Luis Bruni

El Pibe Palermo
& Luis Bruni.

Luis Bruni does not start to dance with Argentinean Tango but with Ballet. At the age of 16, he dreams of joining the Colon Theatre, the equivalent of the Paris Opera. But his parents cannot afford to pay for his studies. Luis decides then to quit school and work. The first year is rough ; during the day he is a delivery man and at night he takes his dance classes. In order to gain time because he started to dance late, he tries to understand the meaning of each exercise. He moves forward faster but most of all has a deeper knowledge of the work that is asked of him. He starts on stage in Buenos Aires, in a show with Jorge Donn, Maurice Béjart’s favourite star. At 19, he joins the Colon Theatre company and performs the classical repertoire such as Aida, Copelia, Don Quixote, Swan Lake, with international stars like Maya Plissetskaïa, Ludmila Semenyaka, Maximiliano Guerra, Zaklinsky, Julio Bocca. Two years later, he is hired as a soloist at the La Plata Theatre.

Luis Bruni conducts a career as ballet dancer first at the Colon Theatre, then at the La Plata Theatre. He performs the classical repertory with international stars like Maya Plissetskaïa, Ludmila Semenyaka, Maximiliano Guerra, Zaklinsky, Julio Bocca.

Every winter, Luis goes to Europe to work especially with masters of the Paris Opera, Sofia Opera and participates at the Barna International Concourse in Bulgaria. During seven years along with his career as a ballet dancer he works with Estella Erman a neo-classic dancer and

Luis Bruni, Vladimir Vassiliev &
the choreographer Joseph Lazzini.

participates in numerous tours in Europe, Biarritz Festival, Paris Festival, etc... He discovers and then for seven years works on the method of preparation of the body developed by the famous French choreographer Joseph Lazzini which brings a very special poetry to the movement.

From childhood Luis listens to tango. But it is in 1994 during a demonstration with Pupy Castello and Graciela Gonzalez that something is triggered. « When I saw them, I was so moved. I saw deepness, an intensity that I did not know. Pupy was dancing with extremely slow movements, very precise like a feline. They were the ones that got me into tango, not the stage dancers. »
For several years, Luis is torn between his classical and neo-classical career and his passion for tango.
In 1998 the choreographer Oscar Araiz, notices Luis Bruni and asks him to perform Tango en gris and choreograph the traditional tangos which he created while he was in charge of the Geneva Opera. The following year, Luis is once again soloist this time in Magnificat.

Luis Bruni performs as a soloist in Tango en gris of Oscar Araiz as well as choreographs the traditional tangos.

In the milongas, the presence of a ballet dancer is not always well received. But one of the great masters of Buenos Aires, Tete, pushes Luis to carry on : « Don’t listen to anybody ! You have the tango in your heart ! » Tete becomes Luis’s first model, he learns by looking at him dancing. « He gave me key words which really helped me to express myself in tango », remembers Luis with emotion. « With Tete, I had the same kind of conversations about movements and the body as I would have had with ballet stars I danced with. »

Graciela Gonzalez & Luis Bruni in
a European tour, Festival of
Amsterdam in 2000.

In 1995, Luis Bruni starts to work with Graciela Gonzalez. In 1997, they form with three other colleagues the Group Graciela Gonzalez to do research on the pedagogy of tango. Until 2001, Luis works with the group and creates with Cristina Cortes the Technique of jumps which meets with international success. While he learns with Pupy Castello, Luis gives classes at the Galeria del Tango Argentino and Salon Canning, a mythical place in the history of Buenos Aires milongas.

In 1998, Luis Bruni creates the tango program of the University of La Plata. In 2000, he creates with Silvia Rajshmir the first tango practice in Jerusalem where he gives workshop as well as in Tel-Aviv.

During a class, where old dancers where watching, El Turco Jose shows a tiny little move, with an extreme subtlety, and extreme delicacy. Luis discovers those subtle details which give another dimension to the dance. « With el Turco Jose I started to polish my style, to enter in a different dimension of tango », explains Luis. One evening, in salon Sunderland, a much respected place for traditional dancers, El Turco Jose introduces Luis for a demonstration. Luisito, although used to international stages, is terrified ; the dance floor is full of old tangueros. But the people liked the demonstration and El Negro Portale, who also performed that night approaches Luis to congratulate him : « You have a good posture kid. You dance simple without getting all excited. You are on the right track. »

Because of his contact with old dancers like Pupy Castello, Tete, El Turco Jose, he learns various styles, sometimes opposites. It is with Nelly el Turco Jose’ s wife, one of the last blacks of Argentina, that Luis learns the basics of the rhythm of the milonga, feeling of the ground. He also studies the milonga traspié with Tommy O’Connel, a style that you feel from the inside.

El Pibe Palermo & Luis Bruni. For one year, « the last compadrito » goes to Luis & Pascale’s house to tell his stories.

With the famous Pibe Palermo, Luis Bruni discovers the old guard, the style before the 40s. « When I started to work with El Pibe it was a very strange thing, like a trip in the past, back at the beginning of the century », relates Luis. During all year 2000, the 82 years old dancer goes to Luis and Pascale’s house. He tells his stories around a maté. After two months, Luis convinces the last dancer to have kept the pure style from the beginning of the last century to record his stories. He organizes master classes with el Pibe Palermo in the Salon Canning. Luis and Pascale remember that year with the sensation of having had such an intense experience with the old man where the spirit of tango was vibrating in each gesture, each word, each silence.

In 2001, Luis Bruni and his partner Pascale Coquigny move to Paris. They perform and give classes all over the world. In France, Luis meets Juan Carlos Caceres. Each in his own way conducts historical research on the origins and the evolution of tango, one using music the other dance. Luis becomes Caceres’s friend as well as his student in music and history.