It’s time to get up and play your part in the second edition of a theatre experience that invites us to reflect on who we are and the infinite possibilities of who we can be. Sonja D’cruze went to check it out and interviewed Natalia Chami and Romina Bulacio Sak, the porteña directors and producers behind Usted Está Aquí Vol. 2 …

I knew what I was letting myself in for when I signed up for a preview show, in as much as I knew to leave my inhibitions at the ticket office. I’d been initiated into the enchanted world of Usted Está Aquí shows last year, when I found myself thrown into a trippy unreality, played out in a house in San Telmo. Me and my nine audience companions bonded as the actors played with our perceptions; mentally, physically, and linguistically. Our perspective shifted through alcoholic anonymous meetings to transgender discos and chill out tents. That first experiment in immersive theatre grew exponentially. Two shows a week became seven. The team of actors grew, word spread, and audiences loved it.

Natalia Chami and Romina Bulacio Sak are a creatively restless partnership. They met at university whilst studying political science but have since followed artistic paths. They have travelled for their art – between them taking in stints in London, Italy, Bologna, Berlin and Spain – creating a nomadic theme that runs through their work. Their playful productions also incorporate elements of their training in clowning, improvisation, and anthropological theatre. It’s quite mind-boggling just how much they’ve managed to fit in the last few years, with festivals and productions aplenty.

Inspired by the enthusiasm for last year’s shows, they are back for more good times with ‘Usted Está Aquí Vol. 2′, which will be housed inside the perplexing maze of the Ciudad Cultural Konex. But here’s the thing: I can’t actually tell you much about the performance. It’s not that I wasn’t paying attention, but I was sworn to secrecy by a mysterious stranger who received distinct instructions to tell the audience that, ‘What happens during the show, goes no further…’

A little magic in life is good. Natalia and Romina certainly believe in it, so I’m not going to reveal the tricks. Let’s just say the pair have created a theatrical experience where each entangled space leads to a different situation. They invite the audience to become nomads in their beautifully lopsided vision as it is led from the curiously familiar to the absurd end of strange. “It is an invitation to play and to choose which kind of adventure you want to experience. Its your choice,” says the moto of the duo. “Lots of situations could happen that we hope will leave our “protagonists” dazzled, but also wondering about the countless possibilities of life. What happens exactly?”

I tried to find out as I put my questions to Natalia and Romina…

It’s finally time to officially open your second edition of ‘Usted Estas Aqui’ production to the public – how are you feeling right now?

We´ve had run throughs with friends, a special day for our Ideame producers and four shows for the press!!!! We are excited, we are grateful, we are ready!!

The first ‘Usted Está Aquí’ was a huge success, what’s new for the audience this time?

‘Usted Está Aquí’ in the Konex is a completely different show. It is a site-specific experience which means that changing space changes the show completely. All scenes are new and it´s been very interesting to work with the actors this year creating these new universes.

You could see the evidence of your adventures in Europe in the first show, what’s inspired you this time around?

Indeed! Our most important inspiration has been our experience abroad. Travelling makes you face situations you would never face at home, where you live in a sort of constant comfort zone. We lived and experienced different cultures and we both had this feeling of quick changes. Here in Argentina it takes hours to cross the country, while in Europe in a couple of hours you can be in a completely different city. We were also very inspired by different shows we saw where the role of the audience was more active; in London for example, immersive theatre is quite big.

After the huge success of the last show, have you been anxious about audience expectation and how much does that inform your ideas?

We really trust the show because it’s the result of a huge team of artists: actors, musicians, designers and producers. It’s very inspiring to live the process together, we are definitely a community. We wanted to create something as inspiring as our first ‘Usted Está Aquí’ and we feel we are definitely there. Taking over Konex’s spaces, creating with our cast plus new additions, counting on a really great technical team…all adds up to a combination that we trust and enjoy. We hope the audience will do too.

There’s this idea of the audience being the protagonist that is central to your theatre, why is that an important theme for you?

We feel in times like this people really feel the need to participate, to be part of something. It’s interesting to get involved physically and emotionally in a situation where the limit between fiction and reality is very thin. It’s more demanding, risky, and that is what makes it fun and inspiring. In our daily life we already interpret different roles, but we don’t have such an explicit awareness of this. People leave the show feeling everything is possible…we feel it´s true, both inside ‘Usted Está Aquí’ and outside.

