Today we’d like to introduce you to Pooja Kumar.
Hi Pooja, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
I started dancing tango in 2010. Shortly after graduating from law school, my close friend mentioned that he wanted to make a documentary about Tango and thought it might be a good idea to take a class if he was going to make a movie about it. He asked me to take the class with him. I agreed.
At the end of the first class, he said, “I still want to make a movie about this, but I hate doing it!” I replied, “Well, I didn’t know what I was getting into, and now I love it!” He hasn’t made that documentary yet, but somehow Tango chose me that day, and almost eight years later, I founded Guardia Vieja.
I have spent several years studying Argentine tango. My formal dance training is primarily influenced by Ciko (Cigdem Tanik), Cecilia Garcia, Corina de la Rosa, Corina Herrera, Gustavo Naveira, Giselle Anne, Guillermo Cerneaz, Gaby Mataloni, and Mauro Peralta. In order to further enhance my dance, I engage in a number of different movement modalities, most notably the Garuda methodology of Pilates, Gyrotonics, and Feldenkrais.
However, I believe the true study of Argentine Tango comes from learning about the deeper social aspects of Tango. I have spent several years traveling, dancing, and DJing throughout the United States and Europe and visiting Buenos Aires. These are the lessons and experiences I hopes to recreate and share.
When I started Guardia Vieja, my focus was on creating memorable experiences by invigorating the Argentine Tango scene through a variety of art and culture events. However, the pandemic forced me to pivot, and in 2020, Guardia Vieja add a Film Production arm, developing a docuseries called Virtual Vinyls and Wine and kicking off its first feature documentary, Juntos de Nuevo.
We all face challenges, but looking back, would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
It certainly has not been a smooth road. The experiences that I am creating do not typically fit the mold of what Tango in the US has been. For one, while social dance is an element of my events, it is not the sole focus, the way traditional Tango Festivals and Tango Marathons in the US have been. The emphasis on live music, art shows, and roundtable discussions, in addition to social dance, may be enriching for some, but also just very different for others, which requires adjustment.
Because of the variety of events encompassed in the experiences I create, I tend to feature a larger group of presenters (dancers, teachers, musicians, DJs, photographers, artists, videographers, speakers, etc.). This means that my events are on average more expensive in order to be able to pay these artists/creatives, and this is also an adjustment, given that Tango has typically been seen as a social/’popular’ dance that has typically come with a lower monetary cost of entry.
These challenges are similar to those experienced by any disrupter or artist, though. It takes time to find your audience. With each event or interview, I have gotten closer to identifying an audience who appreciates my perspective and what I can offer. Unfortunately, just as I started to establish this audience, the pandemic meant I lost a lot of this momentum that I was building, and with unpredictable waves of variants, I am now finding myself beginning to build my audience again.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar, what can you tell them about what you do?
At Guardia Vieja, we are driven by the idea that what makes an experience memorable is sharing it with someone else. Therefore, we look to create collective experiences through the following key offerings:
1. Event Production: We offer unique in-person experiences rooted in bringing people together, centered in the Argentine Tango culture. These have included live concerts, art shows, and cultural summits, most of which are somewhat ‘pop up’ in nature. Prior to the pandemic, there were some more regular events, which we hope to introduce again as we get to more and more stability with this ‘new norm.’ These regular events may include social dances, Tango Vinyl meet-ups, and guided practice events/workshops.
2. Film Production: We also offer film production services and content under our Film Production arm that we hope either serves as an entry point for those unfamiliar with Tango and/or helps existing members of the Tango community find new perspectives in Tango experiences. Our hope is that this content sparks conversations and discovery that might result in ongoing engagement, even when we cannot be physically together.
What sets us apart is our deep emphasis on Argentine Tango culture as a guiding principle. We hope to help more people appreciate and engage with this culture as it impacts how we view and interact with the world around us.
Is there a quality that you most attribute to your success?
I think our values and clear vision are the key characteristics of our success. We truly live and work with the following 5 values in mind with everything we do:
1.) Togetherness: We have always been driven by the notion that things are better together. We strive to create collective experiences that bring us together.
2.) Expression: We believe in the art of conversation, irrespective of the mode of expression. We aspire to create a safe space for people to express themselves, whether it be in speech, art, music, dance, or other ways.
3) Harmony: Sometimes, the issue with so many voices expressing themselves all at once is that there is simply chaos in which no one feels heard. This is why we felt that it was important to emphasize harmony as one of our values. Similar to an orchestra, we hope to bring individuals together harmoniously.
4) Old School: In light of the isolation that the recent tech revolution has created, we believe there is a need for the evolution of a counter-culture to combat some of the loneliness of modern life. While we acknowledge that the past was not perfect, we believe it is important to get back to some old-school values while firmly dismissing other old-fashioned ones.
5) Integrity: We hold ourselves, our collaborators, and our patrons to a high degree of integrity, which at times means having tough conversations and taking on accountability for both our experience and of others around us.
Pricing:
- Pricing varies based on the experience
- The pricing for our next event is from $40 – $120. More details can be found at the following link: https://www.eventbrite.
com/e/en-vivo-heyni-solera- teagan-faran-tickets- 354541421937 - We are also actively working on raising post-filming production costs for our first feature documentary, with perks starting as low as $5: https://igg.me/at/
tangodoc/x/19905962#/
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.guardiaviejaatx.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/guardiaviejaatx/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/guardiaviejaatx
- Other: https://vimeo.com/guardiaviejaatx
Image Credits
Micael Marie
Amanda Hoffman
Jessica Arroyo Photography
