PointeTango: A romantic combination - Vancouver Ballet Society
By Victor Swoboda
Six years ago, Canadians Alexander Richardson and Erin Scott-Kafadar launched PointeTango, a Montreal-based company that puts a unique twist to Argentine tango — Scott-Kafadar dances on pointe. Ballet-trained, the two met a few years earlier in a small local dance production of Cinderella. Richardson had first taken up tango with another dancer, eventually introducing it to Scott-Kafadar.
“In 2016, we spent a year in Buenos Aires working on the transition from ballet to tango,” said Richardson, 42, speaking over the phone in November from the World Accordion and Tango Festival in Victoria, BC, the last stop on a cross-Canada tour of their hour-long show, Tango, to the Pointe. “Argentine tango is a dance of suggestion, proposing a conversation between two people, whereas so much of traditional ballet is individual work.”
After a year of dancing tango in heels, Scott-Kafadar felt ready to try tango on pointe.
“Erin’s potential to fall over increased dramatically because the vertical axis on pointe is very narrow,” noted Richardson. “On pointe, she doesn’t have a strong sense of balance on her own so my embrace must manage all the subtle changes, shifting back and forward, left and right. My lead must be clearer and have a strong intention when proposing each movement.”
Following performances in several Canadian cities in 2018-2019, PointeTango was forced to cancel 2020 shows in England because of COVID. “We were in Buenos Aires and geared to travel to England when overnight there was a government lockdown,” said Richardson. “One of us was allowed out once a day to buy groceries.”
Luckily, their studio apartment had high ceilings and a wooden floor. To make rehearsal space, they pushed the couch to the door. Getting out meant crawling over the couch. During their two-month quarantine, they created material for a video, Tango in the Dark, released in 2021, and much of what became Tango, to the Pointe.
“Being trapped in a small room, we really focussed on the close embrace or abrazo,” said Richardson. “Instead of being big and showy, we made it more compact.” Richardson also developed muscles capable of lifting Scott-Kafadar overhead. “We incorporated more elaborate lifts that were never our focus before. I perfected pancace — the pancake — where I throw Erin and flip her twice in the air.”
Having their own company also meant handling tedious administrative duties. “You have to arrange dates, make sure that theatres are set up, get grants,” noted Scott-Kafadar, 31.
Canada Council for the Arts grants helped them to create Tango in the Dark, and to travel to Victoria. Early in 2022, they benefited from a 10-day residency at the National Ballet of Canada studios in Toronto, where former National Ballet principal Sonja Rodriguez observed them. “It touched our hearts when she said that what we were doing made complete sense,” said Richardson.
After their Victoria show, the pair began a six-month sojourn in Buenos Aires, where PointeTango will perform for the first time at local milongas. They will also create a full-length dance film, In Search of the Abrazo, and tour a live version of Tango in the Dark with Toronto’s Payadora Tango Ensemble in fall 2023.
Their partnership will further blossom. At the end of their final show in Winnipeg last July, Richardson unexpectedly dropped to one knee on stage and asked Scott-Kafadar to marry him.
