With eyes closed and hands pressed tightly against his chest, Damian Rivero sung out in tones of beauty, passion and lust; what is known to most as the tango. The night began with familiar faces, laughter, and smells of empanadas and hot vino navegado from Chile. As the crowd settled, the lights dimmed and the music roared-Una Noche de Tango Y Romance began.
On the evening of Thursday Feb. 16, around 100 students, professors, family, and friends of all ages and ethnicities packed into the Latino Cultural Center to celebrate the first La Pena of 2006. La Pena, an LCC Thursday series event, takes place every third Thursday of the month at 7:00 p.m. in Lecture Center B2. Rodrigo Carraminana, the director of the Latino Cultural Center, started off the themed evening "Una Noche de Tango Y Romance," by greeting the crowd and introducing La Pena as, "A night dedicated to Latino music, and cultural awareness."
Agustin Alvarez accompanied Rivero on the guitar, playing with a smooth strum that adapted as the tempo of Rivero's voice rose and fell with passion. Both Rivero and Alvarez grew up in Argentina and have been playing music for about 16 years, but this was the first time they had played together. The duet played classic tango songs such as "La Ultima Curda y La Narajoen Flor."
About a half an hour into the set, professional tango dancers Sarah Graff, Misha Goro, and Olga Kokaurova from Dance Connection slipped onto the stage. The dancers melted the eyes of many as they entangled and slid across the dance floor. After a few songs played, the dancers grabbed members of the audience and swept them off their feet as they tangoed. As the night continued, other artists joined the stage, people mingled, ate well, and laughed often. The event was welcoming to all, and served as an enchanting evening of Latino musica y bailar.
The LCC Thursday series was presented to UIC in the 1970s but never followed through as a consistent event. This school year is the first full year the LCC Thursday series will have organized and presented an event every Thursday for the entire year.
"Consistency is the best thing, it has created our success....when something is stable and cannot be taken away the students can depend on it," Carraminana said. Many students attend but not nearly enough; he wants the LCC Thursday series to become a tradition that is a part of UIC a hundred years from now. "It's well on its way-we started with three or four people showing up to events and now we never have less than 30 on any given Thursday."
What's neat about LCC Thursday series? Every Thursday is a different themed event: movies, poetry, La Pena, and workshops. "There is no one thing that represents the Latino culture, the spectrum of diversity is big," said Carraminana. He feels that one event does not suffice the culture as a whole, but that several events are needed to represent the numerous aspects of the Latino culture.
The Latino student organizations are involved and contribute to nearly all of the events. In fact, Carraminana has plans to let the student organizations run LCC Thursday this summer. Stay tuned and look ahead for new and exciting events from the LCC.
For more information about the Latino Cultural Center or any events that it sponsors contact: Rodrigo Carraminana, the director of the LCC by email at rodrigoc@uic.edu.
Also, if you are interested in learning the dance of love Graff, Goro, and Kokaurova all teach the tango at Dance Connection on Clybourn. Sessions last six weeks and cost around $80.
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