You’ve moved into a huge space this year, the Konex, why did you want to move away from the intimacy of the house and has the size brought it’s own challenges?

We thought about this quite a lot…we believed it was time to take the experience to the next step and leave the secrecy that a house proposes. Now the challenge is different but still exciting. The production team required more professionalism this year and that made us learn a lot about how to work with different technical areas. We have grown in these two months more than we ever thought. Also it was a big challenge to work in a space that wasn’t 100% ours. Working with limits helped us to organise ourselves better and to prioritise needs.

So the ‘Usted Está Aquí’ family has grown, the space has grown, does this mean the fun and adventures of the performance have grown too?

Its a different proposal! We learnt from last year’s experience. We are having fun and we hope you do too. (We’re) Not so sure if it’s better just because its bigger or there are more of us. We think it’s better because we took a bigger risk and the adrenalin of the unknown makes it more interesting for us. If the audience gets to feel the same way they felt with the first one, we will feel happy.

Arts funding has been cut everywhere, how has Ideame and these types of crowd-funding platforms changed the way artists create work?

We found crowdsourcing our way to create. Financially and in other different ways, the power of community has made our projects possible. We know it’s difficult to do art in any part of the world but we guess living in this city has taught us that there are creative ways to make your art possible. Crowdfunding is one of them. More and more in Buenos Aires people are understanding the philosophy of crowdfunding, where money is not as important as networking. A small amount that doesn’t affect the economy of a person can encourage others to do the same. We are very grateful to have achieved our objective again with Ideame.

Do you think that this trend of interactive theatre has a shelf life or does it keep on reinventing?

It will definitely keep reinventing itself as we are changing as well as the audience. Society is changing and how we react to these social changes directly affects the type of theatre we want to see and the type of experiences we want to participate in. Of course, there are trends and now immersive theatre is one but it has always existed and there are many different companies exploring the question about the role of the audience.

Usted Está Aquí Vol. 2 opens tonight, 2nd July at the Ciudad Cultural Konex and will run at least until September.

Ciudad Cultural Konex, Sarmiento 3131, Abasto; Tickets $80; Tel: (+54) 11 4864 3200

Pecha Kucha, which means ‘chit chat’ in Japanese, is a semi-regular event in Buenos Aires where creative types gather and present their ideas with 20 power-point slides each 20 seconds long.

The event held at the Ciudad Cultural Konex last week introduced the audience to 11 speakers, from photographers to activists, authors, entrepreneurs, journalists, and even a biologist.

Pecha Kucha began in 2003 in Tokyo as a way for architects to quickly explain and share their ideas with one another. It has since evolved into a way for creative people across a myriad of disciples to gather and share their work and ideas. It has quickly spread from country to country and now takes place in over 600 cities around the world, from Berlin to Mumbai to Lagos.

In 2006, Buenos Aires hosted its first Pecha Kucha, organised by May Groppo, and since it has allowed over 300 people to share their work in the city.

The presentations are short and rapid-fire enough that even topics that may not otherwise be of personal interest can capture your full attention for 6.6 minutes. They are just detailed enough to immerse you in each presentation, but quickly thereafter you had to mentally jump to a totally new topic and become immersed all over again. It’s inspiring and invigorating.

Last week, the stage transitioned abruptly from the ladies of La Tienda Malba, a boutique that uses recycled materials in creative ways to make jewelry and purses, to an impassioned slam-poetry-esque speech about self-determination, liberty and the law by Ignacio Mazzocco, author of the book ‘La Noble Igualdad’.

Audience member Catalina Zenedetti, a 29-year-old lawyer from Buenos Aires, observed: “Its more enjoyable for the spectator because its short and rapid and not dense and long.” Her friend, Valeria Giannoni Napolitano, 26, who works in public relations, agreed, adding, “it seems excellent to give the opportunity to so many different people in just one night to explain what they are doing.”

Another audience member, journalist Tomás Crom, 25, said that he enjoyed it very much, but recognised that: “it seems like it’s a challenge, and that its much more complex to show your idea, what you do, and how you want to show it in this format.“

The format is clearly audience-friendly, however the presenters agreed that it was indeed challenging and some were noticeably nervous.

