La Jornada: Choreographer transforms the innocence of soccer into dance and takes it to the CCB

At your show Dance Tribute to the Art of Football, The Norwegian company Jo Strømgren transforms the passion of the stadium into a high-impact choreographic language, which elevates the everyday movements of football to a universal aesthetic experience.

Directed by Jo Strømgren, the group performs today and tomorrow at the Julio Castillo theater of the Centro Cultural del Bosque (CCB).

Regarding the presentation of the Norwegian company in Mexico, The Day He spoke virtually with the director and creator of the piece, which premiered in 1997, which at the time made a difference within contemporary dance.

For the choreographer, real soccer is not on television or in million-dollar contracts, but in the park, after school, when the snow melts and the green grass appears and the children play even though they don’t know each other. “That’s the beauty of that sport. What we see now is a world infected by money, very mafia-like. Frankly, now I’m not interested in anything about that sport,” he said.

In the stage proposal, four dancers perform a field ballet at a dizzying pace, with warm-up exercises, virtuoso kicks with an imaginary ball, and even an exchange of shirts.

With this piece, Strømgren longs for the innocent game of coexistence, in which the ball was an excuse to get together. That childhood memory is the intimate driving force of Dance Tribute to the Art of Football, that arrives in Mexico in the midst of World Cup fever.

The director recalled that the piece created 30 years ago came about almost by accident. “In the ’90s, in Europe, contemporary dance was fashionable, and we were tired of the same thing, but one day in the locker room we said: ‘why don’t we do a show about football that deals with what we know?’ We rehearsed for two weeks and performed in two cities; “suddenly we were touring the world.”

Dance and popular culture

The work was a mix of dance with popular culture around that sport. However, “the motivation was simple: we were kids wondering what we do now. Maybe that’s why it has survived 30 years.”

Strømgren explained that Dance Tribute to the Art of Football It is an artistic cabaret of scenes that reflect the phenomenon of soccer. From the body language there is something of a party, but also of a tribune. “It’s not so much about what happens with the professionals. It’s a culture of youth, of children, of families. Many people who have seen the show remember that sport as it was before.”

He acknowledged that three decades ago his proposal was radical for bringing soccer to the stage, “but now dance has assimilated a lot of popular elements, so that is no longer new.”

Regarding why football, Jo Strømgren answers: “each sport has enormous qualities of movement. I know football well, it has that exclusivity, those physically sophisticated combinations.”

He clarified that the theme of masculinity no longer supports the piece. “Times have changed. In football there are also women.” In addition, he expressed that he tries to be serious in his projects and, if people laugh in the show, it is because “I have a sense of humor, but intuitive. It could never be stando. I only create situations where people recognize each other.”

For the artist, the most beautiful thing about soccer “are the childhood memories: when spring came, the ice went away and the children could play together. It didn’t matter if we knew each other. Two games and that’s it. That’s the beauty. Not what we see on television now.”

With this work, the choreographer has proven that soccer creates a strange community, because this sport generates the same thing in all countries. “The last time I felt that community was during the pandemic: everyone in the same boat. The same thing happens with football, the reactions are the same.”

A Dance Tribute to the Art of Football, where the physical routine of the soccer player dialogues with ballet and the performing arts, is presented today and tomorrow at 8 p.m. at the Julio Castillo theater of the CCB (Paseo de la Reforma and Campo Marte s/n, behind the Auditorio Nacional del Metro station).