The Ciudanza festival, organized by the Municipality’s Ministry of Culture, is about to begin thirteenth edition. It is a long journey for this encounter that brings contemporary dance into public spaces, bringing together the works with the spectators and not the other way around, as tradition dictates.
Although it’s actually fair to say so dance in urban spaces has already created its own tradition, which dates back to no less than sixty years ago. It is worth mentioning that work of the extraordinary American choreographer Twyla Tharp, who in the 1960s placed her so-called potpourri in the vastness of Central Park in New York City.
potpourri it began at dusk, and towards the end the forty dancers fanned out across the grass, some very close to the spectators and some so far away as to be almost out of sight. They all made exactly the same movements, as slowly as possible. As the light was fading the effect was that of a garden of mysterious statues they had come to life.
More from NYC
More curious was the experience of another famous American choreographer, Triscia Brown. It happened in the early ’70s, a period of intense artistic experimentation in which Brown was a determined protagonist. His title was piece of roof (“Piece on the terrace”) and consisted in placing the dancers on different terraces, more or less separated from each other, of buildings in the Soho district of New York.
The sequence began with one dancer improvising a series of movements, then repeated by the others in a long chain.
Spectators, even located in different places, could only have a cropped view of the whole; but this was precisely the intention of the choreographer.
But initiatives to bring dance into urban landscapes sand was strongly consolidated towards the end of the 90s with the birth of a network called Città Danzantitoday made up of cities from over forty countries and of which Ciudanza was part in its first editions.
The experience of Buenos Aires
Let’s go back to Buenos Aires and to this brand new edition of Ciudanza which addresses several axes: rethinking both green spaces in the context of the city and the engagement between society and the environment and the diversity of those who inhabit the urban space. It will take place in two circuits: the Emilio Miter square (in Las Heras and Pueyrredón) and the Parque Tres de Febrero circuit, between the Rose Garden and the Planetarium.
Says Silvia Gómez Giusto, artistic director of the festival: “Ciudanza bursts in and transforms the gaze on the daily paths of our city, but this edition also evokes something of a spirit of adventure”.
And he adds: “We offer temporary challenges, new languages and choreographic narratives, observation of nature, collective games and unexpected views. The scene will gradually take shape with the active participation of those who are willing to get involved, to contemplate acutely, to see how dance imprints the architectural heritage”.
The festival program will be available at buenosaires.gob.ar/ciudanza. Access will be free and free, without ticket reservations.
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Source: Clarin
