The Director’s Word

 The journey of Alice in Tangoland began in the simplest way: by witnessing magic on stage. Watching dancers who, without knowing it, were already becoming the characters of this story in the back of my mind.

That is how inspiration often comes to me: I see an artist, a movement, a fleeting moment that makes the rest of the world disappear ,  and I just know, there is something there. Some people carry that rare gift. They slow down time. They draw you back to yourself, effortlessly.

And yet, as certain as I felt that this was it, I wondered: 

another Alice in Wonderland ... what could I possibly add?

But as I dove deeper into the creative process, new questions emerged:

What did I truly see in Alice?

Why has this strange story lived on across generations, captivating readers and inspiring artists around the world?

And how could I make it mine, while still respecting its essence?

I returned to the original books, again and again. 

Slowly, I began to understand their magic. The nonsense, the absurdity , it isn’t there to confuse us, it is there to set us free. It gives us permission to see and to feel exactly what we need. 

What a generous story!

At the time, I was going through deep personal change. I did feel like Alice, though falling down the rabbit hole felt more like falling into the deepest parts of myself. That changed everything.

I began to see every character as a fragment of me , parts that simply wanted to be seen, heard, acknowledged. And I thought, What if my Alice didn’t fall into Wonderland? What if she fell into herself? What if all the characters she meets aren’t strangers but reflections of her own psyche ?

So I gave each character a deeper role:

The White Rabbit became Anxiety.

The Flowers, Vanity and Pride.

The Cat, Playfulness.

The Hatter, Creative Madness.

And others followed , Curiosity, Sensuality, Consciousness, the Wound, and the Wound Protector…

As Alice meets them, she , at first, resists , just as we do when confronted with the parts of ourselves we would rather deny. Until she realizes that the only way out is through. The only way forward is acceptance. Embrace. And that is symbolized throughout the piece with the tango embrace.

That is how Alice in Tangoland was born: not from a script, but from a feeling. From the urge to explore the inner landscape and give space to every part of it. Each character becomes a mirror of the self.

The writing process began with sensations I could not shake : a visual, a piece of music, a dancer, a circus artist, a character that spoke to me in silence. 

I build worlds without words, 

where movement becomes language, where poetry lives in the body.

And like Carroll’s original works, even though this piece is deeply personal, my hope is that it offers the audience the same freedom: to embark on their own journey.

For Alice in Tangoland, I combined the intensity and passion of Argentine tango with the freedom and magic of circus arts. Not only because they are my favorite languages to work with, but because in the hands of artists who have truly mastered their craft , like the incredible cast of this show , these art forms come alive. 

A constant dance between structure and surrender.

Rather than bringing tango and circus into Alice’s world, I chose to bring Alice into theirs. That shift created a new visual language, something fresh and unlike anything we have seen before.

As a visual artist, I have always been drawn to colorful, extravagant settings. You could say I embrace a kind of maximalism: more is more. In Alice in Tangoland, every costume, prop, and scenic detail was crafted with that philosophy in mind.

The show is carried by a powerful, eclectic soundtrack , weaving vintage tango classics with modern composers, the raw energy of 70s rock (think The Doors, Janis Joplin...), and the bold poetry of contemporary jazz, which elevates the circus acts with its expansive sound. It is truly a one-of-a-kind sonic journey.

One of the gifts of Alice’s story is its familiarity. Audiences already know it. There is no pressure to “understand” or follow a plot , which allows us to leave the rational mind aside and surrender to the deeper layers of the piece.

My intention with Alice in Tangoland is exactly that: to create space. To offer people a moment to feel. To fall into their own rabbit holes. 

It is not only about joy and entertainment , though it brings that too. It is about creating a moment in time where we can reconnect with ourselves.

If someone leaves the theatre feeling a little more whole, a little more alive, a little disturbed even, or simply with a sense of release, then this piece has done its job.

And the incredible team of artists who bring it to life, on stage and behind the scenes, devote their talent to the service of something greater. And so they do, every single time.

— Anaïs