Valerio Cesio

PROFILE OF THE BEGINNING OF THE 21ST CENTURY

The first two decades of this century brought new characteristics to the evolutionary format of Latin American dance. On one hand, the acceleration in the circulation of information about choreographic productions in more developed countries encouraged the direct influence of the most cosmopolitan dances on local creation, production, and circulation processes.

Many initiatives were prematurely standardized, giving rise to a transgenic dance, with uncertain origin and a profuse plurality of aesthetic facets. The postmodern pastiche takes shape in independent productions with more futility than conviction.

On the other hand, official institutions, which historically safeguarded the choreographic heritage of the past, appropriated new trends, taking over much of the avant-garde.

Finally, creators and performers of Latin American dance abandoned their own projects in order to build an international career. Adding to this the endemic lack of resources in Latin American and Caribbean countries, independent groups of different styles dissolved and gave way to so-called single-production ensembles, called together only for a project.

One of the most important market niches for dancers in major Latin American capitals was musicals. Local versions of major Broadway titles have been performed since the last three decades of the 20th century, but never with the regularity and commercial acceptance they enjoyed in the first two decades of the 21st century in major cities like São Paulo, Buenos Aires, and Mexico City, for example.

Folk dance is the style that remained most encapsulated; its groups remained, training processes have stayed practically the same, and its repertoire has hardly been renewed.

Festivals were the showcase par excellence of the last two decades of the 20th century, but the proliferation of events reduced their impact. What used to be major showcases giving visibility to emerging talents are now a profusion of exhibitions with confusing quality criteria, where it is difficult to find consistent artistic standards.

In compensation, this pause in the processes of creation, production, and circulation allowed more time for research, promising a better understanding of the period and its real significance in the general history of dance for the near future.

Full professor of “Criticism and Specialized Aesthetics in Dance” and “History of the Arts of Movement” – Transdepartmental Area of Art Criticism – UNA (National University of the Arts – Buenos Aires – Argentina)

Author: V. Cesio