THE HISTORY OF TANGO: An Experiential Conversation with Dance Instruction

An Experiential Conversation with Audience Dance Instruction

ABOUT THE PANELISTS

Teresa Marrero, PhD, is a professor at the University of North Texas and has research expertise on the history of tango in addition to serving as a tango instructor. Dr. Marrero will speak on the fascinating countercultural origins of this dance form and its implications in Fornes’ play. Dr. Marrero will also speak to how Argentenitan tango, in particular, reflected socioeconomic and sexual power struggles in the early twentieth century.

Choreographer Carlos (CJ) Torres, was born and raised in Puerto Rico. CJ is trained in different styles like Jazz, contemporary, ballet, and ballroom in cities like San Juan, New York and Miami. He has been involved in the commercial industry since young age, participating in music videos, live events like Latin Billboards and Premios Tu Música, working with artist like Maluma and Marc Anthony among others. Has been a teacher for over 15 years and is passionate about creating pieces and performances for all audience. CJ is currently working as a rehearsal Choreographer and Director for Royal Caribbean Productions, as he transitioned from been a dancer and aerialist for the company.

ABOUT THE PLAY: TANGO PALACE
TCT’s first production at the Broward Center for the Performing Arts will be TANGO PALACE, an early play by the late great master playwright and Pulitzer nominee, María Irene Fornés (1930-2018). A nine-time Obie Award winner, Fornés was a prolific author of nearly forty plays, a pioneer of the 1960’s Off-Off Broadway movement, and an originator of site-specific and immersive theatre. In TANGO PALACE, written in late 1962 and first staged in 1963 in San Francisco, Fornés reveals her indebtedness to Samuel Beckett's absurdism, Oscar Wilde's wit, and a modern camp style that her one-time lover Susan Sontag captured in her landmark essay, “Notes on Camp.”
TANGO PALACE, a dark, funny, and whimsical examination of perilous passion, tests the limits of the age-old saying that 'all is fair in love and war.’ When TANGO PALACE premiered, it was so successful that Arthur Ballet quickly anthologized it in Playwrights for Tomorrow.

TANGO PALACE will resonate with anyone who's ever tangoed with a tumultuous lover and lived to tell.

***Funding for this program was provided through a grant from Florida Humanities with funds from the National Endowment for the Humanities. Any views, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed by Thinking Cap Theatre do not necessarily represent those of Florida Humanities or the National Endowment for the Humanities.***