An Interview with Vincent Paterson, Choreographer On the Set of Evita in Buenos Aires

Q: As choreographer, just talk me through your intentions. VINCENT PATERSON: Well, there are several tango scenes in the movie and what I'm trying to do is take the tango and keep it pure -- not the tango we're used to seeing with all the tricks, but a very simple, pure tango that talks from the heart. In the requiem, we're picking people all from Buenos Aires and telling them not to do the tricks, pulling them down, telling them to dance only from the heart, to put a photograph of someone that they love in their mind and dance with the image of that person that has died and that's what I want their tango to be. With Madonna, the tango is a bit more elaborate. I'm having her dance with 3 or 4 milangeros, actually from the clubs here in town and do total improvisation that I kind of direct and so it is a totally different form of tango. We're going to see a lot of different kinds of tango and the most exciting thing for the world and Argentina is that we are taking the form of tango and making it bigger than it's used to being. Usually you only hear it with the tango and we're putting it to the music of Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice. Q: Tell me something about Madonna as a dancer -- what is she like to work with, and what do you aim to do with her in this particular movie? VINCENT PATERSON: Every scene is different. I've worked with Madonna for years. I directed and choreographed the Blonde Ambition tour and a lot of other projects for her, so I know her well as a dancer, and I've always pushed her limits. I think that's why we get along so well. In this, she's doing everything from directed improvisation to totally choreographed movement. Q: And the other big scene, the waltz for Eva and Ché, tell me about that, what part does it play in the film and what you want to get out of it? VINCENT PATERSON: The waltz for Eva and Ché is the final meeting where Ché and Eva come together. What I've tried to create -- what we are trying to create together -- is the confrontation of two ideologies that really are the same, but have a different perspective on how to achieve the goals. Ché is coming from the people and Eva came from the people, but is now a part of the ruling class. Eva and Ché are like magnets that attract and repel each other. The waltz is cut up into about eight different sections, and in each section I'm trying to reflect the environment in which they dance, so sometimes it's waltz, sometimes it's tango, sometimes it's folkloric. Always with a sense of stopping the movement to be able to have the energy and the drama in the foreground, and only let the dance support what these two incredible characters want to say to each other. Q: So dance is not just dance in this film, it acts out the drama? VINCENT PATERSON: For me, dance is never just dance. For me, dance has to be about what's happening inside of the actor. I'm not a choreographer who creates steps, I create originally from a place of intention. Then I find out, like a writer does, what I want to say. Finally, I think about how the dialogue can be written with the human body, rather than words that are coming out of their mouths.