Por: M. Belén Bulacio —
The dancer and dance teacher Sebastián Pereyra gave me this interview one night at the milonguita Gato Negro (formerly Antiguas Lunas). Sagittarian, born in the city of Padua, in the district of Merlo, Buenos Aires, Sebastián told us that his childhood and adolescence were spent in the west in Paso del Rey. He fondly remembers the Tiberio Botto Institute and comments that he is still linked to his friends from that time. Along with his profile as a dancer and dance teacher, he also worked as a choreographic assistant and Pilates instructor. He shared with us that "he never (thought) that he would have such a close link with art through dance, there are more and more things that (invite him) to continue believing in the possibility of transformation, generation of consciousness and life that exists in art".
Belén: How was your first contact with tango?
Tiene que ver con imágenes porque en mi casa se escuchaba mucha música, mucho folklore; mis hermanos bailaban folklore. Mi hermana en su adolescencia bailó tango. Se escuchaba mucho Hugo Diaz [armonicista y compositor santiagueño] en la casa de mis papás, la esposa de Hugo Díaz iba mucho a la casa de mis papás porque era la madrina del grupo folklórico donde bailaban mis hermanos. Tengo fotos de mis papás con Domingo Cura y Victoria Díaz [el primero fue un notable bombisto e instrumentista santiagueño y la segunda era su hermana, bailarina, cantora y esposa de Hugo Díaz], yo estaba en la panza de mi mamá.
My first contact or primary sensation in relation to tango has to do with going down the stairs of my parents' house, crossing the living room to go to the kitchen, I was about 4 or 5 years old, and sitting on a high chair on the kitchen counter, having breakfast and Héctor Larrea's voice was playing on the radio in the laundry room and there I was listening to tango. I say it and it moves me because it reminds me of very nice things. Those were my first contacts, basically. And later we met Rubén Véliz, who is a great tango dancer, and also my sister danced with him in a group in the Ballet Brandsen [choreographic group]. Rubén and my sister danced this tango by Mariano Mores called Tanguera. I don't like Mariano Mores' orchestra at all, but it is a tango that gives me tremendous sensations and that is another memory I have, of sitting in the living room and listening to that tango.
And later, when I was about 13, my parents started to take tango lessons on Mondays, I remember exactly, on Mondays I stayed at home and I stayed because my brother was there. One Monday my brother was not there and I decided, in order not to stay home alone, to accompany my old lady and my old man. It was a senior citizens' center in Merlo and they made me dance there and when I arrived the teachers told me that besides Monday they were expecting me on Thursday and, I don't remember what other day of the week, also at the theater of Merlo because they wanted me to dance in the group they had. I went a couple of times but I was a teenager and I didn't expect any of that.
Those were my first encounters with tango. Later, when I was 20 years old, I started dating a girl who was a classical dancer and she wanted to start tango. Her parents had a tango teacher who went to their house and we took private lessons there. So I started to remember things that I saw on the Sólo Tango channel and once I mentioned to Don Tito, the girl's father, that I really liked Gachi Fernández [Tango teacher, dancer and choreographer]. For me she was an impressive dancer and I admired her a lot when I saw her in Sólo Tango. Don Tito found out the address of that dancer, called her and we started to take some semi-private lessons at Gachi Fernández's house in Constitución and it was like wow. That's when I started to get into deeper questions of movement and then I had a lot of comings and goings in tango until about 10 years ago, when the only thing I do is dance and study tango.
Belén: What milongas do you choose when you are in Buenos Aires? What attracts you to those spaces?
Sebastián: Me sucede que desde que volví de Grecia en septiembre, estoy en crisis con los espacios, siento que hay muchos espacios poco genuinos, ¿viste? Mucha pose, creo que las milongas más tradicionales o más concurridas están viviendo mucho de la mística y hay poca profundidad y poco estudio, ¿no? Siento que se está viviendo mucho de la mística y siento que con eso solo no avanzamos, no crece la cultura, no crece el movimiento tanguero ni el movimiento en sí mismo. Siento que pasa eso, que hay mucho mainstream.. En Cachirulo o El Motivo se bailaba bien hace 10 años atrás, tenías que tomar clases y buenas clases para ir y bailar en esas pistas. Hoy lo que sucede es que hay mucha mística y mucho extranjero que piensa que por participar de un lugar como ese, ya está. Listo, hicimos todo. Y siento que hay un vacío en la búsqueda de la calidad y la profundidad del movimiento. El mainstream opaca esa búsqueda con mucho flyer, mucho DJ y con poco baile. Entonces, los lugares que me convocan son, por ejemplo, este como Antiguas Lunas, donde la gente se queda después de la clase a experimentar. No se trata de bailar bien o bailar mal, hay como una cierta identidad que se genera en los grupos de clases, esa gente que se queda en la práctica o en la milonga y bailamos todos con todos. Se trata de conectar de un lado más genuino, más cómodo, más real. Me parece que eso sí le da cierta dinámica a la danza, cierta dinámica al movimiento y a mí eso me lleva a identificarme con esos espacios. Por eso también elijo ir y capaz no bailo. Me parece que Diego, el organizador, genera un espacio donde está cómoda la gente, donde no hay algo impostado. Hay otros espacios donde mayormente los turistas están viviendo de una mística y no veo una búsqueda de calidad, como dije anteriormente.
La viruta, beyond the discrepancies that people may have, is where everyone falls. And it seems to me a space that proposes a most interesting synthesis where there is tango and tango is danced, there is a mixture of people of all kinds, people who dance well, people who dance badly, professionals and amateurs. La viruta continues to sustain that dynamic, it is a place where I can go alone and feel comfortable, I don't have to imposture anything, I can have a beer at the bar.
Another place I like is El Cafetín, I go there every Monday. It seems to me that it is another genuine space that invites you to build this identity thing that tango has and not the imposture.
Belén: What projects are you weaving these days?
Sebastián: I'm giving tango lessons at a milonga in the western area, in a very nice and picturesque place that is an old still life, it's called Tarzán in Castelar. Today I start teaching at Antiguas lunas with Diego, to whom I am very grateful for having invited me. I also give classes in a tango house for tourists called Palacio Tango in the Astor Piazzolla complex, in the Galería Güemes, there in Florida, they are short half-hour classes with a group called Jugando tango.
I am doing a training in Pilates and I have just finished putting together a mat class for my instructors Mariana and Mile. And recently I was invited as a choreographic assistant in a project of an international company called Sur Mundo Ensemble led by Gabriela Zuarez, an Argentine-Dutch contemporary dance playwright and choreographer. Everything she and her team research and create is based on tango, that's why they called me.
Another work space I have is with a Bachelor in Contemporary Dance, a graduate of the UNA, Perla Lazo, who has been working on an idea about Malvinas, we have been working on this project for a year and we made a video with a contemporary dancer. We will be rehearsing a soloist part for a new video with me.
All this makes me very happy and I feel very grateful to be on this wheel and that all this is happening.