Presenter Natalia Nasep, of Cine en movimiento, an organisation that aims to provide the means and equipment for disadvantaged children to express themselves by making films and documentaries about the world around them, described her experience. “It was difficult, honestly, to choose 20 images to tell the story of our whole project, our process, but after that, we followed through with the point that we wanted to convey with the presentation and it worked out.”

For photographer and artist Hernán Paganini too, the experience was a bit trying. He explained, “It was hard to speak of something so personal, my life’s work, and who I am. When you are talking in the first person about who you are, it’s a bit complex… if you have to explain like, 30 years of your work and your life in six minutes, its an exercise, it feels like something you have to practice.”

Some presenters, such as biology professor, Raúl Alzogaray stuck to the format directly and explained each slide as it came up, as in a lecture, showing facts and figures such as the average percentage of ‘bug fragments’ that are inevitably already in your food. With stats on the cultivation and consuming of bugs around the world and throughout history, his presentation culminated in the idea that the future will see us all eating bugs. (There is an average of 59 fragments of insects per 100g of chocolate, in case you were wondering).

Others, however, used the medium more loosely.

Author Mazzocco used the slides more as a visual accompaniment to a performance. He used images of chemicals, molecules, earth and clay as a backdrop to contrast his resolute speech about the insubstantiality of man-made law. What felt like part-impassioned-political-speech part-poetry ended with the audience being asked to hold hands and declare in unison: “Vivimos!”

Paganini too, used his object-oriented, abstract photographs more as a backdrop to his stream-of-consciousness explanation of his life and work, only occasionally referencing a slide as he talked about how his grandfather grew up on a farm, how he feels life is a collage, and how his work makes him feel like a better human being.

Attending a Pecha Kucha night is the perfect way to jump right into a new city and uncover a dozen different creative projects happening within, meet people, or to just get a quick infusion of inspiration directly into your veins.

I can’t recommend it enough.

The next Pecha Kucha will be held at Konex on Tuesday 27th August.
The presentations are in Spanish, but for the most part the language was simple, direct and easy to follow.

A more detailed description of each of the presenters can be found here.

After the open air showings last summer proved very popular, the alternative screening cycle “Proyecciones Fuera de la Común“ is back at the Konex, this time indoors. The concept is simple: live music sets by Argentine bands followed by a showing of an offbeat international film. In a comfortable hall tucked away at the back of the Konex, a trendy crowd gathers over the next three Thursdays to enjoy cheap beer, live tunes and some fine independent cinema.

The music sets start at 8pm, the film at 9pm and tickets cost $35. Arrive on time to get a spot in one of the highly sought-after beanbags.

These are the upcoming bands and flicks.

16th May 2013

Band: Alvy Singer & Sus Hermanos; Low-key, jazzy Argentine folk.

Film: For Ellen by So Yong Kim (USA, 2012)

After four years, Korean American Sundance-darling Son Yong Kim returned with a quiet, tender film about a heavy-metal singer trying to connect to his alienated 6-year-old daughter. Paul Dano (There Will be Blood) gives a strong performance as an erratic, ailing and ineloquent rocker struggling with his emotions.

23th May 2013

Band: Surprise Act

Film: The Deflowering of Eva Van End by Michiel ten Horn (Netherlands, 2012)

A dysfunctional family is thrown into chaos when an all-too perfect German exchange student moves in for two weeks. With its picture-book framing, absurdist humour, and heavily stylised art design, Michiel ten Horn‘s debut makes clear reference to grandmaster Wes Anderson.

30th May 2013

Band: Prietto y Amigos; An Argentine take on Klezmer and Balkanbeats.

Film: The Man With the Iron Fists by RZA (USA, 2012)

The Wu Tang Clan would not be the Wu Tang Clan without Kung Fu movies from the 80s. Last year, their most versatile member RZA teamed up with Quentin Tarantino as producer and directed his first movie in Shanghai paying tribute to the roots of his inspiration. Expect tons of fake blood, martial arts clichés, and a lazy plot set to hip hop beats.

Improvised percussion group La Bomba de Tiempo has been entertaining crowds with its lively beats every Monday at Konex for years. Grace Protopapas catches up with the group’s only female member, María Bergamaschi, to talk about life within the group and encouraging more women to get involved in drumming.

