A force to be reckoned with

Argentinian dance group Fuerza Bruta use hip-hop and high-wire artistry to bring culture to the masses and help audiences soar above political worries

- Veronica Esposito

Ask the members of Argentinian avant garde theatre company Fuerza Bruta how they describe themselves and you will be met with furrowed brows, before receiving a confident assertion that there isn't anything quite like them. What can be said with certainty is that Fuerza Bruta (brute force) is true to its name.

The group, which premiered its first performance in Buenos Aires in 2005 before going on to become a national institution and tour the world, offers a mixture of hip-hop dance, highwire artistry, light and noise extravaganza, and heart-pounding, feet-stomping euphoric rave.

It is constantly evolving, and nobody - not even the cast themselves - is ever quite sure what will happen over the course of a performance. Camila Taranto, longtime member and current team captain, reminisces about one evening that concluded with someone in the audience getting down on one knee: "We were saying our goodbyes to the crowd," she tells me, "and it was like, 'Oh my God!, this guy is making a proposal!"" (Thankfully, his girlfriend said yes.)

Another time, Federico Díaz, who joined the group in 2022 and has performed with it more than 300 times, recalls interacting with an audience member who was blind. "She was this little girl, and she was feeling things with her hands. Her mother told me, 'She just wants to feel your face." Diaz let the little girl explore the contours of his features. "She was having her very own experience, totally unique. It was like I was frozen there in time with her, it was amazing."