Thursday, April 10, 2008

Tango Seduction :: was "Seduced by Tango" :: PBS Documentary



Here is a video interview with Director/Producer Catherine Tatge of ICPMedia, Executive Producer Tom Montgomery, and Bunny Tavares Coordinating Producer/Station Relations (from www.tangoseduction.info)

It appears that this piece was produced to distribute to PBS stations around the country and for fundraising purposes.

It also appears that they are now officially calling the production "Tango Seduction" and not the original name "Seduced by Tango".

It's disappointing that they are continuing the tango stereotypes in this piece, and then theoretically in the final production. For example:

"Tango is the vertical expression of a horizontal desire."

"I did things I'd never done before. Things I couldn't repeat with anyone else."

"From the brothels of Buenos Aires...tango's rich and scandalous history..."

"With the power to make friends of enemies..." ? WTF?

Besides these, everything else looks pretty good - on track with the overarching community goals of accurately portraying social Argentine tango to the world. Although I don't think they ever use the term "Argentine Tango" in this piece.

I do like their "mission" statement (paraphrasing): "Breaking down barriers between peopl...through dance (tango)..."

I do like Bunny's narration that "each individual is searching for an emotional connection...".

And I like their final statement: "we don't know what it is about tango, but we want to find out..."

Apparently Pablo Veron is going to conduct "workshops" (auditions?) in Paris, Berlin, New York and Tokyo. I suppose this is in addition to the YouTube casting call to the general public.

Then there is to be a "final workshop" - where the "best" couple from each city - will be selected to attend the "International Tango Festival" in Buenos Aires, "where they will fulfill their dream to dance in the birthplace of tango..."

And don't forget that it will be hosted by tanguero Robert Duvall.

It's interesting to watch a production like this develop. I'm sure they will do a fine job.

Stay tuned....


Links and such ::

www.seducedbytango.com [Invitation/casting call - submit your videos and info here...]

www.tangoseduction.tv [Same as above but with links to www.tangoseduction.org, which is not a live website at this time...]

www.icpmedia.org

www.tangoseduction.info

Laura Tate Interview

John & Katie Singletary Interview

Edwin Roa & Amberlynn Sasser Interview

Lyn from Bulgaria Interview


These are the only videos on YouTube that come up in searches "seduced by tango" and "tango seduction". I suppose there could be others without titles or tags, or possibly even private videos for people wanting to remain anonymous.

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