Camera: Adrienne Benassy, Hans Fresen
Editing: Grace Protopapas, Hans Fresen
Lead image: Delfina Montes de Oca

The remote Uruguayan town of Cabo Polonio is inhabited mostly by fishermen and craftsmen and has no electricity. It was here that Onda Vaga first stumbled into existence.

Four Argentine musicians began playing together with whatever acoustic instruments they had to hand. They liked what they heard, and the band, in its first incarnation, was born.

When trombonist Germán Cohen joined the ranks of Nacho Rodríguez, Marcelo Blanco, Marcos Orellana and Tomás Justo a few months later, their sound was complete.

The band came about organically with nothing premeditated, not even the name. The story goes that when the owner of a small venue asked what name he should put up on the chalkboard one night, someone in the group offered “Onda Vaga”. The owner chalked it up and it has never changed.

Now they’re one of the hottest bands in Argentina, building a career out of a catchy, folk-rock fusion that is unmistakably their own.

Their music is centred on uplifting melodies, hip-swinging rhythms and memorable lyrics. Band members play guitars and various different South American strings (like guitarra criolla and cuatro venezolano) accompanied by Latin percussion instruments and brass. Each of them is handy with more than a couple of instruments and all of them sing.

This month they are playing a string of Sunday gigs at the Konex centre, a cavernous industrial space in the heart of Buenos Aires.

For somebody who hasn’t heard the band, it can be somewhat confusing getting your head around their style. Their early music has been described as “a multifarious mix of rumba, cumbia, reggae, folk, rock and tango”. And if that’s too much to take in, then calling it “campfire rock” might help, but probably sells them a bit short.

I met up with band member Marcelo Blanco before last Sunday’s show and asked him how he would describe Onda Vaga’s sound to someone unfamiliar with Latin American rhythms. “I would tell them to listen to it,” he replied, enigmatically. “If you don’t know the rhythms you have to listen to them, you can’t describe them.”

The band seemed relaxed before their show, looking exactly as you would expect for a band of their style, sporting shorts, casual t-shirts, dishevelled hair and one or two beards. But with fame comes the trappings of success; the, not very rock and roll, tray of sushi in the green room surely wasn’t what they ate before their gigs in Cabo Polonio.

They have, needless to say, changed in a more meaningful way since they formed in 2007, and no longer play the acoustic sets that defined their early music.

“In the beginning we never played with amps,” Marcelo explains. “And then one day we were playing here, expecting around 300 people to come, and 800 turned up. From then on, our concerts have always been amplified.”

The band was born more out of circumstance than choice, and continues to evolve in the same way, adapting to success rather than predicting it. “In the beginning there were only five of us, now there are nine,” comments Marcelo.

When they play in Buenos Aires it’s always the same four people that join them on stage, but when they travel around the country it varies a little.

As the band grows, both in popularity and in numbers, their music is edging away from the pick-up-and-play style of their first album. “We are sharper, better rehearsed,” Marcelo says of their more polished sound.

On this balmy, summer night they are playing inside at the Konex having had an outdoor concert cancelled earlier in the week because of a downpour.

In classic Argentine style the gig starts two hours later than billed. The place is hot and sticky but the crowd is buzzing with anticipation by the time the band come on stage.

The live show, plugged in and amped up, is a more powerful sound than you get on the albums. The music is bigger and brassier (two of the additional four musicians play brass instruments). They create an upbeat, high tempo fanfare atmosphere, lead by rock and Latin grooves and rhythmic percussion.

The first part of the show is a little more understated, with slightly softer songs taking precedence. At times the performance is affected by pauses in between songs, stuttering the momentum a little. But as the night goes on, the liveliness of the band, and the crowd, increases.

When they play their biggest hit, ‘Mambeando’, the crowd adore it, dancing and singing along to every word. The bombastic brass of ‘Continent de Perlas’ injects a great energy into the audience and the memorable ‘Así’ burrows its way into my head for hours after the gig.

The show certainly offers enough variation to keep music aficionados on their feet. The band make the most of the diversity of their music, mixing and matching classic Argentine folk with some bossanova rhythms, ska style brass and Beatles inspired harmonies. (Marcelo said that if he could play with any musician dead or alive, John Lennon would get the nod).

Onda Vaga put on the sort of concert that is very easy to enjoy. Swapping instruments between one another, singing in unison, throwing themselves into the mass of fans in front of them – there is something natural and unpretentious about the way they perform. It’s clear that the band enjoy playing together, something essential to the success of the band and which Marcelo says is “important not to lose”.

