Getting closer

The Marcos Ayala Tango Company will perform in Tel Aviv.

By ORI J. LENKINSKI
The Marcos Ayala Tango Company (photo credit: PR)
The Marcos Ayala Tango Company
(photo credit: PR)
If you’re standing in a very crowded club listening to music, it would make sense that you would dance close to the person next to you. When traced back to their beginnings, most dance styles were deeply influenced by the conditions in which they emerged. If a group of people danced outside in open spaces, their steps and rhythms were different from another group moving indoors.
In Argentina and Uruguay, where the tango dance style emerged, individuals clustered together to watch musicians perform. As these concerts grew in popularity, open space around couples shrank, forcing dancers to stand closer to each other and to tighten their embrace. While many attribute the passionate nature of these dances to the temperament of their originators, one could argue that Argentine tango is what it is today because of a few overcrowded dance floors in Buenos Aires.
Over the Passover holiday, the Suzanne Dellal Center will host one of Argentina’s brightest tango stars, Marcos Ayala. He was born into the tango tradition. As a young boy, he studied the quick steps and stretched back of the form, mixing in ballet and jazz classes. At the age of 20, he won first prize at an international competition for tango performers in Japan. Four years later, Ayala founded the Marcos Ayala Tango Company. For the past seven years, since Ayala assembled the troupe, he has presented his take on tango throughout South America and abroad.
To Ayala, relevance is of the utmost importance. While steeped in a rich tradition, Ayala’s choreography pushes the tango vocabulary into a contemporary context. He consistently seeks new ways to express the flavors and nuances of the form, playing with complex rhythms and unusual soundtracks. The performance he will present in Israel, Tango Buenos Aires, takes the audience on a visual and auditory journey that follows the development of tango in Buenos Aires from the most traditional to the most outrageous and innovative compositions. The production features 12 dancers in suits and evening gowns.
One of the highlights of the performance is the work between Ayala and his longtime partner, Paola Camacho. Having danced together for years, the two intertwine seamlessly, moving effortlessly as one.
In addition to their stage time, Ayala and his dancers will host two traditional milongas (group dances) in the Suzanne Dellal courtyard. These events will be open to the public free of charge.
The event will be emceed by Israeli tango instructor Sylvia Rachshmir.
The Marcos Ayala Tango Company will perform on April 12 to 15 at the Suzanne Dellal Center in Tel Aviv. For more information, visit www.suzannedellal.org.il.