Founded in 1963, the Gran Ballet Argentino, an artistic company based in Córdoba, is dedicated to the dissemination of traditional Argentine music and dance. From the soaring Andean glaciers to the endless plains of the Pampas, the company presents the repertoires of multiple regions, highlighting the unique characteristics of each.
In Andean Argentina, the colorful and bouncy carnivalitos of the indigenous population are featured. In the Pampa, the gaucho culture is represented by the malambo, a male dance accompanied by a drum called bombo. The chacarera and the zamba originate from the northern provinces and are danced in the peñas, folkloric parties that are still very popular today, to the sound of the charango, a small plucked string instrument. The gato and chamamé, which are also danced in Uruguay, Brazil and Paraguay, combine cultural elements from the Guarani Indians, the Spanish conquistadors and Italian and German emigrants.
In Buenos Aires, the strange melancholy of the Porteños, inhabitants of the capital, is transmitted by the tango accompanied by the famous bandoneon. This plaintive music, which misses all the things we used to love, originated in the port slums. Here a population of emigrants from the Mediterranean countries was born, and was rejected. Then, it was installed this vague with the heart which one says today that it is inseparable from Argentina.