Whilst they may have lost a bit of the intimacy of their earlier shows, the band love the fact that they’re reaching more and more people. And the audience love it too; dancing until the end and in good voice throughout.

“When we’re playing and the fans are chanting the lyrics, it fills me with joy. It’s really amazing,” Marcelo had said before the gig, with a smile on his face.

I think he probably had a good night.

On a mild, breezy Wednesday evening, the audience waits patiently in the courtyard of Ciudad Cultural Konex. Standing at the bottom of the stairs the semblance is already set. The doors to the theatre hall open and two dancers walk out.

A young woman dressed in a shiny silver Grecian style dress alongside a man wearing a dark, tailored tango suit. The two are frozen while they held an icy pose as spectators pass by and take their seats.

On entering, more of the cast appears, dressed the same way as the first, but dotted about the auditorium, all with a bewildered look on their face.

One of them takes my hand without speaking, and guides me to my seat. This peculiar silent treatment already had me feeling strange, but I thanked nonetheless her as I sat down.

What’s it about?

The story of ‘Medea’, the Greek tragedy by Euripides, is dark and complex. The writer of ‘Trojan women’ and ‘Cyclops’ is known for having strong female protagonists fronting his stories.

Medea herself suffers being betrayed by her husband, and the original story tells of her painful struggle to come to terms with this. There have been many re-tellings of the story over time, and the tale comes to its conclusion by Medea sacrificing her own children to gain her revenge against her husband.

There are many ways in which Medea can be interpreted, and the play has been taken to the stage a number of times in various styles: comic, dramatic, and even sarcastic.

To be able create a modern and dramatic portrayal of this play through dance in Argentina, it seemed only natural that the choice be tango.

 

The Production

‘Medea Tango’ first presented itself last year, with a cast of fifteen dancers, and had a production team of thirty. There were five contemporary dancers and ten tango dancers, half of them male, half female. The show never made it to the stage, due to budget issues and complications with production.

The way in which the story was being told was different too. Creator Sabrina Silva noted that, “certain artistic elements had to be amended to evoke the right message about Medea”, for this year’s version.

 

Part of this was ensuring that each dancer was able to cross over different genres of dance, to be able to incorporate scenes of contemporary music and acting into the production. The cast today consists of eight female dancers and one male.

The show begins with each woman telling the story of her life and what she is struggling with in that moment.

Domestic violence, alcoholism, abandonment, and betrayal are just some of the issues which are covered.

“The idea was to portray Medea through many different types of women,” Silva explains, to be able to make the audience think about human values and not to see this woman simply as a villain.

A strong sense of femenitity comes across and we see each dancer go through a many emotional moods in portrayal of the main character.

The lighting, special sound effects, and musical blends complimented the drama being evoked.

A tug of war between the sexes is made, and the show goes against tango tradition by having the female cast couple up, to milonga across the stage.

Whether you choose to follow the storyline or not, overall the dancing is still excellent. Some of the contemporary solos in particular are breathtaking, but I was not 100% convinced with the syncronicity of some of the group pieces.

Whether it breaks your heart, makes you angry, makes you hate it, or love it, you’ll definitely leave the show feeling something.

When was the last time that you were standing alone minding your own business and a perfect stranger skipped up to you, linked arms and swung you around in a jubilant do-si-do? If it’s been a while, since grade school perhaps, you need to head over to Fiesta Bubamara: ditch your cool at the door, cut loose, and get your Balkan-tinged rollick on.

The Fiesta Bubamara party was created to be an unpretentious environment where people could lose themselves in the celebration of ethnic music in general and Balkan music in particular. The party is named after the main musical theme song in Bosnian film director and musician Emir Kusturica’s acclaimed film ‘Black Cat, White Cat’. The organisers are four friends who had grown tired of the usual Buenos Aires party menu: techno in the clubs, rock in the bars. They shared a love of Balkan music-and what they refer to as “unza unza culture”-and decided to spice up the Buenos Aires party scene by bringing attention to this lesser known genre.

Their idea proved a soaring success. The Fiesta Bubamara parties have been taking place almost every month since December 2002. They’ve travelled to most all of the large cities in Argentina and have also played in Chile.

