BUENOS AIRES, ARGENTINA – Argentine tango duo Solange Acosta and Max Van de Voorde made their country proud this week when they won one of the two championship titles at the Tango Buenos Aires Festival and World Cup in Buenos Aires, Argentina’s capital.

“We breathe together, at the same time, in connection,” says Van de Voorde, revealing to local media the secret of their success in the stage tango category.

Standing tall and with her back to the air, Acosta knew how to embody the femme fatale on stage. On the ground and in the air, she moved her feet and head to the rhythm of the music and Van de Voorde, her tailored partner. The audience at Luna Park, Buenos Aires’ downtown stadium, erupted in applause when the duo finished its performance and the judges concurred that the title would go to the native pair.

Argentine and Colombian couples won the two tango titles at the Tango Buenos Aires Festival and World Cup 2011. Tango experts say interest in the dance is growing every year around the world and among youth. Some say they would like to see more incorporation of local culture in the international event. But city government officials say the event was a success and aim to continue to raise the bar in future years.

For Buenos Aires, the tango is a stamp of identity. The ninth Tango Buenos Aires Festival and World Cup, held every year in Buenos Aires, attracted some 400,000 spectators this year, according to the Buenos Aires city government. Nearly 500 couples competed in the two-week affair.

The night before the Argentine couple’s success, Colombian flags peppered the same stage, one of the most traditional in the city. “Long live Colombia,” was the shout that rippled through the audience when Natasha Agudelo Arboleda and Diego Julián Benavidez Hernández won the tournament’s other title, in the salon tango category, becoming the first Colombian champions of salon tango.

“In the salon tango category, one grades the elegance, the timing, the form in which the motions and characteristic steps of salon tango are carried out,” says Oscar Velázquez, a dancer who served as a judge in the semifinals. “In stage tango, one pays attention to the wardrobe, the choreography, the movement. One looks that the essence of tango in the contemporary dance isn’t lost.”

Amid strong applause, the Tango Festival and World Cup slowly came to an end. Nearly 500 couples participated from various countries – including Japan, Chile, South Korea, the United States, Venezuela, Colombia, Paraguay, Uruguay, Greece and Italy – as well as Argentine provinces – from the hot province of Misiones to the cold province of Tierra del Fuego.

Ruben Iribarren and Mariana Ocampo, tango salon semifinalists, say they travel every year from Chubut province to the capital to participate.

“We wait the whole year for this moment,” Ocampo says.

Article taken from The Global Press Institute.Photos from Punto Tango

October 21, 2011

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