Page 22 - Montecito Journal Glossy Edition Winter Spring 2012/13

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22
winter
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spr ing
W
hen, in the beginning of the second act, principal ballerina Leila
Drake, as the glamorous Yolanda Veloz, was whisked across
the Lobero stage by Jack Stewart playing ballroom dancing
sensation Frank Veloz and the couple engaged in their sexy,
dramatic and exciting tango, the audience was electrified. They had
already enjoyed over an hour of the first act’s dancing
frenzy of ballet, Charleston, the Lindy, Castle
Walk and more. Those lucky enough to have
attended Guy Veloz’s
An American Tango
at the Lobero Theatre in Santa Barbara
knew they were witnessing something
special. Something enduring.
Something, perhaps, even great.
In September of this year
(2012), Santa Barbara’s State Street
Ballet performers honored Margo
Cohen-Feinberg with a gala entitled
Tango on the Riviera
in the Biltmore’s
Loggia Ballroom in Montecito. State Street Ballet
founder and director Rodney Gustafson, along with co-
producer Michael Roush, followed that up with the
World Premiere of
An American Tango.
The play was
choreographed and directed by New York City-based
choreographer William Soleau and performed on the
Lobero stage by the full company of dancers on Saturday
October 27 and again on Sunday October 28.
Guy Veloz, the youngest of Frank and Yolanda Veloz’s
four children, first wrote what began as a screenplay and
what is currently a multi-media theater-ballet performance,
in 1989, so his quest to tell the story of his parents,
known professionally as Veloz & Yolanda, began a quarter
century ago. If
An American Tango
does become a movie
or a Broadway show, and there is a real likelihood of it
becoming both, an “overnight success” won’t be one of its
Conversations
by James
Buckley
An American Tango