Milena Plebs: Honouring tango’s past, dancing towards its future

After four decades dedicated to tango, Milena Plebs remains firmly focused on the dance's future. When the Tango BA Festival and World Championship honored the renowned dancer, choreographer, director, producer, teacher, and researcher at Usina del Arte, the occasion could have been framed as a retrospective of her remarkable career. Plebs, however, saw it as an opportunity to plant seeds for the future while acknowledging past milestones.

Her story is intertwined with tango's history, yet she has spent much of her career asking what tango can become next. Recognition at the Tango Mundial underscored the diverse roles she has played throughout her four-decade-long tango journey. "For me, it means bringing visibility to the different stages and, above all, the various activities within tango that I engage in: dancing, choreographing, directing, producing, teaching, and researching," Plebs said.

Her career moved between two seemingly opposing forces: preservation and reinvention. She immersed herself in tango's traditions, studying milongueros, dancing with them, and analyzing their movement and culture. For the first 13 years, she worked alongside dancer and choreographer Miguel Ángel Zotto, creating the landmark production Tango Argentino. Together, they brought Argentine tango onto international stages, contributing to its global revival.

Plebs' background in contemporary dance provided her with a fresh vocabulary. She blended her academic training and knowledge from working with choreographers like Pina Bausch with tango's traditional foundations. This dialogue became central to the productions she created with Zotto through the Tango X2 dance company and her own work Tramatango, which explored the fusion of tango and contemporary dance.

Throughout her career, Plebs has remained in the space between inheritance and invention, respecting tradition while bringing tango a fresh, contemporary aesthetic. She finds herself increasingly drawn to simple, minimalist stage tango, viewing it as the origin of all dance. As a choreographer, she continues to explore the intersection between tango and contemporary dance, oscillating between new proposals and tradition.

At her career celebration, Plebs chose dancers Juan Malizia and Javier Rodríguez to represent different aspects of her journey. Malizia, known for his stage dancing background, impressed her with his strong traditional tango foundation. Rodríguez, a long-time collaborator, represented a unique personal style that Plebs admired. Both dancers were chosen to showcase tango's potential for respect and evolution.

Plebs believes that dancers should study widely and deeply, then create their unique style by adding their own touch and personality. Technique is essential but not the ultimate destination; improvisation and curiosity are vital for preserving and enriching the dance. While innovating, she acknowledges that some aspects should not be sacrificed in the pursuit of something new. In the milonga, tango exists within a code of coexistence, emphasizing respect for navigational boundaries.