A little tap will do you

I made this video in November of 2012 and set it aside. After the tragic events that took place in Boston, MA this month I decided to post it so it could bring some cheer back into our lives.

Enjoy the moment,

Leo
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Music: Oscar Woods – Don’t Sell It Don’t Give It Away – In the Public Domain
Video and Film Clips:
Gregory Hines – Let the man dance
Bill “Bojangles” Robinson – Cafe Metropole, Deleted Scenes
Savion Glover – Live Performance, at ABC show
Bill “Bojangles” Robinson – Stormy Weather

Audio MIx & Special Effects: Leo Bar
Digital Art – Photography: Leo Bar

Aromas de Tango

Created a superimposed atmosphere of imagery and locales to highlight a very stylized tango dance and the accompanying music. All photos and imagery are from Buenos Aires and Montevideo and many represent traditional tango bars.

The group Bajofondo represents a new modality of music called neotango or electrotango. Some of their music is outstanding.

Music: Perfume – Bajofondo :: Remixed by Leo Bar

Special thanks to Paul Holman for the use of portions of his video Milonga de Milongas. See more of his videos at youtube.com/user/paulrholman

Las Llamadas Parade- Desfile de las llamadas 2013

“The Llamadas Parade” is a festival that takes place every year in Montevideo in February, during the carnival season in Uruguay. It is part of the official competition of carnival groups of the Uruguayan capital. For two nights around 40 black and lubolos ensembles (known as “extras”) parade through the Southern (Barrio Sur) and (Barrio Palermo) Palermo neighborhood streets. It is one of the purest expressions of Afro-Uruguayan culture.
Carnival Week is considered the annual national festival of Uruguay. While Carnaval is celebrated throughout the country with parades and events in major cities of the interior, the main activities are featured in the capital of Montevideo.
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El desfile de llamadas es una fiesta popular que se realiza todos los años en Montevideo en el mes de febrero, durante la época de carnaval en Uruguay. Forma parte del concurso oficial de agrupaciones carnavalescas de la capital uruguaya. Durante dos noches desfilan unas 40 sociedades de negros y lubolos (conocidas como “comparsas”) por calles de los barrios Sur y Palermo. Constituye una de las más puras manifestaciones de la cultura afro-uruguaya.

 

Tango Euro Klez

Music: Tango Bar & Kiev Swing by Garry B :: https://vimeo.com/garryb; listen to his music :: http://soundcloud.com/garry-b
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– The migration of tango from Argentina and Uruguay to Western and Eastern Europe -
1900 – 1920 : Tangos were mainly sung and played by small instrumental bands (fundamentally trios and quartets), until “La Orquesta Tipica” arrives on the scene, with the incorporation of the bandoneo’n. In 1907, one of the very first genuine Argentine Tangueros to visit Paris (France) was composer Angel Villoldo, who wanted to do some recording. (At the time, Paris had the best recording facilities and techniques.) In 1918, writing lyrics for the tango became all the rage with singers such as the tragic Carlos Gardel and celebrated salon orchestras like Francisco Canaro‘s giving the music a new legitimacy and acceptance. Carlos Gardel is still revered today, many decades after his death.
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By 1912, dancers and musicians from Buenos Aires, traveled to Europe and the first European tango craze took place in Paris, soon followed by London, Berlin, and other capitals. Towards the end of 1913 it hit New York in the USA, and Finland.
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One of the most popular ballroom dances in Europe during the 1920′s and 30′s was unquestionably the tango. This explains why this music appeared later in ghettos and concentration camps. Following a boom in Western Europe, the tango reached the east by the late 1910′s. However, as opposed to countries like France and Germany, frequently visited by Argentine Orquestas Típicas, most Eastern European countries became acquainted with the tango only through records, the radio and journals. This indirect connection may explain the character that this music developed in such regions. With increasing popularity and a new stream of local tangos, the style’s re-embodiment gradually drifted away from the South American model. Poland, which had regained its independence after the Warsaw treaty of 1919, quickly became one of the capitals of European tango at a time when most of its musicians, both in the classical and the popular scenes, were Jewish.
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Enjoy the show,
Leo

Tango a la Celeste

The connection between Tango – Football (soccer)- and the Uruguayan National Team. Twice World Cup Winners, and 15 times Americas Cup winner.
This piece is dedicated to my Vimeofriends:
Ben :: vimeo.com/benvideos - For his generosity and love of the sport of football (soccer in U.S.)
Michael M :: vimeo.com/michaelmoller - For his tenacity in learning the art of video making, and his extreme patience with editing.
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Started to make this video in November of 2011, and finished it January of 2013. It went through 9 versions in its chaotic initial life. This has been the most difficult project to date. It involved film clips from 1930′s, 1950′s, 2010 and other sundry dates. All these formats, codecs, frame rates and scales were totally different and a real challenge to assemble them into a cohesive work. What you see is mostly untouched and in its original color/grain.
Music: Astor Piazzolla – Michelangelo 70

The connection between Tango – Football – and the Uruguayan National Team. Twice World Cup Winners, and 15 times Americas Cup winner.
This piece is dedicated to my Vimeofriends:
Ben :: vimeo.com/benvideos – For his generosity and love of the sport of football (soccer in U.S.)
Michael M :: vimeo.com/michaelmoller – For his tenacity in learning the art of video making, and his extreme patience with editing.
~
Started to make this video in November of 2011, and finished it January of 2013. It went through 9 versions in its chaotic initial life. This has been one of my most difficult projects to date. It involved film clips from 1930, 1950, 2010 and other sundry dates. All these formats and scales were totally different and a real challenge to make them into a cohesive work. What you see is mostly untouched and in its original color/grain.
Music: Astor Piazzolla – Michelangelo 70
Enjoy the show,
Leo