Stemming from the joyous spirit of this music, and its history of jumbled influences, the party was intended to be a place where people actively participate and share: musical styles, dances, smiles, hugs and kisses. The organisers told me, “we believe that Bubamara creates a space for communion which is quite unlike what you find at the usual club or bar.”

This theme of mixing and sharing extends to the lineup of musical groups that play at the parties. Each event features different acts, with the exception of DJ Toro who keeps the Balkan sounds spinning before, in between and well after the musicians finish.

On the night that I attended, Toro eased the crowd into the festivities with an opening set featuring a lot of ska reggae and some occasional Indian tracks. Humorous eastern European movie clips were projected on to one of the walls. While this set was fun and and the atmosphere jovial enough, by 2.30 in the morning I was beginning to wonder what all the fuss about this supposed raucous world music dance party was all about. Then, the first band, Onda Vaga, took the stage.

While claiming to be composed of members coming from rock pasts but having chosen to cut the cords and pursue acoustic expressions, make no mistake about it, Onda Vaga rocks! They describe their music as a mix of rumba, cumbia, reggae, folk rock and “happy tango”. Their soulful and energetic mix got the crowd worked up into a frenzy. Don’t let the name fool you, there’s nothing lazy about the band’s live performance. They powered through boisterous Manu Chau-esque fiesta anthems, with many in the crowd singing along.

The party had taken off. Purple and green lights swirled around the giant industrial space , illuminating a bouncing, joyous mass of concertgoers. The huge room was packed with flailing bodies dancing in all manners, unashamed and unapologetic. Not since a high school dance have I found myself surrounded by so many couples making out. There was no bashfulness about how much people were enjoying themselves, and this was refreshing.

Following Onda Vaga’s spirited set, groups of friends plopped down on the cold cement in small circles, sharing beers and laughs. Dozens of little campfire situations. I wandered into a small side room which I hadn’t even noticed until the set break and was surprised to find a cumbia band, La Repartija, keeping the tireless among the crowd bobbing and gyrating.

At around 4am the next featured band, Babel Orquesta, took the main stage and brought the crowd back to its feet in a hurry. Babel Orquesta played uproarious klezmer music, which featured a couple multi instrumentalists rotating between accordion, fiddle, harmonica, electric guitar and a giant French horn. The musicians and lead singer were joined by two burlesque dancers in hoop skirts who coquettishly teased the audience throughout the performance.

By this time the crowd had thinned out a bit and there was more room to dance. Large circles formed with people linking arms and doing cancan kicks. A couple people began crowd surfing, others hopped up and down waving their arms in the local football-hooligan style. Long rumba-lines started snaking through the room. While I’ve witnessed a fairly diverse spectrum of Buenos Aires night life, I hadn’t yet experienced this sort of unrestrained exuberance.

Babel Orquesta’s set peaked with a rip-roaring performance of Dick Dale´s ‘Miserlou’, the surf-guitar classic know worldwide via ‘Pulp Fiction’. The singer and dancers dipped and flapped about in ‘Matrix’ style slow motion before leading the crowd in clapping along to the infectious rhythm. For their encore, the band came down into the crowd and lead a procession around the room, playing continuously until they eventually made their way back on stage to kick the rhythm into explosive new gears. I doubt there was a dry body in the building by the end of the set.

Without missing a beat, Dj Toro stepped back up and kept the party right on ticking. He played a mashed up version of Hava Naglia while confetti fell from the ceiling. Bartenders circulated through the crowed passing out free Jello shots. The movie clips reappeared on the screen. The people kept dancing.

Buenos Aires has rightfully earned its reputation as a party capital, but reputations can wind up miring people in self consciousness. Sometimes it seems like many clubs and party nights here are trying just a bit too hard to be cool, while losing the essential element of fun. If it’s been a while since you had a night of unabashed cavorting – the type that leaves your cheek muscles sore the next morning from all the smiling – you should be sure to catch the next Fiesta Bubamara.

Fiesta Bubamara usually occurs once a month. For information on upcoming shows please visit www.fiestas-bubamara.com.ar

At 9.30pm the dimly lit courtyard of Ciudad Cultural Konex is filled with expectant silence. At 9.35, it is subsumed by an explosion of carnivalesque colour, wacky instruments, exuberantly Eastern sounds and theatrical costumes. This is Babel Orkesta, and they’ve just erupted onto the stage.

