21 April 2009

Preview

BEIRUT: Couples slide across the floor, heads touching, arms clasped around one another, hips hanging loose. Stiletto-heeled feet flick in and out of their partner's legs or prowl elegantly forward in pursuit. Among the dancers there is an utter absorption in the moment. The walls could collapse and they'd continue to sway elegantly across the tiled floor.

It's Thursday night at Walimat Wardeh restaurant in Hamra and the weekly milonga is in full swing. A milonga is a gathering of tango aficionados to eat, drink and dance. Tango dancing in Walimat Wardeh's intimate interior might sound like a health-and-safety disaster waiting to happen, but the dancers deal with the various obstructions with remarkable grace.

Lebanon's tango community is about to receive a giant boost: The first Beirut International Tango festival is hitting town April 23 through April 26. Fifteen performers will be converging on Beirut, including eight dancers and an entire tango orchestra.

The festival is the brainchild of Mazen Kiwan, a tango dancer who one milonga participant labeled as "our national pride." Trained as a contemporary dancer in his native Lebanon, he traveled to Paris in 1997 to gain a teaching diploma. While there, he stumbled across a tango class and was instantly hooked.

Since 1999, Kiwan has become a key player on the world tango stage, teaching and performing and even appearing in motion pictures, such as Claude Chabrol's 2004 "La Demoiselle d'Honneur."

For three years, Kiwan has been gunning for a tango festival in Beirut. "Every major city has a tango festival," says Kiwan. "Washington, Moscow, London, Paris. It's time for Beirut to be put on the tango map."

The tango festival follows a workshop format, to the point where there's not much room for passive audience consumption. Participants, from complete beginners to those labeled "advanced-plus," spend the day taking classes with tango experts, and in the evening pros and enthusiasts alike take the floor at a milonga.

Less sure-footed dancers will be happy to note that festival milongas will take place in the somewhat roomier setting of the Al-Diwirandi restaurant on the Corniche.

The only conventional performances are on the first day of the festival. Professionals will take to the floor in an opening ceremony at the main gate atrium of the American University of Beirut, while in the evening there will be a show at AUB's Bathish Auditorium.

The festival is held under the auspices of AUB's Continuing Education Center and the daytime workshops will all take place on university premises. George Farag, AUB's assistant vice-president for regional external programs, is a keen tango dancer himself and believes the tango festival will fulfil a number of the Continuing Education Center's key aims.

"We aim to reach out to the wider community," says Farag. "The workshops will bring a great number of people onto the AUB campus."

The festival will also bring AUB to the attention of an international crowd. Around 40 tango enthusiasts - non-professional tango tourists, if you like - will arrive in Beirut especially for the festival, from countries such as Turkey, Jordan and the US. Including the performers, this figure is raised to 55.

Internationally celebrated Orchestra Silencio will be flying in from Argentina. Led by the Lebanon-rooted Argentine pianist Roger Helou, the group encompasses a singer, accordionist and bassist. The poetically named dance partners El Pajaro and Belen will also be arriving from Argentina, with other pros journeying in from Sweden, Norway and France.

Kiwan too is excited about the international attention. "I love my country, and many people still believe that it is a desert or a war zone," he said. "I want to show them the true face of Lebanon.

"For Lebanese people, it's often not easy to travel," Kiwan continues. "It can be difficult to get a visa. I wanted to bring tango here instead."

First taking root in Argentina at the start of the 20th century, tango is a relatively new dance form. Its emergence in Lebanon is particularly fresh. On the "Tango in Lebanon" website, enthusiast Mira Samaha writes, "If Buenos Aires is the mother and Paris the fiance, Beirut is a very late daughter of tango."

It's uncertain whether this narrative implies that Beiruti tango issued from an extra-marital union or not, but in 2001 several local dance schools started offering lessons. By 2003 Kiwan had caught wind of the growing tango fan-base and began making regular returns from Paris to give workshops. The Thursday-night milonga at Walimat Wardeh was instituted in 2005 and since then the dance has spread like wildfire.

Kiwan points out that this new scene is the resurgence of an enthusiasm which first took root in the 1930s and 1940s. The Syria-born vocalist and pop icon Asmahan was famous for her tango tunes, as was Abdel Wahab. "The tango died out here with the second world war," says Kiwan. "Now we are bringing it back."

Lebanon is not the only country where tango is something of a craze. Since the mid-90s, the tango has experienced an international resurgence. As well as burgeoning participation, a slew of films have been built around the dance-form, such as Sally Potter's 1997 "The Tango Lesson." Artists such as The Gotan Project have re-booted tango music for modern ears.

What is the contemporary appeal of the tango? "It is those magical three minutes, when you are completely absorbed in the other person," says Samaha. "In this age when we are so removed from other people by our computers and telephones, the tango provides a way to experience intimacy and sensuality."

For further information on the festival, visit http://rep.aub.edu.lb/bitf or call +961 1 350 000, extension 3140. For information on tango classes and milongas, visit www.tangoinlebanon.com

Copyright The Daily Star 2009.