Tango Goes To Church: The Impact Tour In Ohio

By Susannah Bielak

Members of Real Tango, whose mission is to enhance, revive and promote traditional Argentine tango. (Photo Credit: PRD Photography)

Three musicians stand tightly poised over a piano, bass, and bandoneon (button accordion). In an instant, they fluidly break into a tango. A rapt audience follows them in silence. This music, connoting both the sensuality of the brothels and bars from which it first emerged and the glamour and elegance of ballgowns and high society, is not playing in a bar or dance hall. This music, evoking the dusky streets and vivid color of Buenos Aires, is not coming from an Argentinean courtyard or café. This music is playing in a small Presbyterian church in Ohio.

The three musicians form Real Tango, a trio reinvigorating traditional Argentinean tango. The Presbyterian church is one of many in which Real Tango performed through the International Music and Performing Arts in Communities Tour (IMPACT), a program made possible by support from the National Endowment for the Arts. IMPACT is a regional touring program of the Ohio Arts Council that presents quality international artists in faith-based institutions.

IMPACT was developed five years ago when the Ohio Arts Council became involved in a special project of Arts Midwest’s Heartland Arts Fund. That project presented Chilean musical ensemble Barroco Andino in churches throughout the Midwest, including two performances and school residencies in Ohio. Church members accounted for much of the audience, including a large number of Latin Americans and community members who did not generally attend concerts in local arts facilities.

	Mt. Auburn Presbyterian Church in Cincinnati, an Ohio Arts Council IMPACT tour site, hosted Real Tango. By presenting performances in places of worship, which often serve as community centers, arts organizations go to communities instead of asking communities to come to them. (Photo Credit: Mt. Auburn Presbyterian Church)

Research on participation in arts and culture, including recent studies by The Urban Institute and Wallace Foundation, has shown that when arts events are presented in non-traditional venues, an entirely new audience in engaged. These events attract audiences who generally do not attend concerts in arts facilities, and families who are involved in church activities but do not have the flexibility to attend performances in traditional venues.

By presenting performances in places of worship, which often serve as community centers, arts organizations go to communities instead of asking communities to come to them. In this way, they are able to reach people who generally are more inclined to go to church, visit with family, or go to a neighborhood center than to go to a museum, gallery or performing hall.

As described by Ohio Arts Council program coordinator Kathy Cain, "Wayne Lawson [executive director] realized that going to faith-based institutions was a really great way to build community. There were so many people in attendance at these performances… He felt that we could expand this into a program to bring international artists into communities where they weren’t present. We found that faith-based institutions are places where community members are involved. Why not take performances to faith-based institutions, where there’s already a comfort level?"

The Ohio Arts Council, in partnership with the Ohio Arts Presenters Network, shortly developed what is now called the IMPACT program. The program brings international artists to communities across the state, where they conduct free concerts in places of worship and educational activities. In its five tours since 1998, the program has been successful in building new audiences, creating cultural awareness, and establishing relationships between organizations and individuals in each of the communities it visits.

As described by Dennis Sankovich, executive director of the Ritz Theatre in Tiffin and program participant, the tours provide "a way for people to interact with other members of their congregation and their community. It’s a way for people to socialize. For people who can’t afford tickets to other performances, it provides an avenue for them. We’re able to expose international music to audiences that wouldn’t necessarily hear it."

Kathy Cain of the Ohio Arts Council adds: "The churches that we’ve worked with directly have been thrilled about it. We’ve had letters from pastors and priests about what a great way this is to bring the community together. It’s been really overwhelming. They’ve enjoyed the musicians. All the way around, it’s been incredible."

Real Tango

"Tango engages everyone, no matter what your background. Tango itself is a fusion- it has its roots in western classical music, but its influences come from so many places that I think there’s something there that touches just about anyone."

-- Mike Telin, Music & Performing Arts at Trinity, Cleveland

The members of Real Tango are recognized and respected for their involvement - through study and performance - in the field of tango. (Photo Credit: PRD Photography)

Comprised of three accomplished musicians from Argentina, Real Tango performs an array of tango rhythms from the 1920s by composers such as Francisco Canara and Osvaldo Fresedo, Mariano Mores, Juan D’Arienzo and Osvaldo Pugliese, as well as the internationally recognized and admired Astor Piazzolla. Tango combines elements of Western classical music, criolla music, and African rhythm, and epitomizes the mystery and emotion of the dance it often accompanies.

