The stunned audience remained glued to their seats for over an hour as they followed a dance duo creating a tragicomic atmosphere replete with poetry at Katara’s drama theatre on Wednesday evening.
Dancers, mimes and actors – Marcelo Guardiola and Giorgia Marchiori – known artistically as ‘Los Guardiola’, projected the audience into the fantastic world of their dance pantomime where comedy and tragedy merge into the rhythm of tango.
The tango show named as ‘Los Guardiola – The Comedy of Tango’ was organised by Doha Tango Passion, a group of tango lovers, with support of Katara Cultural Village and the Embassy of Argentina in Doha. The 75-minute-long show consisted of seven scenes inspired by famous tango routines.
The show, choreographed by Giorgia Marchiori, and stage directed by Marcelo Guardiola, proved to be a spectacle of mimes and dances made up of numbers inspired by the lyrics of celebrated tangos. Beginning with resources from the Italian Commedia dell’Arte, French pantomime and Argentine tango, the performers, unique in their ability to stage the work, immersed the public in a tragicomic atmosphere replete with poetry.
The seven performances were; The Barrel Organ, The Emigrant, The Fall, The Fall (part II), The Milonga, The Betrayal, and Paper Heart.
Talking to Community, Giorgia, an Italian national, said: “I have studied philosophy in Italy. I met Marcelo in 2003 when I was a classical dancer. He was in Italy for a workshop. I really liked his way of working – not only to dance but to tell a story through tango. Since then, we have been together working as a duo.
“With the passage of time, I discovered that tango has a wonderful poetry. We follow the old and classical songs and poetic renditions for our tango performances. Our performances are always without a word. We have performed in many countries around the world such as Russia, Canada, Oman, all over in Europe, Argentina and this is our third performance in Doha. We are settled in Paris, France.”
As a student of philosophy, Giorgia loves tango as a way to express the philosophy of life through dance and mime. That is what makes me really satisfied. Tonight we performed seven little stories all about tango with different characters and ambience. The show included tragedy and comedy – just like real life. We make the audience understand the story through mimes.”
The tango dancer experiences wonderful feelings in Qatar. “It has always been a wonderful experience in Doha. It is very lovely because there are people of many different countries at one place.”
Giorgia is very upbeat about the future of tango. “Now is a very good moment for tango. It is growing. Whichever country you go, you will find tango. I think the future really depends on the musicians and new music being produced. There should be more contemporary tango music.”
Marcelo, an Argentinian national, is also very happy to perform in Doha for the third time. “There are always new surprises for me whenever I come to Doha. There are new buildings and things to see. For example, this time there is National Museum of Qatar. Doha is actually close to my thinking. I like to have newer and renovated things and Doha keeps bringing new things.’
About the performance, he said: “We presented human comedy. The performance was about whatever human beings do in their lives.”
Noelia Paola Romero, wife of the ambassador of Argentina to Qatar, was very exciting after watching the tango show. “Having the privilege of being from Buenos Aires, the birthplace and capital of tango, it is difficult to find a tango performance with characteristics you have not seen before, but this show, mixing dance and mime, was a first for me.
‘I want to thank Anil Kumar, a Doha-based tango enthusiast and organiser of the show, because he is the one responsible for this, and for everything he does to promote tango here in Qatar, including the milongas every week with Tango Club Qatar. I also like the festival that every year takes place in Doha with maestros from Buenos Aires. I am looking forward to its 7th edition this October. Sadly my husband is in Buenos Aires nowadays and missed the show.”
TRAGICOMEDY: The 75-minute-long show ‘Los Guardiola u2013 The Comedy of Tango’ consisted of seven scenes inspired by famous tango routines.
