the musicians during the performance is the highest form of the art.
John Adams said of Astor Piazzolla, "For him, composing and performing were inextricably woven together. One thinks of Bach and of Ellington for models of a creative musician who saw little or no separation between improvising, composing and performing."
Piazzolla's ideas and works give us inspiration and encouragement.
Just as Piazzolla's compositions are at the intersection of western classical music and traditional tango music, our tango work is at the intersection of tradition tango dance and our own modern dance.
George Lilly
Tango Coordinator
Collaborated with Wendy Law to
write the
Tango Performance Paradigm
We collaborated with cellist Wendy Law who played three of Piazzolla's classical works, three of his Études that were originally scored for flute and transcribed for cello by Law. We plan further collaborations with Law using more of the work of Piazzolla
The company creates several tango performances a year that include original music and dance, and may include poetry or text and visual art just as all our performance does. Guest artists, especially tango musicians, sometimes join the company for these performances.
American Creative Dance is creating art of its kind with this medium and fulfilling it mission. There is a much wider audience for tango than for avant garde modern dance. Part of our mission is to bring the art of dance to the largest possible audiences. This is one way to do that. If audiences are moved and transformed by our tango dance, we rejoice. If they also find that they want to explore our other work, so much the better.