Tango Sureño

This dance is a Milonga danced to milonga music – a cousin of the Tango. Enjoy the sow!
“In a book published in 1883 Ventura Lynch, a noted contemporary student of the dances and folklore of Buenos Aires Province, noted the influence the Afro-Argentine dancers had on the “compadritos”, who apparently frequented the Afro-Argentine dance venues, “the milonga is danced only by the compadritos of the city, who have created it as a mockery of the dances the blacks hold in their own places”.
Milonga uses the same basic elements as Tango and requires a greater relaxation of legs and body. Movement is normally faster, and pauses are not made. It is rather a kind of rhythmic walking without complicated figures, with a much more “rustic” style than Tango”. {Source: Wikipedia}
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Photography:
CB1985IFY – Palermo; Omar Guebel – Photos of La Boca :: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ohgg/collections/72157600270319242

Leo Bar :: http://www.flickr.com/photos/leobar-pixinmotion/ 
Music: Reliquias porteñas – Francisco Canaro – - (November 26, 1888 – December 14, 1964) Uruguayan violinist and tango orchestra leader.

 

 

DNA dance

The essence of life DNA and its twisted dance (double helix)

 

Fascinating science behind the essence of life. Decided to construct this production from the inspiration while reading and watching how symmetrically and delicately is the DNA double helix held together. It felt like a dance, especially when it came to see animations of its replication. I have used these animations as backgrounds or foregrounds to the human body in motion to accentuate the dance aspect of this vision. The mathematics and architecture behind this complex structure are gigantic. It’s an amazing  realization that this complicated stream of chemicals are organized in such lockstep and are part of all living beings. A real miracle!!

Enjoy the dance of life,

Leo

Related articles

• Pioneer DNA Researcher Dies (the-scientist.com)
• Biologists Describe Details of New Mechanism for Molecular Interactions (bnl.gov)
• Dna (iaspreparationonline.com)
• DNA with a Twist (the-scientist.com)
• DNA dance performed at Science Museum (telegraph.co.uk)

Tango Poetico

This work is dedicated to all great Argentinian and Uruguayan writers and poets.

Music: Confianzas by Gotan Project Edited and remixed by Leo Bar
Subtitles and Translation: Leo Bar
Contains 2012 newsreel clips of protests in Buenos Aires
Photography: A Cabrera Esteve – http://www.flickr.com/photos/cabrera-esteve/; Fotografovolante – http://www.flickr.com/photos/ruggeroarena/; http://www.flickr.com/photos/simba_tango/; Leo Bar
Mario Benedetti Oil Sketch: Andre’ Cortellini
Digital Art and Paintings Leo Bar
Dancers: Sebastian Achaval and Roxana Suarez

Tango Macho

Why do men dance with each other? What made men dance since early times?
Many theories exist; ritual, religion, celebration, brotherhood, spiritual expression, war preparation, hunting practice or recreation and possibly sheer joie de vivre.

But why tango dancing between men? The first reason is related to where tango was initially danced. Remember that tango, was the dance of the poor, the underprivileged – the ‘lower class’. This group of people had less access to venues where to dance, and furthermore had less cultural taboos or boundaries. As a result of these influences there evolved a culture in which it was acceptable for tango to be danced in the streets. Hence even before tango was danced between men, we can imagine a culture where it was quite common for couples to dance out in the open. In fact a very specific style called Tango Orillero, evolved from outdoor suburban tango dancing.

Another of the reasons for men dancing tango with men is that tango was considered immoral by the Argentinian upper class and authorities. So much so that there was a formal initiative to close all cafes and ban tango music from being played on the streets. In 1916 a law was passed in Buenos Aires that banned dancing between men in dance establishments. An attempt was made to slowly eradicate it from Argentina, and there’s an account in 1919 by Joaquin Belda, who during his 6 months visit to Buenos Aires, wrote that most of the cafes were either closed or empty. This of course resulted in further reduced access to couples dancing tango, so to dance tango, men ended dancing with each other.

Another key reason is probably the lack of females and catholic morality in the early 1900′s. Most men in the lower classes were immigrants who came to Argentina from mainly impoverished areas in Italy and Spain.
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Featured are the world-renowned tango dancers "Los Hermanos Macana" The twenty-some Argentine brothers Enrique and Guillermo De Fazio have become the famous dance couple: “Los Hermanos Macana.” They are known worldwide for their breathtaking and witty tango interpretations. With their two-man shows they thrill audiences from the Americas, Europe and Australia.

Special thanks: Josep Antoni Lahoz for dance video. See more at :: http://www.youtube.com/user/pepetantonet
Music: Reliquias Porteñas – Francisco Canaro

Enjoy the show,
Leo

Tango Predator

When I first listened to this music, it touched me in such a way that compelled me to produce this piece. The rhythmic nature, constant variation and counterpoint of violin versus bandoneon, makes this creation by Astor (The Master) Piazzolla a great example of tango and classical fusion.

To represent the sensuality, heat and desire projected by the music, I chose to use a large amount of paintings, blended with Astor’s orchestra and real tango dancers. At times they are superimposed and counterpointing, as the music does with the instruments.

I hope you enjoy this creation, whether or not you’re a tango fan, since it’s more of a classical composition.
Leo

~Music: Escualo (Shark) by Astor Piazzolla

~Paintings: R Young; Juarez Machado; Pol Ledent; Virgil Stevens