HISTORY
español
Choreographer,
performer and video maker, Rodrigo
Pardo was born in 1971 (Argentina). At the age of four he made
his first contact with the art of representation by running away from
his mother’s hand, straight down the corridor of a crowded
theater-cinema, crossing the stage and crashing his face against the
large screen. Then he faced two revelations: Bugs Bunny was not real and it felt
great to be on the stage (even in front of an angry audience).
At 15 years old a second event will push him definitely into the art world, this time is the Danish group Odin Teatret presenting pieces in public spaces of Bahia Blanca which makes Pardo arrive to a third revelation: The city is not real.
The sudden change of meaning of all the elements used by the performers (monuments, statues, public buildings) made him realize the power of art to reshape reality, an instrument that creates parallel worlds proposing a dialogue with the unknown.
In the following five years he will graduate as an actor from Escuela de Teatro de Bahía Blanca, collaborate with independent projects and work as a street performer in Argentina and Europe.
In his pursuit of a more physical theatricality he will move to Buenos Aires in 1993 to study at Taller de Danza Contemporánea del TGSM. Pardo will graduate three years later as contemporary dancer and will start working with some of the most representative choreographers of his country: Oscar Aráiz, Ana María Stekelman and Gustavo Lesgart, among others.
In 1997 he will relocate to New York to continue his dance studies at Movement Research and Dancespace Project, but after few months the initial plan will change completely when he meets Armando Orzuza and Daniela Arcuri, an astonish tango couple who will guide him into the traditional Argentinean dance. Together with his dance partner Gabriela Lavagnino they will quickly became relevant figures of the Manhattan tango scene.
From there on tango dance will be present in his work adopting different forms, first in its most traditional way and later as a recurrent fascinating element that combines physical and relational complexity in one form.
With the clear need of producing his own work he will be back in Argentina one year later to create Cuadrado Negro Sobre Fondo Negro, a dance duo with Victoria Ansiaume and Marina Brusco, inspired by the Russian painter Kasimir Malevich. In the piece a couple is designing squares on the floor as representational spaces for daily life, the perfect geometry contrast with a millimetered yet violent choreography that evolves showing different layers of a relationship.
The main action will happen in a square of 2 by 2 meters, in fact, the maximal usable space available in Pardo’s apartment, which due to budget reasons has become the rehearsal studio.
For several years he will keep collaborating with other companies, teaching tango and contemporary dance, and producing his work supported by foundations like Antorchas, Prodanza, Fondo Nacional de las Artes and Centro Experimental del Teatro Colón.
In 2004, with the help of a scholarship offered by Fundación Antorchas, he will move for one year to Brussels to investigate the inspiring Belgian dance movement, but just before leaving Buenos Aires he will again gather dancers in his small apartment and produce with Guiye Fernández the future award wining Dos Ambientes, a dance film made with almost no budget that will tour extensively the world and open many new doors. Dos Ambientes will reach the Venice Biennale and give place to a new offer: two commissioned live performances based on the film to be presented at 5th. Festivale Int. di Danza Contemporánea. The re-take results in Ognat , a trio with Cristina Cortés, Sebastián Scandrolgio and himself, and Tango Toilet, a duo with Cortés in which his Buenos Aires flat’s toilet room is reproduced in a sanitary-wares shop in the historic center of Venice and performed for the audience in the street.
The year 2006 will find him in Amsterdam participating in Dasarts (Postgraduate Studies in Performing Arts). There, the happy encounter with visual artist Shirin Neshat will encourage him to investigate more in depth the relation of movement, space and camera. Result of it is the experimental short video Una Toma, a long, not edited sequence (made in one shot) that plays with casual and constructed images passing in front of the camera, and Framing Soul, a documentary film about the work of renowned dance-maker David Zambrano which trough framing, camera movement and editing attempts to give back to the recorded images the feeling of a live performance.
Being by chance on the 8th floor terrace of Amsterdam’s Theater School, Pardo will find inspiration for his Dasarts graduation piece: ROOF
The wide open perspective of the city connects him immediately with this initial sensation he experienced when, back in Bahía Blanca, he saw how the familiar landscape of his hometown changed in front of his eyes due to the action of the performers.
As a synthesis of all the elements Pardo was using till this moment, the piece is defined as a live movie in which the audience, placed on the 8th floor terrace and helped by binoculars and wireless headphones, follows the live action performed in the windows and roofs of the buildings across the street. Like a movie cut in different pieces and spread out in the city, the structure of the performance is based on separate scenes that the audience has to put together.
Suddenly the whole city has become a stage and the borders between reality and fiction have being blurred. Underneath the shape of an entertaining performance based on dance and classic films quotations, a second layer of interpretation opens the awareness on how we perceive reality, exposing the very core of a society that grows out of the collective imagery.