As described by the ensemble’s founder, Héctor Pineda, "We play music that most people have never heard before. The tango that people usually know is Valentino’s tango…They may have an idea of a lady with a carnation in her mouth playing the castanets." This idea is a far cry from Real Tango, whose mission is to enhance, revive, and promote Argentine tango. "We play the style from our soul. It’s part of our life, of our body and genes."

Héctor Pineda and fellow musicians Aníbal Berraute and Osvaldo Barrios each have a long-standing history with tango. Pineda, double bass, studied at the National Conservatory of Music in Buenos Aires with Enzo Raschelli de Ferraris and went on to perform with countless singers and master tango dancers while in Castello Vecchio’s famous tango showcase orchestra and Osvaldo Piro’s Sextet. Aníbal Berraute, piano, has performed tango music in premiere theaters around the world, including Japan, Brazil, Greece, Spain, and Buenos Aires. A recipient of the Golden Award from the International Association of Arts Reporters, Berraute is the founder and director of Ensamble Vocal e Instrumental, a tango production with a 60-member orchestra. Osvaldo Barrios, bandoneon, began his illustrious career performing with well-known tango orchestras in Buenos Aires and proceeded to Los Angeles, where he accompanied legendary tango singers and established himself in the motion picture industry. Currently residing in South Florida, the three musicians are "totally committed to all tango projects.

In November 2002, Real Tango visited Columbus, Cleveland, Lorain, Sidney, Toledo, Findlay, Tiffin, Oxford, and Cincinnati, Ohio, as well as Erie, Newcastle, and Franklin, Pennsylvania through the IMPACT tour. The following is an illustration of how arts presenters, faith-based institutions, and community members were affected by their tour.

Real Tango In Cleveland

"I think in many ways we’ve elevated a lot of art forms. We’ve limited our audiences by the way we present to them… Studies show that people feel more comfortable in places of worship. People say that a lot of their cultural experiences happen in their places of worship or places of faith. So I think that it’s breaking down a barrier by having performances in a different site, like a place of worship."
-- Mike Telin

	At Trinity Cathedral's lunchtime concert series in Cleveland, Real Tango enthralled tango aficionados, neighborhood residents, and downtown workers alike. (Photo Credit: Trinity Cathedral)

Trinity Cathedral, located in central Cleveland, is in the poorest neighborhood in the city. 100% of the residents live in public housing and almost 95% of them are African-American. Trinity has had a presence in the community for nearly 100 years, and music has held a large role in the cathedral for over 30 years–hand in hand with outreach. Trinity’s congregation is diverse in age, socioeconomic status, race, sexual orientation and geographic location–some live within walking distance, while others drive as much as 25 miles to attend. Many come for the music program. Music & Performing Arts at Trinity, like the cathedral where it resides, offers a broad array of programming. Regular attendees range from businessmen to members of the church’s "Living Legacy" project, a self-discovery project for 50 pregnant teenagers from a local school.

Mike Telin, the director of Music & Performing Arts at Trinity, first became acquainted with the IMPACT program five years ago–Trinity Cathedral was the first stop on Barroco Andino’s tour. Based on the success of Barroco Andino’s visit, as well as succeeding tours, Mike Telin planned a full day for Real Tango.

Real Tango’s first activities were in a local elementary school. Real Tango performed two lecture demonstrations, each for 200 students, together reaching the entire school. "They brought everyone out into this atrium area. The ensemble simply sat down and played and the kids went wild. The bandoneon player, whose command of English was not very good, pulled his chair right into the middle of these kids and every kid took a turn of just getting to hold it. At first I thought ‘this is going to take forever.’ But they didn’t mind it. They just wanted to have the experience of touching the instrument."

Following this experience, Real Tango went to Trinity Cathedral to perform for the Wednesday noontime "BrownBag Concerts" series. The BrownBag Concert drew about 450 people, including many regulars, tango aficionados, neighborhood residents, and downtown workers. Just as with the school performances, the diverse audience attending the concert was engaged. "The school we work with comes to every BrownBag Concert, so we had 50 pregnant girls who loved everything that was happening. Argentineans and Brazilians were speaking and conversing with the ensemble. The ensemble must have stayed close to an hour answering questions and talking to people."

