FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE April 23, 2004 Contact: Cynthia Benjamin (202) 234-7174
GALA Hispanic Theatre & WPAS present !Candombe! Tango Negro Conceived and directed by Hugo Medrano Written by Jorge Emilio Cardoso I walk and without realizing They asked me if My body begins swaying I learned to dance Candombe; As if a far away beat But I ve carried it imprinted on my soul Were making the rhythm From the day I was born (Excerpt from Nacm bailando candombe) Come join GALA in !Candombe! Tango Negro, a musical journey that follows Uruguay s irresistible African beat to its crossroads with the tango! Featuring "Cuareim 1080," five musical guest artists from Uruguay, !Candombe! celebrates the influence of African rhythm and dance on the tango, one of the most distinctive Latin American sounds and dances known throughout the world. !Candombe! will run June 3 through June 27, 2004 at the Warehouse Theater, located at 1021 Seventh Street, NW. Washington D.C. Performances are Thursday through Saturdays at 8:00 pm; and Sundays at 4:00 pm. All performances are in Spanish with free, simultaneous interpretation in English available on individual audio phones. Press Night and Noche de GALA is Saturday, June 5 and will be hosted by the Embassies of Uruguay and Argentina. A free, post-performance discussion, led by Dr. Marvin A. Lewis from the University of Missouri, an expert on Afro-Uruguayan literature, will be held on Sunday, June 6. The Latin-American Folk Institute will hold music and dance workshops open to the public during the run of the production. For more information, call (301) 887-9331. This production is made possible with generous support from the Inter-American Development Bank, the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities, and the Embassies of Uruguay and Argentina. -more- ABOUT THE PRODUCTION Through the hot rhythms of candombe, milonga, and tango, !Candombe! provides a panoramic view of the history of the Medio Mundo, one of the more famous tenements inhabited by many of Montevideo s urban poor, including Afro-Uruguayans and recent immigrants. Built during the turn of the century, it reached its apogee in the 1950s as the center of candombe. Medio Mundo was one of the hubs of candombe and its structural image. The show follows its rise to fame to its demolition in 1978. The live music is provided by five members of the award-winning agrupacisn de Negros y Lubolos "Cuareim 1080" (or "C 1080") from Uruguay. Musical direction is by Waldemar "Cachila" Silva, the leader of this group, and a live witness to the world of the Medio Mundo. "C 1080" refers to 1080 Cuareim Street, the original address of the Medio Mundo. !Candombe! also will feature local singer Vicky Leyva, a former member of Perz Negro, Sandra Mendoza, Maximiliano N. Gonzalez, Susan Leyva, Ernest Williams, Tony Pozzoni, Carina Losano, and GALA company members Oscar Ceville and Hictor Dmaz. Director Hugo Medrano has directed and acted in more than 100 productions in Costa Rica, Cuba, Spain, New York, Washington, and Argentina. Productions he has directed include La dama duende, Cervantes: maestro del entremis, La verdad sospechosa, and most of Federico Garcma Lorca s works. Original musicals he has co-created include Raices cubanas I & II and Brasil: as coisas do samba. He was nominated for 2000 Helen Hayes Award for his direction of La dama boba, and received a 1994 Helen Hayes Award for Outstanding Lead Actor for his performance in Kiss of the Spider Woman. Set design is by renowned Uruguayan artist Carlos Paez Vilars, whose murals and exhibits have appeared around the world. His most acclaimed work, Casapueblo, is sculpture built to accommodate guests and serve as his studio. His paintings depict the influence of his teachers: Picasso, Dalm, De Chirico, and Calder. Paez Vilars, also a renowned composer of candombe, and whose music is featured in the show, will be in Washington to restore his work at the Organization of American States, considered the longest mural in the world. Light design is by GALA s Resident Designer, Ayun Fedorcha, whose work in La chunga was nominated for a Helen Hayes, and costumes are by Peruvian Marcela Villanueva. Choreography is by Argentine Carina Lozano, an internationally renowned dancer and instructor of tango, who counts Madonna and Shakira among her former pupils. Technical Director is Richard Robinson, Laura Quiroga is Assistant Director, and Abel Lspez is Producer. Jorge Emilio Cardoso, the playwright for !Candombe!, is a noted Afro-Uruguayan poet and dramatist. His ability to combine the black experience with the national and the international accounts for the phenomenal success of works like El desalojo de la calle de los negros (Eviction on the Street of the Blacks), which premiered in 1995. -more- TICKET INFORMATION AND SPECIAL SERVICES Single tickets are $28.00 each. Tickets for students and senior citizens (65+) are $18.00 (Thurs/Sun) and $20.00 (Fri/Sat). Additional discounts are available to groups of ten or more. Tickets also are available at TICKETplace. Tickets for the Noche de GALA and reception are $40.00 ($75/couple). Proceeds will benefit GALA s educational and community outreach programs. GALA at the Warehouse is located at 1021 Seventh Street, NW. The closest Metro station is Mt. Vernon Square, on the green and yellow lines. FOR INFORMATION & RESERVATIONS CALL 202-234-7174 or visit us at www.galatheatre.org ### GALA is a nonprofit, tax-exempt organization supported in part by the D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities, The National Endowment for the Arts, private foundations, corporations and individuals. GALA is a member of the League of Washington Theaters, the Cultural Alliance of Greater Washington, the Theatre Communication Group, the National Association of Latino Arts and Culture, the Council of Latino Agencies. AmericanAirlines. is the official carrier for GALA Hispanic Theatre and WPAS. About Candombe Uruguay s black population is only about 2%, but it has influenced that country s urban popular culture beyond its numbers. Candombe, an Afro-Uruguayan rhythm and dance rooted in carnival festivities, is now a major component of Uruguayan music and one of its foundations. Candombe s continuity, however, was severely jeopardized during the 1970s when the military dictatorship attacked every manifestation of popular culture expression of a minority. Candombe became a symbol of resistance to neofascism; thus its popularity transcended the boundaries of its minority audience to become the foremost representation of Uruguayan popular culture. Accordingly, candombe serves as a disguise to hide the true feelings of its performers, and has been transformed from a ritual of happiness and harmony to its present ironic form. The heart of candombe s community was once two tenements that are currently abandoned ruins: the Ansina and the Medio Mundo, where candombe performances became known as llamadas (drum calls), a direct offshoot of slave dances. During carnival, groups paraded through the streets, performing comparsas. As night fell, drummers of the Barrio Sur, a historically black neighborhood, assembled by firelight. Flames danced in a gutter bonfire lighted to tone the hides of drums. Rows of drummers filled the night with the African rhythms of candombe. Tango or Tangs? The tango developed simultaneously in Montevideo and Buenos Aires. Although typically regarded as the creation of Italian and Spanish immigrants, the tango s music and the dance movements associated with it were deeply influenced by African dance and music. The word "tango" developed simultaneously on both sides of the Rio Plata, more than likely as a deformation of the word "tangs." During the period of colonization, Buenos Aires was an important port for the entry of black slaves to the New World. These recent imigris, danced to the rhythms of percussion instruments known as tangss. The name later represented the place where they gathered to perform their candombe dances. By extension, the dances themselves were also called tangss. Therein is an intriguing musicological tale about the obscure origins of the tango, one of the best-known Latin American musical genres. While Argentina s black population all but disappeared, decimated in the 1800s by yellow fever, intermarriage and massive military recruitment during wartime, it remained a small, but cohesive group in Uruguay. Candombe in its "purer" form, was therefore free to continue prospering.
