Malambo (dance)

The National Malambo Festival has been held in Laborde, a small town in the province of Córdoba, since its first edition in 1966. The festival is held annually in the second half of January and it lasts six nights. Its objective is to promote and revalue national culture with a focus on dance, music, and tradition. It also aims at strengthening social bonds between participants from different provinces and countries. In this festival, a competition is held and there are different categories in which participants can compete.{{Cite web |title=Una historia sencilla - Guerriero, Leila - 978-84-339-9767-8 |url=https://www.anagrama-ed.es/libro/narrativas-hispanicas/una-historia-sencilla/9788433997678/NH_520 |access-date=2024-09-09 |website=Editorial Anagrama}}

The festival was created by “Amigos del Arte” and was held for the first time in a local club in 1966. In 1974, the planning committee made up of neighbors, purchased the thousand square metered venue of the former Spanish Society and built a stage because of the event's rapid growth.

Since 1974, the festival has been held uninterrupted until the present, except for in 2021 when it was suspended because of the global pandemic.

Since 2004, the 23 Argentinian provinces have participated in the festival. During the week of the festival, different activities take place which are aimed at spreading knowledge on the traditions of each of the provinces. Among the activities, there are workshops, conferences, peñas, and craft fairs.{{Cite web |title=Festival Nacional del Malambo - Laborde - Córdoba |url=http://www.festivaldelmalambo.com.ar/ |access-date=2024-09-09 |website=Festival Nacional del Malambo - Laborde - Córdoba |language=es}}

Besides the Malambo dance competition, which is the main event, every year the “Paisana Nacional del Malambo” is crowned. The contestants parade in their traditional outfits and must show their dancing abilities and be interviewed by the judges. The winner is given a band and performs a choreographed dance with the male champion.{{Cite web |date=2018-01-06 |title=Laborde, el pueblo cordobés que se transforma con su festival de malambo hace 51 años |url=https://www.lanacion.com.ar/sociedad/laborde-el-pueblo-cordobes-que-se-transforma-con-su-festival-de-malambo-hace-51-anos-nid2097702/ |access-date=2024-09-09 |website=LA NACION |language=es}}

Since its emergence in the seventeenth century, the dance and its traditions have evolved significantly. In the beginning, Malambo was originally performed by only two men, in a more subtle and elegant way. Nowadays, however, it can be performed as a group and also by women, and may include more aggressive moves and accessories, like “boleadoras” or even fire.{{Cite web |date=2024-06-21 |title=Legion, la compañía de baile de Malambo que conquistó “America´s Got Talent” |url=https://www.el1digital.com.ar/cultura/entrevistas-exclusivas/legion-la-compania-de-baile-de-malambo-que-conquisto-americas-got-talent/ |access-date=2024-09-09 |website=El1 |language=es}}{{Cite web |date=2023-10-12 |title=Malambo y mujeres: meterse en el baile |url=https://anunm.unm.edu.ar/5882-2/ |access-date=2024-09-09 |website=ANUNM |language=es-AR}}{{Cite book |url=https://ffyh.biblio.unc.edu.ar/cgi-bin/koha/opac-detail.pl?biblionumber=98444 |title=Identidad y folklore. Argentina |date=2018 |publisher=Laboratorios Bagó |isbn=978-987-98983-7-6 |editor-last=Canela |edition=Primera edición |location=Buenos Aires |editor-last2=Duhalde |editor-first2=Juan Manuel |editor-last3=Kupchik |editor-first3=Christian}}

A Malambo group called “Malevo” became famous world-wide after their participation in  “America's Got Talent” in 2016.{{Cite AV media |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b4vVcwPlnb8%20Retrieved |title=MALEVO - GOLDEN BUZZER AGT 2016 |date=2018-04-02 |last=Malevo Official |access-date=2024-09-09 |via=YouTube}} They toured all around the globe, bringing this important part of Argentine folklore culture closer to the rest of the world.{{Cite web |title=Malambo: Argentine dance from the pampas goes global {{!}} Buenos Aires Times |url=https://www.batimes.com.ar/news/culture/argentine-malambo-tours-around-the-world.phtml |access-date=2024-09-09 |website=www.batimes.com.ar}} They even performed in Las Vegas for a sold-out Cirque du Soleil show, to raise funds for critical water issues. {{Cite web |date=2017-03-12 |title=Malevo causó sensación en Las Vegas con su participación en “One Night for One Drop” del Cirque du Soleil |url=https://sentiargentina.com/malevo-causo-sensacion-en-las-vegas-con-su-participacion-en-one-night-for-one-drop-del-cirque-du-soleil/ |access-date=2024-09-08 |website=Sentí Argentina}} More recently, a group named “Legión” participated in the 2024 edition of “America's Got Talent”, performing the dance with their boots set on fire, amazing the judges and the public.

