Just a few question to know more about Sebastian Arce and Mariana Montes:
How long have you been dancing together ?
We have been dancing together since '97, when we signed our first professional contract with Michelangelo - a famous Tango House in Buenos Aires.
When did you meet together for the very first time ?
We met in the Club Almagro, a milonga in Buenos Aires - I was only 14 and Mariana was 15. I invited her for a dance after my performance. I already knew her but we had never spoken to eachother so far. Mariana was really very beautiful that night !!! This was our 1st meeting, and a year later we were profesionally dancing together.
Well, since we started dancing together, I can tell you that we tried all the styles and things ever performed in Tango and even more ! We never stop changing things and this sometimes drives Mariana crazy, but ... hehehe ! Tango is a never ending quest and it'ss even worse if you consider Tango as an art and not as a hobby ! For our part, Tango is obviously our job, but we also consider it as an art with very deep spiritual connexions.
For a very long time, we have been fooled by the Tango on Stage that kept us away from the improvisation part of Tango and made us somewhat a bit "distant" in our dance. When I met Mariana, I had already very much worked on stage, way too much !!! Mariana was also a product of the Stage but she was coming from the Argentine Folklore. So when we started dancing together, the Stage was a natural for us. Working on stage brings advantages and drawbacks. On a positive stand, we learned what a regular work meant, we learned to sweat and to make progress through our work, we learned to be very demanding with ourselves to earn our place on a stage. On a negative side, we worked too early to take time to know ourselves as well as eachother body and artistical sensitivity, which affected our artistical search as a couple... as we didn't have any established personality and as we didn't know ourselves enough in our dance, it made us harder to find OUR personality, and we are still a working progress about it ... but we shouldn't be that far now.
We can tell you about what we are looking for, but we cannot define a style that we might not have definitely found so far. We would like to be an active and famous part of "neo-tango"'s emergence and climax.
What do you mean by "Neo Tango" ?
For our part, "Neo Tango" is an art, a dance opened to body and spiritual expression without any reducing parameters nor prejudices that would prevent the natural evolution of the art. "Neo-tango" is not a matter of style and steps, but it's a matter of attitudes, originality and freedom without any limits. It's not an easy way, but we already live with neo tango in our mind and body : we are very self demanding, we are really aware of the importance of details, we are persevering and obstinate ... we are from Argentinians ... and dreamers.
What are your working axis about choreographies ?
We are working with the same "Neo Tango" concepts.
Our teaching work is very interesting because it follows our personal development. Our target is to make our students understand the difference between the "neo-tango" and all that they learned so far. We try and help them to open their hearts and souls so that they might be able to apreciate the Tango as a whole with all of its differences.
For example, just speak with milonguero style adepts attending a Tango Show. Many of them will explain you that this is not Tango but only gymnastics. What can one think about it ? What would Leonardo da Vinci say about Picasso's paitings ??? Would he say that this is not art ?! Art is just Art, and everyone needs an open mind to be able to appreciate it and try and understand the way the artist expresses his own feelings in a different way. For my part, I love the milonguero embrace ! I really enjoy it ! But I hate the impostors extremists who pretend themselves milongueros and spend their time in permanent refusal of anything new. Don't fool yourselves, we also meet such people in every kind of Tango school, not only in milonguero style schools but also among people dancing the "neo-tango" style and saying that milonguero-tango, is only for old-people ! What a disappointing lack of open-mindedness and what an artistical mistake.
Our objective today is to teach our students to recognize every tango style. We want to give them tools to work with and build their own dancing piece of art. We wish them to develop their dance in the way that will best suit their own personality. We want them to feel free, without any inhibition, and we do our maximum to help them to always keep an open mind. This is our objective.
Mariana is an outstanding partner. She displays a very high esthetical sensitivity, as well as in her body as in the movement she is doing. Beyond this, Mariana is a very responsible person, always ready to work.
Mariana - What are Sebastian's best assets as a dancer ?
Source: Mephisto Tango