"Are You Really Lost?" an unusual dance performance for the Buenos Aires Theater Festival

    What is special about "Are You Really Lost" is the idea that the dancers-actors themselves should take charge of providing the lighting. The enormous stage at the Martín Coronado (Teatro San Martín, Buenos Aires) actually appears smaller because of the dynamic movements of the dancers, running, skipping, jumping and dancing in angles or in groups across the stage. The performers themselves use ropes tied to pulleys to lower or raise the lights over the heads of the dancers. Sometimes the shades are also used by the performers as sort of loud speakers for those moments when poetic phrases or sounds reverbate to add to the overall effect.

    What is also fascinating to some, disturbing to others, is the silence. Often nothing seems to be happening. Yet you can almost hear the dancers inhale and exhale. Furthermore, the silence is a message. It serves as a prelude to action. Mexician dancer and director Octavio Zeivy  says: "Me gusta que el cuerpo hable y pueda crear una dramaturgia a partir de sus dificultades, no por indicaciones." (I like the body to speak, so as to create a dramaturgy based on difficulties, not on instructions."

    That's where the show becomes unique--you can see it this evening at 9 p.m. and tomorrow at 7p.m., at 1530 Corrientes avenue). The bodies dance, take charge of the space, but they don't seem to move on the basis of strict instructions. That's especially the case when they play with the lightening effects. 

    Although the show is of high professional quality, the viewer can easily see other dancers at the edge of the stage raising or lowering the lamps...giving the performance an almost home-made aspect: home-made but with a clearly professional touch.