Even though women have presumably been dancing Malambo for a long time, their presence in this art has been strongly invisibilized until 2018, when the first National Female Malambo Championship (Campeonato Nacional de Malambo Femenino) was held in the city of Carlos Paz, Córdoba. {{Cite web |last=Falcoff |first=Laura |date=2021-07-03 |title=Mujeres que zapatean: el malambo no es sólo cosa de hombres |url=https://www.clarin.com/espectaculos/mujeres-zapatean-malambo-solo-cosa-hombres_0_UGID7QJym.html |access-date=2024-09-09 |website=Clarín |language=es}} The organizer, Ivana Carrazco, was once approached by a lady that said to have won a Malambo competition in 1950, which proves that women have been practicing this dance since last century, if not for longer. Carrazco and Jose Luis Baez, the president of the Championship, came up with the idea of holding the event to give women a place to compete in all the categories, since the National Festival in Laborde is only for men. Despite the separation usually made between female and male Malambo, many dancers deny there exists any technical difference in the performance of the discipline.{{Cite AV media |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ymysz0D6zBI |title=Origen "El Malambo y La Mujer" Documental Completo |date=2021-06-06 |last=Pasion Por El Malambo |access-date=2024-09-09 |via=YouTube}}

Malambo dancing is the main subject in a number of books and films.

In Literature

The book “A Simple Story: The Last Malambo” (“Una historia sencilla”, 2013) by journalist and writer Leila Guerriero chronicles the experiences of a contestant in the National Malambo Festival during its 2012 edition.

In Film

The 2020 coming-of-age drama film Karnawal, written and directed by Juan Pablo Félix, tells the story of Cabra, a teenager who dreams of becoming a professional malambo dancer.{{Cite web |last=Brodersen |first=Diego |date=2021-09-22 |title="Karnawal": drama familiar con dosis de contenido social {{!}} Ópera prima del bonaerense Juan Pablo Félix |url=https://www.pagina12.com.ar/370085-karnawal-drama-familiar-con-dosis-de-contenido-social |access-date=2024-09-09 |website=PAGINA12 |language=es}} The leading actor, Martín López Lacci, was discovered by the casting team while he performed in the National Malambo Festival in Laborde.{{Cite web |date=2021-09-21 |title=Estrena “Karnawal”: un relato sobre la adolescencia y el baile {{!}} Cine |url=https://www.lavoz.com.ar/vos/cine/estrena-karnawal-un-relato-sobre-la-adolescencia-y-el-baile/ |access-date=2024-09-09 |website=La Voz del Interior |language=es}}

The 2018 drama film “Malambo: El hombre bueno”, directed by Santiago Loza, revolves around the relationship between a malambo dancer and his mentor, as the protagonist trains in order to return to the National Malambo Festival's competition after sustaining a back injury.{{Cite web |title=Críticas: Crítica de “Malambo: El hombre bueno” + Entrevista al director Santiago Loza - Otros Cines |url=https://www.otroscines.com/nota.php?idnota=13298 |access-date=2024-09-09 |website=www.otroscines.com}}{{Cite web |last=Boetti |first=Ezequiel |date=2018-05-03 |title=El movimiento que le gana a la palabra {{!}} Malambo, el hombre bueno, escrita y dirigida por Santiago Loza, en la Sala Lugones |url=https://www.pagina12.com.ar/112056-el-movimiento-que-le-gana-a-la-palabra |access-date=2024-09-09 |website=PAGINA12 |language=es}}

Documentaries

“Guerrero de norte y sur”, a 2019 documentary film directed by Mauricio Halek, depicts the day-to-day life of Facundo Arteaga, a solo malambo dancer, as he tries his luck at the national competition one last time.{{Cite web |last=sebafanboy |title=Un “Guerrero de Norte y Sur” del malambo – ShowMardel |url=https://www.showmardel.com/un-guerrero-de-norte-y-sur-del-malambo/ |access-date=2024-09-09 |language=es-AR}} The film focuses on the solitary nature of the solo dancer “reinforcing the prototypical image of the gaucho from the Pampas Plain in its desolate immensity.”{{Cite web |last=Prieto |first=Paula Vazquez |date=2019-03-12 |title=Guerrero De Norte Y Sur |url=https://hacerselacritica.com/guerrero-de-norte-y-sur/ |access-date=2024-09-09 |website=HLC - Hacerse la crítica |language=es}}

The documentary film “Origen, el malambo y la mujer” (2021), directed by Sergio Magallanes, revolves around female malambo dancers and the National Women's Malambo Championship (Campeonato Nacional de Malambo Femenino), which takes place in Villa Carlos Paz, Córdoba since 2018. The film includes the testimonies of José Luis Báez and Ivana Carrasco, the creators of the competition.

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Category:Argentine dances

Category:Argentine folklore