For the final activity, Telin partnered with St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, located in an ethnically diverse lower-income neighborhood on the west side of Cleveland. Every Wednesday, St. Luke’s hosts a community meal and an activity. On the evening of Real Tango’s performance, people ranging from homeless people to children, married couples and neighborhood residents came for the community dinner. Fifty of them stayed for the performance and were joined by two tango clubs, the group crowding the small parish church. "I don’t know if people quite knew what to do when people started dancing down the aisles…. it gave everyone permission to let their hair down…It was a really, really fun evening." This shared evening not only touched and entertained their audience, but produced a fruitful partnership for Trinity Cathedral and St. Luke’s. "This was the first time that we have ever partnered with this parish. While I knew the director, I wasn’t quite sure how he was going to react. He loved it. We went on and brought five more artists into their Wednesday evening meals program throughout the year."

As described by Telin, presenting international artists in places of worship through the IMPACT program provides a unique and significant opportunity to communities. "I think that a program like this makes the world so much more real for people. In many ways, we in the United States oftentimes think that we can live exclusively of other countries. We’re not so interdependent on other places… I think that [bringing] international artists gives people an opportunity to meet people. I think that the little kids and the people at St. Luke’s got a real thrill from having people from Argentina in their places. It brings people together. I think there’s some kind of synergy that happens when people from different cultures get together."

Real Tango Across Ohio

As with their visit to Cleveland, Real Tango was well received across Ohio, where they inspired connections and reached diverse audiences in urban and rural communities alike.

Using faith-based institutions as performing spaces helps arts presenting organizations strengthen their ties with their communities. (Photo Credit: Mt. Auburn Presbyterian Church)

In Cincinnati, Real Tango performed to a full house at Mt. Auburn Presbyterian Church, a parish known for its emphases on social justice and diversity. Van Ackerman, Director of Marketing and PR of the Cincinnati Arts Association and Elder for the church, was surprised by the tremendous appetite for the programming in his city. "I was getting phone calls from tango aficionados every other day!" Ackerman was also surprised by the diversity of the audience.

"We filled the church, there were 450 people there, young, old, gay, straight, black, white, Hispanic… a real melting pot of people. I saw members of our arts community. I saw members of city council. There were children there. It was really such a wonderful mix. The comments were amazing. People just loved the night and said ‘when are you bringing something like this back again?’"

In rural Findlay and Tiffin, school and public audiences were delighted by Real Tango’s performance. Most of the students, families, senior citizens, church guild members and other attendees had never experienced anything like it and "really loved the fact that it was in their church, a beautiful, quaint sanctuary." As described by Dennis Sankovich, the executive director of the Ritz Theatre in Tiffin, "this is a wonderful way to reach new patrons as well as to bring cultural awareness to our community…We’re reaching people that probably would not have come into our doors. Doing it within the church, a familiar space, had a whole different meaning. We were able to form a collaboration with the parish, the priest, and a community of people that’s different than when people buy a ticket for the show and come into the theater. Being able to go into this religious center is a unique partnership. Any time you do that, with a senior center, with local schools, you become real–part of the community."

	Everyone involved with Real Tango’s Ohio tour praised the ensemble’s talent, access to international musicians, and the community impact of using faith-based institutions as musical venues. (Photo Credit: Trinity Cathedral)

In Toledo, where Real Tango performed at the Hispanic parish of St. Peter and Paul’s Catholic Church, Margarita De Leon expressed a similar sentiment: "Being in a faith-based institution, the audience is different. A lot of these churches are in the heart of the neighborhoods. They’re usually located more in the core of the city, and I think that’s important. You’re really part of the city, the community, when you’re tapping into that urban core… I think the primary thing that these programs do is create an awareness of a different kind of music that we don’t have the opportunity to hear every day."

De Leon, the chair of the Ohio Latino Arts Association, worked closely with the Ohio Arts Council to promote the concert to the Hispanic community as well as the larger community. In recounting Real Tango’s performance, De Leon stated "the audience loved it. The music filled the church, it was very rich."

As described by Steve Rosenberg, executive director of City Music, in recounting Real Tango’s performance at King Avenue United Methodist Church in Columbus, Ohio, "I was taken by the high quality of the ensemble–these were just consummate musicians. The music was very engaging, powerful and evocative. The music spoke volumes and the audience loved it. They got a standing ovation."

Other arts presenters–along with church music directors, staff, and community members–echoed such praises of the ensemble’s talent, the significance of having access to international musicians, and the community impact of using faith-based institutions as musical venues. Above all, people expressed their desire for more. Thankfully, the IMPACT program will proceed to create new audiences, build relationships, and create cultural bridges by bringing international musicians to churches, synagogues, mosques and other social centers in communities across Ohio.

For more information about Arts Midwest, visit http://www.artsmidwest.org

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