.JPG)
Still Naked After All These Years
Like so many before him, Ray Sullivan succumbed to the intoxicating mix of nostalgia and sensuality that is tango. When he visited Buenos Aires, the birthplace of this music and dance form, he stayed not for the six months he had planned, but for five years.
Those years would profoundly shape the Connecticut-born dancer and choreographer’s work. From 1993 to 1998, Sullivan, at his peak in his 20s, immersed himself in Argentina’s modern dance scene, and in the world of tango. He frequented “milongas” (tango spaces). He observed. He learned. He danced his way to bliss.
His love affair with the so-called “vertical expression of a horizontal desire” culminated in “Tango Undressed/Tango al Desnudo.” (Spoiler alert: there’s brief nudity in this particular work, hence the title). Presented for the first time in 2004 by Sullivan’s Miami Contemporary Dance Company, the piece has been embraced as a favorite among South Florida audiences.
Five years later, after traveling to Italy and to Argentina, an updated “Tango Undressed” returns with five performances at Miami Beach’s Colony Theater (May 8, 9, 15 and two on May 16).
“I usually work with world issues, historic events or actual happenings. So, let’s call tango an actual happening,” explains Sullivan one afternoon at the headquarters of the Miami Contemporary Dance Company in Miami Beach.
“My mission was to create an evening of contemporary dance, not a tango show,” says the artist. “[To create] a show about tango, the music and the dance, the way it was created and where it had come to, but using mostly modern movement. I decided that I was not going to follow nor be deterred by tango trends.”
Coming from a working-class background, a la “Billy Elliot,” Sullivan trained in New York in the techniques of modern dance pioneers Martha Graham and José Limón, as well as in ballet at the Joffrey Ballet School. While in Argentina, he danced with the prestigious Ballet Contemporáneo del Teatro San Martín, and also choreographed outside of that theater.
“I started presenting my works by the time I was 17,” says Sullivan, who’s also developed his own dance technique.
After moving to Miami in 2000, Sullivan incorporated the company with choreographer Esaias Johnson and Jorge Gallardo, MCDC’s artistic advisor and resident costume and set designer.
"I wanted to feel I was using all the wonderful opportunities I had had as a dancer,“ the 39-year-old teacher continues , “to give back and create something that could really make substantial change.”
Next year, MCDC will celebrate its 10th anniversary. And as eclectic as the subjects that have inspired Sullivan's choreography – natural disasters (the 2004 Asian tsunami, Hurricane Katrina in 2005), AIDS in Africa, the immigrant’s experience – are the backgrounds of the dancers in the company, hailing from Argentina, Brazil, Costa Rica, Cuba, England, Haiti, Russia, the United States.
“I always wanted a company that was mixed,” states Sullivan. “It definitely represents Miami.”
Soledad Centurión Yedro can attest to this first-hand. Currently the company’s assistant artistic director as well as a dancer and teacher with MCDC, she first met Sullivan as a dance student at the school of contemporary ballet of Teatro San Martín in her native Argentina. Years later, they would reconnect in Miami – and she’s been with MCDC almost from the beginning.
“I have been a traditional tango and folkloric music dancer for many years,” says the 33-year-old Centurión Yedro. “So I can tell you, what Ray created with ‘Tango Undressed’ is new and original. Perhaps because he was a foreigner living in Argentina, he had a different perspective about what we were used to seeing every day. Somehow, he was able to recognize in tango its essence, even before he could dance it or had learned to speak Spanish. And although [‘Tango Undressed’] is tremendously modern, each piece of this work has its origin and inspiration in something that is definitely tango.”
During the early years, MCDC led a nomadic existence, a caravan of gypsies traveling throughout South Florida, dancing in different venues, such as the studios of the Miami City Ballet. In 2005, the company settled in a warehouse in South Beach, only to have to vacate when the real estate market exploded and property values went through the roof.
“We had just gotten back from our tour in Turin, Italy with ‘Tango Undressed’, which was really a lot of fun, and the audiences were incredible, but then we found out we had to move, rather quickly,” remembers Sullivan. “So I met with everyone I possibly could, and one of the people I ended up meeting was Belinda Meruelo, the owner of this and other buildings, and she was unbelievably helpful.”
Since last August, a dance studio and offices in the Seacoast Suites, a Miami Beach apart-hotel located on Millionaires Row, have been a professional home to Sullivan, 10 MCDC dancers, as well as to a tango dancer who participates only with “Tango Undressed.”
“I would love to have more dancers in the company,” says Sullivan. “With this economy though, I definitely do not see that happening this coming year. Most companies are downsizing. We are fighting tooth and nail to maintain and sustain and continue to grow out of intelligent choices, we hope. But it is very difficult, there’s no doubt.”
The daunting task ahead, however, does not seem to have dampened Sullivan’s spirit. Just as tango in Argentina has survived the impossible over decades – dictatorships, economic meltdowns, fickle audiences – he believes his company will make it as well.