A second version called ROOF a live movie/Napoli has been presented and produced by Napoli Teatro Festival Italia in June 2009
Rodrigo Pardo is currently living and working in Brussels.
Contact:
rodrigopardo2@gmail.com
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At 15 years old a second event will push him definitely into the art world, this time is the Danish group Odin Teatret presenting pieces in public spaces of Bahia Blanca which makes Pardo arrive to a third revelation: The city is not real.
The sudden change of meaning of all the elements used by the performers (monuments, statues, public buildings) made him realize the power of art to reshape reality, an instrument that creates parallel worlds proposing a dialogue with the unknown.
In the following five years he will graduate as an actor from Escuela de Teatro de Bahía Blanca, collaborate with independent projects and work as a street performer in Argentina and Europe.
In his pursuit of a more physical theatricality he will move to Buenos Aires in 1993 to study at Taller de Danza Contemporánea del TGSM. Pardo will graduate three years later as contemporary dancer and will start working with some of the most representative choreographers of his country: Oscar Aráiz, Ana María Stekelman and Gustavo Lesgart, among others.
In 1997 he will relocate to New York to continue his dance studies at Movement Research and Dancespace Project, but after few months the initial plan will change completely when he meets Armando Orzuza and Daniela Arcuri, an astonish tango couple who will guide him into the traditional Argentinean dance. Together with his dance partner Gabriela Lavagnino they will quickly became relevant figures of the Manhattan tango scene.
From there on tango dance will be present in his work adopting different forms, first in its most traditional way and later as a recurrent fascinating element that combines physical and relational complexity in one form.
With the clear need of producing his own work he will be back in Argentina one year later to create Cuadrado Negro Sobre Fondo Negro, a dance duo with Victoria Ansiaume and Marina Brusco, inspired by the Russian painter Kasimir Malevich. In the piece a couple is designing squares on the floor as representational spaces for daily life, the perfect geometry contrast with a millimetered yet violent choreography that evolves showing different layers of a relationship.
The main action will happen in a square of 2 by 2 meters, in fact, the maximal usable space available in Pardo’s apartment, which due to budget reasons has become the rehearsal studio.
For several years he will keep collaborating with other companies, teaching tango and contemporary dance, and producing his work supported by foundations like Antorchas, Prodanza, Fondo Nacional de las Artes and Centro Experimental del Teatro Colón.
In 2004, with the help of a scholarship offered by Fundación Antorchas, he will move for one year to Brussels to investigate the inspiring Belgian dance movement, but just before leaving Buenos Aires he will again gather dancers in his small apartment and produce with Guiye Fernández the future award wining Dos Ambientes, a dance film made with almost no budget that will tour extensively the world and open many new doors. Dos Ambientes will reach the Venice Biennale and give place to a new offer: two commissioned live performances based on the film to be presented at 5th. Festivale Int. di Danza Contemporánea. The re-take results in Ognat , a trio with Cristina Cortés, Sebastián Scandrolgio and himself, and Tango Toilet, a duo with Cortés in which his Buenos Aires flat’s toilet room is reproduced in a sanitary-wares shop in the historic center of Venice and performed for the audience in the street.
The year 2006 will find him in Amsterdam participating in Dasarts (Postgraduate Studies in Performing Arts). There, the happy encounter with visual artist Shirin Neshat will encourage him to investigate more in depth the relation of movement, space and camera. Result of it is the experimental short video Una Toma, a long, not edited sequence (made in one shot) that plays with casual and constructed images passing in front of the camera, and Framing Soul, a documentary film about the work of renowned dance-maker David Zambrano which trough framing, camera movement and editing attempts to give back to the recorded images the feeling of a live performance.
Being by chance on the 8th floor terrace of Amsterdam’s Theater School, Pardo will find inspiration for his Dasarts graduation piece: ROOF
The wide open perspective of the city connects him immediately with this initial sensation he experienced when, back in Bahía Blanca, he saw how the familiar landscape of his hometown changed in front of his eyes due to the action of the performers.
As a synthesis of all the elements Pardo was using till this moment, the piece is defined as a live movie in which the audience, placed on the 8th floor terrace and helped by binoculars and wireless headphones, follows the live action performed in the windows and roofs of the buildings across the street. Like a movie cut in different pieces and spread out in the city, the structure of the performance is based on separate scenes that the audience has to put together.
Suddenly the whole city has become a stage and the borders between reality and fiction have being blurred. Underneath the shape of an entertaining performance based on dance and classic films quotations, a second layer of interpretation opens the awareness on how we perceive reality, exposing the very core of a society that grows out of the collective imagery.
A second version called ROOF a live movie/Napoli has been presented and produced by Napoli Teatro Festival Italia in June 2009
Rodrigo Pardo is currently living and working in Brussels.
Contact:
rodrigopardo2@gmail.com
BACK TO MENU