What ensues is a riot of gypsy, tarantella and klezmer, conjuring the sounds of a Balkan back street and accompanied by earnest invitations to dance from the eccentrically burlesque actresses. Their diverse musical recipe is “folklore from around the world” but although the group returns to home turf for chamame and cumbia rhythms, there is a definite South Eastern Mediterranean emphasis with gypsy orchestras and Serbian film director Emir Kusturica cited as influences.

These are the same cultural resources which have given rise to the impossibly cool sounds of US based hipster bands such as Gogol Bordello, Devotchka or Beirut. When mixed with a beat, the interweaving of hip-hop breaks with Eastern melodies brings to mind Balkan clubbing pioneer Dj Shantel. Yet although familiar rhythms recur throughout the set, their compositions are all their own.

Babel Orkesta make no attempt to mimicking the globe-trotting trendsetters – after all, this is early evening fun-for-all-the-family rather than an underground club mixed by Diplo. “Everyone participates in the party, there are no limits for age, genre, whatever” insists the flamboyantly made-up Laura Alonso. Nevertheless they seem to have unintentionally alighted on the same winning concept : the sheer unbridled joy of music from all over the world that really was made for dancing.

A uniformly Argentine team, they come from all different parts of the country and view their emphasis on musical fusion as emblematic of their home country’s cultural melting pot. Even the name Babel panders to the concept, condensing into a single word the confused (but delightfully so) mixture of sounds and voices which forms the essence of every performance.

Babel Orkesta commands a cult following at their weekly Friday night Konex slot, packed to the rafters and leaving even the most jaded of concert-goers on their feet by the end of the show. Remarkably, the group was formed by saxophonist Marcelo ‘Zeta’ Yeyati just two years ago and has since gone from strength to strength, with humble beginnings in Caballito’s Club Premier giving way to a successful tour round Uruguay.

Carolina Castro, press officer, explains that Babel Orkesta’s mission is to reawaken the “spirit of the popular party”, rendered acceptable to sophisticated modern tastes with the addition of a faint “rocker vibe”. The group is keen to draw a distinction between popular and pop music, theirs referring to music born from the ailing tradition of a social dance scene rather than cynical hit-making media conglomerates.

The band clearly knows what it is doing, and it is with resolute certainty that actor Diego Brizuela describes the nature of the Babel Orkesta enterprise: a romantic vision of themselves as a “wandering, itinerant group”. On the subject of their underlying philosophy he declares: “we wanted to create a mix of popular parties, happy music and an atmosphere in which people felt they could get involved”. His female counterpart Ana Granato elaborates on this idea, explaining that the aesthetic which Babel Orkesta seeks to emulate is derived from texts recounting Paseo Colon’s heyday as the site of old-style amusement parks.

There are two shows under the Babel Orkesta umbrella – one which is a theatrical concert performed by the group, the other, entitled “Kermesse”, meaning street fair, a musical piece of theatre. The current series of performances are of the former, and there will be no further Kermesse productions for the time being. Which is not to say that they won’t start up again in the future. When asked what Babel Orkesta’s next move will be, Laura shrugs: “we go wherever the wind takes us”.

It is this successful marriage of theatre and music which sets Babel Orkesta apart. They eschew the shambolic showmanship of many bands today, in which drunken stumblings are what pass for presentation, and replace it with a tightly structured performance. The group combines the rehearsed choreography of theatre with the spontaneity and crowd interaction of a rock concert. The result is a beguilingly well-orchestrated orkesta which never fails to surprise, accented by splashes of Coney Island circa 1920 and all the fun of the fair.

Babel Orkesta perform every Friday at 9.30pm at Ciudad Cultural Konex, Sarmiento 3131, until the end of March. Tickets cost $30 and include entry to the following show Improclash!, a series of improvised comedy sketches in Spanish.

How can 4 brothers deicide their family future? Situated in the highly emotionally charged background of their parents imminent divorce, this piece of theatre is well worth watching. This Saturday at 10.30pm, Ciudad Central Konex, Sarmiento 3131. Admission is $25.

Music + Theatre = Actores en Banda. Today at 9pm, catch Carlos Casella presenting “Babooshka!”. $30, Ciudad Cultural Konex, Sarmiento 3131.