Arts & Lectures
2005-2006 Performing Arts Season News Release
For Immediate Release

January 31, 2006

Bocca Tango, featuring American Ballet Theatre star
Julio Bocca, brings the passionate music and dance
of Argentina to UCSB Campbell Hall

Summary Facts:

Bocca Tango, an electric revue that seamlessly blends the traditional and the innovative, will perform for two nights on Sunday, March 12 at 7 pm and on Monday, March 13 at 8 pm at UCSB Campbell Hall. Julio Bocca, exceptional and striking Argentine star of American Ballet Theatre, accompanied by Cecilia Figaredo, two singers, male dancers from Ballet Argentino and a small orchestra directed by Julian Vat, will transform Campbell into a Buenos Aires tango hall. The dazzling Bocca, hailed as “the world’s No. 1 in male classical dance” by the New York Post, partners with men, women and even a huge stepladder in a thrilling evening set to the incredible music of Gardel and Piazzolla. The program contains partial nudity and is recommended for mature audiences. Backstage called a recent performance by the group “an original tour de forceŠpassionate and powerful.”

Julio Bocca has permanently enriched the field of contemporary dance with his artistry while also realizing a dancer’s greatest aspiration by interpreting works conceived exclusively for him, including works by acclaimed choreographer Ana María Steckelman, who created the dances for this tour. After years of training and performance in Argentina, he competed in the 1985 International Competition in Moscow and established his worldwide reputation by winning the Gold Medal in his category. The following year the American Ballet Theater in New York engaged him as a Principal Dancer. During his first season Bocca was honored by The New York Times as Dancer of the Year, a position that has been confirmed by an admiring press and an adoring audience to this day. He performs with ABT every season at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York. Bocca has danced in consecutive productions of “The Giants of Dance” in Paris and in the annual festival in Havana, Cuba. In 1997, he made his film debut in Carlos Saura’s Tango and then in February 2000, he made his Broadway debut in the musical Fosse. During the fall of 2001 he starred in the first successful Buenos Aires shows of Bocca Tango at the Maipo Theater, performing in front of ten of thousands of fans.

Cecilia Figaredo, who is also a principal dancer with Ballet Argentino, has worked with many renowned choreographers from Argentina such as Oscar Araiz, Ricky Pashkus, Mauricio Wainrot, Alejandro Cervera, Marcela Críquet, Julio López and Ana María Stekelman. Internationally, she has worked with Kevin O’Day, Mauro Bigonzetti, Attila Eherházi, and Kenneth Topping and Peggy Lyman when they were staging Martha Graham’s Acts of Light and Diversion of Angels. She still works to perfect her technique with Wilhem Burmann.

Flutist, saxophonist, composer and music director Julian Vat graduated with honors from Argentina’s National Conservatory in 1983. He’s been associated with tango music since 1990, working as Musical Director and musician in the shows Tango X 2 by Zotto-Plebs and Tango: Magia y Seducción by Juan Carlos Copes, among others. With these shows he toured America and Europe on several occasions. At the same time he co-created the duo Vat-Macri. Together they perform at every international meeting of Cumbres Mundiales del Tango as well as in international tango and jazz festivals in Spain, Portugal, France and Venezuela. He was nominated for the Martín Fierro award for the TV show Vat-Macri hacen Tango, on the air since 1995. Recently, he worked with Joan Manuel Serrat in the development of his new CD Tarres, and composed the music for the show Ambos 2 for Ballet Sub-16 directed by Julio Bocca and created by the choreographer Chet Walker.

Arts & Lectures Producer Circle members may attend a private post-concert reception with the artists on March 12 hosted by Merrill Lynch’s JWS Group.

Members of the company will teach a Community Dance Class on Sunday, March 12 at 12 noon at State Street Ballet Studio, 322 State Street. It costs $15 for participants and $5 for observers. This event is sponsored the Santa Barbara Dance Alliance; for information and to make a reservation, please phone (805) 966-6950.

Bocca Tango is presented by UCSB Arts & Lectures and generously supported by Genevieve and Lew Geyser. Additional support is provided by The Towbes Foundation and the Community Events & Festivals Program using funds provided by the City of Santa Barbara in partnership with the SB County Arts Commission. Bocca Tango is presented in cooperation with the Santa Barbara Dance Alliance and sponsored by KCSB 91.9 FM.

Tickets are $38 for the general public and $18 for UCSB students who must show valid ID at ticket purchase and the evening of the show. Ticket prices are subject to convenience fees. Tickets are on sale now and can also be purchased at the door, if still available.

For tickets or more information,
call UCSB Arts & Lectures at (805) 893-3535.

Editor: For photos, please call
George Yatchisin at (805) 893-3494.

©2006 UCSB Arts & Lectures, University of California, Santa Barbara