Malambo, Tradition and Memory in Argentina. The Body as an Archive in La Era del Cuero.
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.5216/ac.v11i1.82497Abstract
The Malambo has been historically constructed in Argentina as a dance representative of the national being, and currently there is a certain dispute between innovation and tradition around this dance. An idea of tradition that presupposes a certain ‘fidelity’ to the way the Malambo was danced in its origins, and that leads to the question: is it possible to produce this Malambo of the past in an identical way, and is it possible to do so when it deviates from certain traditional parameters?
This article proposes to analyse the relationship between dance, tradition and history through the work La Era del Cuero by Pablo Rotemberg, premiered in 2022. By incorporating the malambo and, consequently, the figure of the gaucho, the work allows us to reflect and rethink the links between archive and memory in the staging of these bodies. These bodies embody the tensions and negotiations of a past that appears in the present, allowing us to think of a heterogeneous time in which past, present and future coexist in the same scenic time. The fundamental question that guides this work is What representations and memories of this dance of the past can be seen embodied in the bodies of the dancers?
Key words: Malambo, Archive, History, Memory, Nation
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