‘This is Tango Now’ to premiere Friday

The sound of Argentinian music filled the air of the John Waldron Arts center as dancers, musicians and electricians rehearsed and prepared for the opening of “This is Tango Now.”

The show premieres at 8 p.m. Friday.

One of the lead dancers, Fernanda Ghi, moved with grace and power as her arm went in and out of the marionette costume strings while George Furlong rehearsed on stilts, playing the domineering puppeteer.   

The show centers around a marionette, a puppeteer and el duende, also known in English as a sort of goblin or spirit.

In the story, the marionette doesn’t know she is being controlled by a puppeteer until she accidently frees her arm one day. The rest of the show is about her journey to becoming the type of woman she wants to be and her inner inspiration, el duende.

“We chose to do this show because theatrical shows of tango are disappearing,” Co-Artistic Director and Producer Alfredo Minetti said. “We use Argentine tango and music as a platform to tell a story.”

The show looks at three main components: willpower, passion and how we identify ourselves, Minetti said.

“There are many people who have the ability to do what they like while other people don’t have that,” Minetti said. “I believe it’s important to have a passion for something, that passion where it is almost obsessive to do something. I don’t understand young people who aren’t passionate about something. I always asked my students, what moves you? What makes you want to live?”

The passion of the show is personalized with el duende. The duende is a spirit that overtakes you when you are on stage, Minetti said.

“In flamenco they say when a person sings and they feel like their heart might rip out of their chest, when the voice moves the audience, she has el duende,” Minetti said.
“It’s the spirit of inspiration.”

This idea of doing what you are truly passionate about carries throughout the show.  
“Life today is very artificial,” dancer Jairelbhi Furlong said. “Many times we worry about what other people will think and do things we don’t necessarily want to do, but what other people want us to do. You have to do what you want to do, not what society wants. If you do what you love you will always be successful.”

The show will have live music to accompany dancers, as well as an array of lights.

For the participants of “Tango Now,” everybody is an equal part of the ensemble.
“I treat the stage as a canvas,” Lighting Director Anibal Réa said. “It’s something that comes from inside. I use the energy of the dancers and the musicians and express it through lights.”

Through lights, dance and music, the show aims to inspire all to find their passion.
“Passion is everything,” Rea said. “If you have creativity, technique and talent but you have no passion, you have nothing. It’s 60 percent passion, 40 percent everything else. The rest you’ll learn along the way.”