“We have the power of creation within us,” Sullivan reflects. “So we will create more and be pliable when we have to. Artists have a really good way of doing that.”
Those years would profoundly shape the Connecticut-born dancer and choreographer’s work. From 1993 to 1998, Sullivan, at his peak in his 20s, immersed himself in Argentina’s modern dance scene, and in the world of tango. He frequented “milongas” (tango spaces). He observed. He learned. He danced his way to bliss.
His love affair with the so-called “vertical expression of a horizontal desire” culminated in “Tango Undressed/Tango al Desnudo.” (Spoiler alert: there’s brief nudity in this particular work, hence the title). Presented for the first time in 2004 by Sullivan’s Miami Contemporary Dance Company, the piece has been embraced as a favorite among South Florida audiences.
Five years later, after traveling to Italy and to Argentina, an updated “Tango Undressed” returns with five performances at Miami Beach’s Colony Theater (May 8, 9, 15 and two on May 16).
“I usually work with world issues, historic events or actual happenings. So, let’s call tango an actual happening,” explains Sullivan one afternoon at the headquarters of the Miami Contemporary Dance Company in Miami Beach.
“My mission was to create an evening of contemporary dance, not a tango show,” says the artist. “[To create] a show about tango, the music and the dance, the way it was created and where it had come to, but using mostly modern movement. I decided that I was not going to follow nor be deterred by tango trends.”
Coming from a working-class background, a la “Billy Elliot,” Sullivan trained in New York in the techniques of modern dance pioneers Martha Graham and José Limón, as well as in ballet at the Joffrey Ballet School. While in Argentina, he danced with the prestigious Ballet Contemporáneo del Teatro San Martín, and also choreographed outside of that theater.
“I started presenting my works by the time I was 17,” says Sullivan, who’s also developed his own dance technique.
After moving to Miami in 2000, Sullivan incorporated the company with choreographer Esaias Johnson and Jorge Gallardo, MCDC’s artistic advisor and resident costume and set designer.
"I wanted to feel I was using all the wonderful opportunities I had had as a dancer,“ the 39-year-old teacher continues , “to give back and create something that could really make substantial change.”
Next year, MCDC will celebrate its 10th anniversary. And as eclectic as the subjects that have inspired Sullivan's choreography – natural disasters (the 2004 Asian tsunami, Hurricane Katrina in 2005), AIDS in Africa, the immigrant’s experience – are the backgrounds of the dancers in the company, hailing from Argentina, Brazil, Costa Rica, Cuba, England, Haiti, Russia, the United States.
“I always wanted a company that was mixed,” states Sullivan. “It definitely represents Miami.”
Soledad Centurión Yedro can attest to this first-hand. Currently the company’s assistant artistic director as well as a dancer and teacher with MCDC, she first met Sullivan as a dance student at the school of contemporary ballet of Teatro San Martín in her native Argentina. Years later, they would reconnect in Miami – and she’s been with MCDC almost from the beginning.
“I have been a traditional tango and folkloric music dancer for many years,” says the 33-year-old Centurión Yedro. “So I can tell you, what Ray created with ‘Tango Undressed’ is new and original. Perhaps because he was a foreigner living in Argentina, he had a different perspective about what we were used to seeing every day. Somehow, he was able to recognize in tango its essence, even before he could dance it or had learned to speak Spanish. And although [‘Tango Undressed’] is tremendously modern, each piece of this work has its origin and inspiration in something that is definitely tango.”
During the early years, MCDC led a nomadic existence, a caravan of gypsies traveling throughout South Florida, dancing in different venues, such as the studios of the Miami City Ballet. In 2005, the company settled in a warehouse in South Beach, only to have to vacate when the real estate market exploded and property values went through the roof.
“We had just gotten back from our tour in Turin, Italy with ‘Tango Undressed’, which was really a lot of fun, and the audiences were incredible, but then we found out we had to move, rather quickly,” remembers Sullivan. “So I met with everyone I possibly could, and one of the people I ended up meeting was Belinda Meruelo, the owner of this and other buildings, and she was unbelievably helpful.”
Since last August, a dance studio and offices in the Seacoast Suites, a Miami Beach apart-hotel located on Millionaires Row, have been a professional home to Sullivan, 10 MCDC dancers, as well as to a tango dancer who participates only with “Tango Undressed.”
“I would love to have more dancers in the company,” says Sullivan. “With this economy though, I definitely do not see that happening this coming year. Most companies are downsizing. We are fighting tooth and nail to maintain and sustain and continue to grow out of intelligent choices, we hope. But it is very difficult, there’s no doubt.”
The daunting task ahead, however, does not seem to have dampened Sullivan’s spirit. Just as tango in Argentina has survived the impossible over decades – dictatorships, economic meltdowns, fickle audiences – he believes his company will make it as well.
“We have the power of creation within us,” Sullivan reflects. “So we will create more and be pliable when we have to. Artists have a really good way of doing that.”