Fuerza Bruta and Air Condition

Last night, on the recommendation of a friend, one of my classmates and I went to check out a show called Fuerza Bruta. I was under the impression it was a theatre piece, though a look at their sexy Flash-heavy website didn't really clarify for me what it was supposed to be about. I just followed my friend's word and went anyway.

We got there and were led into this huge tent. There were no chairs, and no visible stage. As the show started someone came over the loudspeaker and informed us that we, as the audience, were too part of the show.

The show turned out to be something akin to this young, urban, multi-disciplinary, multi-media, interactive Cirque de Soleil-ish theatre/dance piece. The action happened on all sides, in the middle of the crowd, hanging from the ceiling. People were hanging from harnesses from the walls, actors came out into the middle of the crowd on these huge conveyor belt machines, there was a huge plexiglass aquarium filled with water and 4 jumping and writhing actors suspended from the ceiling, that was eventually lowered low enough for you to touch it. Crazy light effects, blasting techno music, wind and water machines, fake blood, paper and powder released intot he air. And every so often the action would turn into a spontaneous rave dance party for a couple of minutes. It was awesome.

In some ways it reminded me of this aerial dance show, Air Condition, that I saw a couple of weeks ago. It was seriously one of the coolest things I've ever seen. It was a collection of short pieces, all involving dancer in harnesses, whether suspended from the ceiling, from the vertical wall at the back of the stage, or their movements being controlled by riggers off-stage controlling the length of their harness over the course of a jump. The lights, costumes, video projections and live music by a three piece band were all great, and integral to contributing to the atmospheres that each piece created. One exceptional piece was a kind of modern, messed-up, gravity defying, modern of the tango.

The cool thing about aerial dance is that it multiplies the physical capabilites of the dancer by 10. So for example, instead of just doing a normal jump, if they have a harness on they jump up, the rigger hauls on the other enfd of the harness from backstage, the dancer glides gracefully through the air and lands on the other side of the stage, completely defying gravity. But instead of being simple show of acrobatics, the harnesses are used in an artistic way, to increase the repertoire of movements the dancer can use to express what the choreographer wants them to express.

Both the American friend who I went to see the show with and I remarked how there's so much awesome, creative, cutting-edge, multi-disciplinary theatre, dance and music going on in this city. Whacked-out shit, that takes risks, and really succeeds. I really think if you wanted to see a straight-ahead traditional production of a classic play in Buenos Aires you'd be hard pressed. I don't know why it is - maybe as opposed to some first-world North American or European cities, Buenos Aires, being on the periphery of the scene as far as some are concerned, has nothing to lose in taking risks. So they do so, and audiences are used to it, and enjoy and support what comes out of this risk-taking.