The night was cold and frosty, but inside Mendoza’s Teatro Independencia there was a warm glow. I was here for a ballet by the famous Argentine principal Juan Pablo Ledo; feeling slightly apprehensive as this was my first ballet. Truth be told I had only sat through Billy Elliot because it was about my hometown and I had the impression that ballet was the sort of thing my little sister would be interested in; but so far it had not caught my attention. This, however, was about to change.
The theatre is a grand old building with an imposing façade, where all the dapper old dames ambled about with glasses of champers. I had bought a good ticket and was ushered to my seat, only to find some thieving middle aged couple occupying it. They were not going to budge and so I gallantly relegated myself to the gods. I seated myself so I looked right down on the stage; with a great view of the magnificent chandelier and the rest of the theater. The congregation was mostly women taking out their elderly mothers; unfortunately my neighbors were women taking out their energetic daughters, so I was treated to amateur pirouettes all the performance.“I only sat through Billy Elliot because it was about my hometown”
The lights dimmed and I quickly noticed that there was no set; just a blank stage with black drapes and dark lighting. In my ignorance I had not realized that ballet is not like a play and so the absence of a set makes you concentrate on the movement as the dancers tell the story.
The ballet opened with a couple twisting and turning around each other in very traditional moves. However as the performance progressed the dancing became more contemporary, the cast dividing into an almost tango style of movement and the classical ballet style. Halfway through the first act out came the ubiquitous white tutu for someone’s performance as a swan; waving her arms gracefully and sliding down onto one leg as if a swan dipping into the water. I wondered if the ballet was the Argentine version of Swan Lake, but then concluded that it was actually a patchwork of various stories as depicted by the differing styles.
Despite my original hesitation about ballet, I actually enjoyed watching the grins as the chins of the women skimmed the floor and my feeling of anticipation as the music reached fever pitch before breaking. The movements were coordinated perfectly with the beautiful music, which was a fusion of rolling percussion, pianoforte and strings. However it was the tango style dancing which really caught the audience’s attention. Gone was the elegant prancing, twisting and turning. The music increased pace and tempo, becoming a rumba style rhythm, whilst the dancers kicked their heels, stomped the feet, clapped the hands and generally boogied about the stage.
“This was the sort of class that I expected from Argentina”
My favorite scene had to be one where the male and female dancers dressed in black and white suits with trilbies and danced a captivating tango to a rolling percussion; this was the sort of class that I expected from Argentina. Another interesting scene involved dancers twirling around chairs; using them in such inventive ways that I will never look at a chair in the same way again! The lighting added to the sexy, sultry image with lots of red back lights and blue spotlights, giving me the impression of a seedy alley in Buenos Aires and all from the comfort of my plush seat.
Twyla Tharp, the American ballerina, has been noted as saying, “A lot of people insisted on a wall between modern dance and ballet. I’m beginning to think that walls are very unhealthy things.” I tend to agree with Ms Tharp, as this performace showed not only that ballet can actually be exciting but also that a night out at Teatro Independencia is a very good night out indeed.
Teatro Independencia de Mendoza, Chile and Espejo, Mendoza City. Tel. (0261) 438 06 44; www.cultura.mendoza.gov.ar.
