SCD takes steps in a new direction with its first show of the season

Sometimes it takes more than two to tango — and the idiom doesn’t have to have such a negative connotation.

Sarasota Contemporary Dance is opening its 12th season with SCD + Piazzolla, a collaborative show in which violinist Tai Murray, bandoneon player Rodolfo Zanetti and renowned harpist Ann Hobson Pilot join five members of the SCD company to perform works by Argentinian composer Ástor Pantaleón Piazzolla.

Piazzolla was largely known for his Argentine tango compositions, which were more contemporary than other composers of the time. SCD Artistic Director and Choreographer Leymis Bolaños Wilmott says this meshes perfectly with her own style of creating and the style of the company as a whole.

“I feel like that’s right in line with what I do,” she says. “The company is constantly evolving and pushing the form and being aware of what’s happening.”

The problem, however, was how to create a show honoring a tango composer without performing any tango dances.

The opening number for SCD + Piazzolla does just that. It begins with the dancers in long, tan trench coats and dark wayfarer-shape sunglasses. Their movements alternate between drawn-out, soft gestures and quick, sharp ones. One minute they're as graceful as twirling jewelry box ballerinas, and the next they're as stealth as detectives following a suspect down a dark alley.

They help take off each other’s sunglasses one moment, and in another they’re saying a passionate goodbye to their jackets as they peel them off themselves.

Audiences can’t quite discern what’s happening next, and that’s precisely the point.

“There’s this sense of mystery in tango, and I didn’t know how to do that without a partner, so the jacket becomes a partner,” Bolaños Wilmott says.

She says the same for the sunglasses, which are a symbol of the importance of the eyes in Argentine tango.

Bolaños Wilmott first began her fascination with the Argentinian dance form when she visited Argentina two years ago. She danced in various “milongas” — tango dance halls — throughout the trip, and she learned the history of the dance that is ingrained in Argentine society.

So, when renowned Ann Hobson Pilot approached her over a year ago to do a collaboration set to tango pieces by Piazzolla, it was a perfect fit.

“It’s very beautiful music that can be exciting and lively and make you want to stand up and dance or make you want to cry,” Hobson Pilot says.

The first step was listening to a CD of Hobson Pilot playing Piazzolla’s work and deciding what moved Bolaños Wilmott. From there, the choreography process began and was shaped by the props and dancers she chose.

Bolaños Wilmott also brought in Alice Stahlschmidt, a local tango dancer and teacher who did a master class with the SCD dancers to help them understand the essence of tango technique. Even though her piece is not a tango, Bolaños Wilmott wanted her dancers to be aware of the type of movement that inspired not only the choreography, but the music itself.

Bolaños Wilmott says moments such as playing with the balloons — one of the four props used in the piece — add a lightness to the piece that balances out the intensity of the music. Tango is a passionate dance, but she wanted to include more accessible moments where the dancers, and thus the audience, could feel free.

Because of all of the people who are putting this together, from the musicians and the dancers to the costume designers and prop painters, she says this has become much more than a musical collaboration.

“It’s about this idea of merging communities together, and it’s the same in life,” Bolaños Wilmott says. “As we come together, we can build more.”

And for SCD, it’s all about building and moving forward. Learning to dance to live music adds to a dancer’s skill set, Bolaños Wilmott says, so the dancers gain a heightened awareness of the work and their own bodies, making them better dancers.

Anything could go wrong in a live performance — and that’s what keeps everyone on edge.