Baroque-Folk Dreamscape of Movement and Voice

ImpulsTanz [ENA] In Último Helecho, the exceptional collaboration between director Nina Laisné, choreographer-performer François Chaignaud, and celebrated Argentinian singer Nadia Larcher, performed in frames of the ImpulsTanz festival unfolds as a luminous, genre-defying ritual. This new creation, which dazzled at ImPulsTanz 2025, draws from the layered depths of South American folk dance and mythology.

It is merging them seamlessly with European baroque soundscapes to create a hauntingly beautiful phantasmagoria. The stage resembles a mineral landscape—dry, elemental, timeless—evoking a place between life and afterlife. Here, the performers become sibylline figures, stirred to movement by the breath of the bandoneon and the bold resonance of baroque trombones. Chaignaud’s physical language, as always, is refined, sensual, and deeply expressive—channelling not only traditional forms like zamba or huayno but the spiritual longing embedded within them.

Nadia Larcher’s voice, rich with earthy power and operatic finesse, anchors the work emotionally. Her singing is neither ornamental nor illustrative—it becomes a presence in the room, conjuring ghosts, ancestors, and forgotten loves. Supported by six superb live musicians, the music feels both ancient and vividly alive. Último Helecho is not just a performance—it is a ceremonial dream, a meeting of worlds. It reclaims South American dance traditions not as static heritage, but as poetic, political, and profoundly moving contemporary art. A triumph of cultural imagination.