The Show
Urbantango is a multi-genre show that combines monologue, tango and live music. The dancing is shared by actress Nuria Brucart, and one of the world’s leading tango dancers, the argentine Claudio Hoffmann, who also directs and choreographs, together with Pilar Alvarez of the dance company Tangometropolis. The music is provided by Gustavo Battaglia, guitar, and Marcelo Mercadante, large concertina, currently considered to be the best tango performers and composers in Barcelona. Mercadante has created a vibrant and poetic sound for Urbantango, which brings together arrangements of the great tango classics and his own original compositions. The great ‘cantaora’ Ginesa Ortega joins the musicians to function as a chorus, telling the heroine of the show everything that she is afraid to say out loud for herself.

The Plot
A woman finds herself going through a severe personal crisis, alone, in the teeming and anonymous city of Barcelona, which is foreign to her. She tries to keep going, following, and fettered by, patterns of belief and conduct which are deeply ingrained, in both her person and the society around her. Classic texts of Greek tragedy enable her to express an anguish which is not only hers, but that of countless women through time immemorial. Through tango she learns to demolish the constraining fetters of her past and find her own feminine essence, her inner goddess.

Tango
we use the language of this dance because in it the relationship with the Other is fundamental to a constant play of gravitational and sentimental checks and balances. It expresses the inevitable negotiation that must take place between the feminine and masculine energies to be able to establish a common centre of gravity without the individuals losing their own balance. Furthermore, part of the secret of tango’s success as an art form is that it has been flexible over the years, adjusting to new musical currents and trends, but never losing its own essence. Our heroine will develop this resilience over the course of the evening, with the audience as her witness.

Social Project
Urbantango is linked to a social project aimed at women living in the areas where the show is produced. Workshops will be offered to develop feminine consciousness through discovering each woman’s own inner goddess. To that end, archetypes of Greek goddesses will be analysed and honed using theatrical techniques, movement and dance. At the end of the workshop, participants who wish it will be given a space to take part in the show and receive audience recognition for their accomplishments.None of this would be possible without the leadership of Manuela Lorente as director and the work of Amanda Gross-Castilla (costume design), Elisabet Castells i Negre (scenography) and Xavier Povill (stage lighting).