Melbourne Fringe Festival
Part of Deakin University Art and Performance "Five Rooms" installation
The Tango Touch Exploration
Interactive performance with video installation
CONCEPT AND PERFORMANCE: Raffaele Rufo
WITH: Eddie Perez, Valentina Vitolo, Natasha Eracleous, and Shebnem Tuncel
The Carlton Club
Level Four 193 Bourke St Melbourne
Opening Wed 10 Aug, 6 - 8pm
Show runs Aug 10 - 20
Free entry
“Embodied knowledge or the encounter with how the body experiences such knowledge as sensation is encapsulated in movement. ”
Short interactive performance (20 min) conducted by Raffaele Rufo in a small room on the 4th floor of the Carlton Club in Burke St, Melbourne CBD. Audience are invited to engage not just through sight and hearing and also kinaesthetically. A previous exploration of the Tango and Touch occurred across a major intersection in Melbourne CBD. In both cases the performance disrupts where Tango occurs.
PERFORMANCE SCHEDULE:
Wednesday 10 August 2016 6-8pm (with Valentina Vitolo)
Saturday 13 August 2016 6-8pm (with Natasha Eracleous)
Wednesday 17 August 2016 6-8pm (with Valentina Vitolo)
Friday 19 August 6-8pm 2016 (with Eddie Perez)
Saturday 20 August 6-8pm 2016 (with Shebnem Tuncel)
ABOUT THE PERFORMANCE
Short dance-theatre exploration (20 min), repeated four times each scheduled day (max six persons allowed in the room at each time).
Rufo's interactive performance at the Carlton Club reproduces movements, sounds and images characteristic of Melbourne public spaces mixed with the tradition of Argentine tango to explore interactively how a shared experience of the sense of touch can enhance our bodily connection with self and others and trigger creative forms of engagement with the rhythms of city life.
Part of Deakin Art and Performance “Five Rooms” installation at the Melbourne Fringe Festival, this dance-theatre exploration reproduces movements, sounds and images characteristic of Melbourne public spaces mixed with the tradition of Argentine tango to explore interactively how a shared experience of the sense of touch can enhance our bodily connection with self and others and trigger creative forms of engagement with the rhythms of city life.
The Tango Touch is a work in progress. The dance is based on improvisation. Set, soundscape, music, visual projections, lighting, costumes and script have been evolving during the performance period. Rufo's dance partners have varied too.
NOTES FOR THE AUDIENCE
Audience will be invited to engage with performance not just through sight and hearing but also kinesthetically. Direct bodily experience will evolve across three main stages. Movements will be prompted by recorded or live voice and by gestures and facial expressions.
Stage One: THE STATION
Activate your senses and try to find your stillness;
Listen selectively to city sounds trying to identify their different sources and qualities;
Try to feel the different parts of your body in relation to space and people around you.
Stage Two: CROSSINGS
Walk following the direction of the lines on the floor;
Try to move in time with music;
Try to not overcrowd any particular area of the room.
Stage Three - TOUCH
Look at people around you and try to connect with one person in particular;
With the aim of moving with your new partner, silently choose who is going to lead and who will follow: if you choose to follow, close your eyes; if you choose to lead, move behind your follower;
Followers will be offered a blindfold to cover their eyes; leaders are invited to put their hands on their partner's' shoulders, connect with her/his inner rhythm and guide her/him through a very slow walk following the trajectories of the lines on the floor.
After the performance audience are invited to leave a comment about their experience on The Tango Touch notebook.
FEEDBACK FROM AUDIENCE:
“I have always loved being confused. Then again. I would say I always am. All I really desire is to be confused pleasantly in an engaging situation. As I danced across the tape I felt amused, with a mild smile/smirk on my face. As directed about blindfolded I felt great in abdication of whatever it was I should do being handed over to another directing me.”
“I am someone who can’t dance. I don’t have body coordination and bodily spatial knowledge. I really enjoyed this installation and experience. A first time.”
“Connecting experience - deep and musical.”
“Connection and meditation hand in hand.”
“The room felt a lot bigger than it was.”
“It opens up the sense plus you become aware of where you are.”
“Intriguing! Quite liberating being led by a person I had not met before.”
“Love all the elements that you incorporated. Contemplation time was discomforting but very…”
“Love the concept of a performance! Space, moving bodies, music!!!”
VENUE
The Carlton Club
Level Four 193 Bourke St Melbourne
ARTIST BIO:
Raffaele Rufo is an Argentine tango dancer and theatre artist currently enrolled in a PhD at Deakin University. His research investigates how tango contributes to contemporary city life. His teaching and performance practice integrates interdisciplinary aspects of creation and direction. He has produced several shows and was recently founder of the Melbourne Baldosa Tango Festival. Rufo has also worked with disadvantaged youth and cultural communities in Italy and was awarded a national prize for social responsibility in 2014. The pedagogical implications of his artistic approach were presented at the 2015 Melbourne Public Pedagogy conference. In 2016 he co-led the launch of the Creativity and Communication Program for Melbourne University Master of Entrepreneurship.