How is a social happening transformed into a dance? Is it possible to answer this question through the dance itself, or through the movement? The experience of dancing with my legs tied up was a “racconto” in my body. The act of not being able to separate the legs and to hold them together, is something that first refers to the feminine in many Latin and Afro- Latin dances: “delicacy, sensuality, being a lady”.
Many Afro-Latin and southamerican dances are related to slavery and therefore the weight of the chains and the distance that the feet maintain are part of those dance qualities. They are also a sign of resilience to oppression. Inspired by the Argentinian murga, CaraB delves into the roots of this dance and rhythm. The allegory of dancing with feet bound by chains, in cara B, is a metaphor for what enslaves us today our modern constraints.
Dance and music are cultural components of celebration throughout the Americas. However, they are also a sign of resilience to slavery and oppression. Inspired by the Argentinian murga, Constanza and Relmu delve into the roots of this dance and rhythm. The allegory of dancing with feet bound by chains, in cara B, is a metaphor for what enslaves us today? How does freedom feel like?
The structure of three moments of the Matanza (Rumba, Tres Saltos and Paso de Matanza) marked a line in my way of working during the symposium. I decided to keep this structure in the work I would later do alone. I kept it because it refers to a meaning. My objective in the creative process was to explore physicality of this dance, while still keeping its essence. Another objective was traveling through
time and though movement memories, by exploring the story of Matanza. This means, revisiting the legend that refers to the origin of Matanza, experimenting with maintaining the main qualities of the murga movement, while bringing them in a different studio to make dance a solo. This would also be a challenge when it came to maintaining the meaning of the Buenos Aires murga, which is mainly a group
dance of integration. In order to be able to work the meaning of the murga into the body, I renamed the parts of the Matanza. “La Rumba” would be represented as “limitation”, “Tres Saltos” as “liberation” and “Matanza” as the “Celebration of
freedom”.
Each of these parts in the Matanza has a defined music and rhythm.
In a more dramaturgical way, the limitation with a band and not a chain, as in the past, shows limitation which is more abstract. This could lead to bringing reflection about our own context, What are the limitations that each one of us has?
What are the limitation in the place, social and economical context where I live?.
Because the murga has an important political component, I used a track of a political speech as background sound for this part of the showing for my final Presentation.
The speech used was an Excerpt from the speech by José Mujica Cordano President of the Eastern Republic of Uruguay at one General Assembly of the United Nations4. He spoke of how in this century what governs political decisions is more money than the well-being of life and coexistence among humans and with nature.
However, as was mentioned, this part ended up returning to stillness and taking the band and tying me up at the waist, as a belt. Metaphorically for me, this moment was a symbol that history and memory, the social events that we experience in our lives, are part of us, they give culture and identity and they take part also from each personal history.
Secondly, it is important to mention that these legends and dance are mainly transmitted in a popular way. The dance is finally an allegory to a story, which means that the slaves probably did not dance murga with their feet chained together. The murga is not
such an old dance. In this way, what this allegory reveals is what the community decides to highlight from the history, what they decided to keep in the memory. That’s why dances are created by remembering slavery.
To present something that is from the street in an academic context is complex and
often a somewhat contradictory process, but it is a process that seems important and necessary to me, since as an artist to refer to reality outside the studio and analyze it from another point of view is enriching both for me and for the people with whom I share my work.