DELIA HOU is a nomad at heart, having grown up in many places throughout the US, Taiwan and Malaysia, adapting to something different in each place. However, she finally found her home in Buenos Aires, the mecca of tango. From the very first moment she dropped into a class, tango captivated her by opening up a wealth of emotions and sensations uniquely inspired by the culture. Before, while studying astrophysics at MIT, studying law at NYU, or practicing law in Silicon Valley, she always escaped to explore movement in physical activities such as kung fu, jazz, flamenco, circus silks, and water polo. However, only the tango touched her so much that she quit her job as a lawyer to dedicate herself to it. Now, rather than travelling to different places, she is undertaking an artistic journey into the heart, rolling on the wheels of her imagination in search of truth and beauty. With each project , she expresses bit by bit what lies hidden in her soul but has yet to be defined. This meandering path has led her into unexpected territory, such as fashion modeling, acting in Theatre in the Dark, dancing tango on TV, acting in short films, and incorporating modern dance techniques. Following this tenuous thread down the rabbit hole has led Delia to her current focus: using dance films to raise awareness of plastic pollution through the character of PlastiQueen.
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JUAN CUPINI began his long career as a tango dancer in 1996 in the Municipal Theatre in the Merlo Province of Buenos Aires. Highlights of his career include acting as principal dancer and dance captain of Arrabal, the tango musical created by world-renowned Gustavo Santaolla, staged in Toronta, Columbia, and the American Repertory Theatre at Harvard in the US. Other protagonist roles include Compañia Estampas Porteñas (China, Peru), Argentango Volumen 2 (Japan), and Madero Tango (Buenos Aires). He has also participated in dance companies in shows staged all over the world such as Canada, Japan, China, Columbia, New Zealand, Peru, and Brazil. Currently he maintains his role in Arrabal and is also the principal dancer and assistant director of the show “Magia” in Madero Tango, one of the most prestigious tango shows in Buenos Aires. He studied with a wide range of masters and milongueros, and incorporated their knowledge of tango into his personal style, which after decades of experience, is defined by an incredible combination of intensity and freedom. Within the medium of film, he has assisted in the direction of a music video with a cast of 10 dancers, and brings to the table an innovative creative vision based upon his deep expertise in dance and live performances.
Director Statement
Delia´s statement:
I see the performing arts as an act of intervention, with the ability to alter the observer´s perception of the world. With this film, I hope to open a fleeting glitch in the matrix, just enough for PlastiQueen to leap out into the world and make the observer perceive the absurdly ubiquitous plastic packaging around them differently. I choose to raise environmental awareness through the arts because I want to capture the observer with something that is aesthetically-pleasing and entertaining, but leading up to a brief moment of subtle questioning. I hope to plant seeds of change by entering through the eyes, and cause just one split-second of an altered perception of the world, through the combination of the viscerality of moving bodies in movement, music, landscape, rhythm, and narrative.
Many times the topic of environmental justice is often framed in scientific terms or in protest or as educational material, which of course, is necessary. However, I believe harmony, justice, and beauty are all universal sensations, and the health of the planet and nature is an inevitable conclusion of following those sensations. Connecting to an audience through the arts, instead of a factual approach, allows the artist to tap into these states of feeling. I hope to generate an on-screen world which provokes the viewer to connect with that part of themselves that seeks to feel a sense of environmental harmony for at least a short moment.
Environmental Film and Screenplay Festival 