International Day of Dance: Why are we dancing?

Body, mind and soul, in one language, without words; form of expression, mirror of oneself. Despite all its rules and limitations, most dancers describe dance as a freedom. For the musicality and the feeling, some compare it to the poetry; others think that the movement is wonderfully dumb, like reading. All, without exception (performers, choreographers, teachers, directors and the public that complements this dynamic community) celebrate this art today, which is the International Day of Dance.

The date, chosen by UNESCO almost forty years ago, recalls the birth of Jean-Georges Noverre (April 29, 1727), considered as "the father of modern ballet" (it had to be modern in the eighteenth century!). better, the grandfather of ballet as we know it today. One must think that if the Paris Opera had been a pioneer of 1600 on average, a century later, this French teacher presented radical ideas in the context of European courts: how to change these strange costumes and throw the masks to make dancing It seems more "natural". Precisely, he understood dance as an imitative art of nature, far from a mechanical execution, to which he conferred the gift of interpretation and endowed with emotions.

In large part, these innovative concepts of Noverre are expressed in the famous
Letters on dance and ballets, fifteen epistles collected and published for the first time in Stuttgart in 1760. In his day, the encyclopaedist Denis Diderot called him "genius" and predicted that he would save the dance of darkness. Two and a half centuries later, critics and several accusations also focused on his tyrannical emphasis and his rupturist ideas. History has shown that the Enlightenment philosopher was not deceived. Even today, read Noverre (what a mood! And what a visionary!) Is not wasteful.

Referring to the work of great painters looking for references, Noverre felt that "a ballet is an image or rather a series of images interconnected by the plot". The notions of displacement, plasticity, color, background, technique, narration, history come together in the quote. Two hundred and fifty years later, what is dance? This should not surprise – nor, yes – the permanence of its essence, which is still reflected in the answers formulated with the feet on the ground in the 21st century.

"The dance" he says
Argentine dancer Herman Cornejo from New York – is music and moving painting. You can see, hear and feel. There you can hear levels of expression that words could never reach. It's a poetry: an abstract narrative. "Cornejo is 37, a figure in the American Ballet and, as Noverre puts it in his letters, he believes that" the key to dance is not to move, but to feel ".

Julio Bocca

it manifests itself in this direction: "An art that unites and teaches to discover and shape our senses and the body"; for him, who was so good, the dance taught him as a boy to discover who he was.

The question is apparently simple and recurring: what is dance? "It is the expression of emotions and feelings, it is the language of the body, a physical, mental and spiritual need, it has always existed, in different cultures, it changes, it evolves, it tells moments, situations, lives, of the human being, of life, "he says.
Ludmila Pagliero, our star at the Paris Opera, at the back of a taxi, returning home after a performance.

Good excuse for bringing together all genres and all generations, the Day of Dance invites reflection and reflection.
A message will be read in unison around the world; This year, ITI-Unesco's request was entrusted to the dancer, choreographer and Egyptian teacher Karima Mansour, who initiated it with that of "At first, there was movement and since the night time, dancing is a powerful means of expression and celebration. "However, his words want to talk about today, closer to Hathor, Terpsichore and the other gods:" In this age where connectivity has acquired new meanings, dance is always the most sought-after action to help us restore this lost connection.The dance brings us back to our roots, in the cultural sense but also in the most immediate sensory sense, personal and individual, in the heart and in the heart, "says the Egyptian artist and emphasizes that" dance heals "and is" where humanity can meet. "

In our country, the Argentine Dance Council has delegated
Marianela Nuñez, another Argentinean pride on the roof of the world, has the mission to write a message that will be shared during the Gala of the Dance Day (see separately).
The first dancer of the Royal Ballet of London draws attention to the need and the courage to repair the past to "save and highlight the rich history of the teachers, artists and choreographers who animated the national dance and who deserve to to be heard, the new generations. "He exclaims:" Let's all know that we are not children pariah, but the continuity of a path that others, with art, dignity and certainly a lot of sacrifice, have sown a vocation and love of beauty! The future and the present have a lot of press, but without the past, without the earth, the tree does not grow. "

Why are you dancing?

Clbadical, contemporary, jazz, folklore.
Argentinean referees of different kinds and generations meet

• Julio Bocca. Argentine dance star, teacher and depositary. "I dance because I love it, music is the blood that gives electricity to my body to convey what I feel or the characters to create"
• Beatriz Durante. President of the Argentine Council of Dance, referring to folklore. "The dance is the expression of the soul set in motion (if there is no feeling, it is not dance, it is gymnastics) I dance because it's the best way to express myself and that I feel fully. "

• Mauricio Wainrot. Choreographer "Dance is the poetics by which I conceive in a space that becomes magical, my dreams, my illusions, my ideas, through movements, phrases that I write in the air and in time. I've been around for 52 years? Surely nothing! "

• Juan Pablo Ledo.
  First dancer of Teatro Colón. "I think there are few who can bring dance to a deep spiritual connection that transcends, God made this gift, appeared on time and I have the feeling that I can reach the depths of to be of others. " The dance is the key opens the soul of the people "

• Noemi Coelho. Jazz teacher and genre reference. "I've always felt that dancing was my form of expression, through it I'm free and able to express my deepest feelings of joy or sadness, that's the most faithful companion I have in this long journey "
• Pablo Fermani. Dancer in the national company of contemporary dance. "I dance because, thanks to this language, I find a link with my being, with my soul, with my essence, I feel very clearly that the energy since I was very young, I danced folklore, tango, contemporary dance, the body is one, and what dance I choose to dance, safely "

• Herman Cornejo Senior dancer at the ABT in New York. "I do not do it because I want it, I do it because I'm sorry, because dancing is a voluntary and involuntary decision"

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  Ludmila Pagliero
  
  . Star at the Paris Opera. "When I realized that by dancing, I could express myself, I could not find a better way to exist, to have chosen a clbadical training was only fate, I saw today in other styles and I can realize that I love dancing in all its forms ".

AGENDRE

On April 29, the International Day of Dance is celebrated around the world, instituted at the initiative of the Dance Committee of the International Theater Institute (ITI) of Unesco. As every year, the Argentine Dance Council has prepared its traditional ballet gala which, following the general strike, has been postponed to May 14, at 20:30, at the Astral Theater (Corrientes 1639). The National Folk Ballet, the company Pies desnudos, Néstor Spada and Alicia Fiuri, Karina Olmedo and Nahuel Prozzi, the National Company of Contemporary Dance, Celtic Argentina and Corporación Tango will participate. Tickets are free, by telephone reservation, May 8th and 9th, from 9 am to 5 pm, by numbers 4901-4715 and 4581-2038.