By Ana Laura Caruso, Herald staff

If you were planning on staying home tonight, you’d better save that idea for another day. Today’s the last chance of the year to see two great plays on stage directed by Ana Frenkel — Pura cepa and Corazón idiota. Pura cepa has been on stage for two years and is a dance show performed by Grupo Compo. It revolves around a woman who drinks a glass of wine while she’s waiting for her lover and falls asleep. She dreams about love, fury, sex and happiness. Corazón idiota is a comical music show performed by Carla Peterson (Los exitosos Pells, Lalola) and Griselda Siciliani (Patito Feo) about two women who try to heal their love wounds. The play is directed by Frenkel, Carlos Casella and Daniel Cúparo.

Ana Frenkel is a dancer, choreographer and director who founded El descueve company about 20 years ago with Gabriela Barbeiro, Mayra Bonard, Carlos Casella and María Ucedo. The group created the plays Criatura, La fortuna (directed by Frenkel), Corazones maduros, Todos contentos, Hermosura (directed by Frenkel and Casella) and Patito feo (directed by Frenkel).

El descueve also worked with De la guarda company (directed by Pichon Baldinu and Dicky James) in the creation of the show Villa-Villa. The show was presented in Buenos Aires, France, Brazil, Switzerland, The Netherlands, Canada, UK, Belgium, New York and other places. Frenkel was also an assistant choreographer in Fuerza Bruta and directed the play Sucio, performed by Guillermo Arengo, Carlos Casella and Juan Minujín.

Restless and innovative, Ana Frenkel studied at the San Martín Theatre Dance School and also trained in acting, yoga, acrobatics, kung-fu, and contemporary dancing. She developed her own dancing technique and has been giving lessons since she was 18. Frenkel met the Herald to talk about her shows and her career.

"Humour is always present in my shows because I believe it’s the wisest way of looking at yourself and facing most circumstances in life,”she says.

How did Grupo Compo form?
The members of Grupo Compo have been training with me for many years. There is a lot of chemistry between us. The group is beautiful, we get along well with each other and there’s a lot of respect. It’s truly rewarding to see how your students create a play and I really enjoy directing them. I learn a lot from them.

How did you come up with the story?
We undertook a lot of research to find out what everyone was interested in. Each of us raised a subject and we experimented with movement. We talked a lot about love and relationships. It’s a very poetical work. We didn’t focus our work on a plot —it was more like a  sensitive, musical thing.

Why do you think this show got so many positive reviews?
Because there’s a lot of energy. All the dancers love performing and they really enjoy what they do on stage.

Why do you always include romantic songs in your shows?
I like passionate music and I also pay attention to the lyrics when choosing the songs. I like the plays that deal with love and relationships — not only between couples but between all human beings. I never talk about history in my shows, for example. There are different ways of talking about life. I like to create images that make the audience feel good and think of their own lives.

What is it with eroticism in your plays?
Dancing is erotic. For me, eroticism means to be full of life.

Are you working with El descueve at the moment?
Not right now. We’ve been working together for almost than 20 years. We used to perform in the Parakultural and Cemento underground clubs. We choreographed and performed there. We wanted to innovate and experiment with movement. I remember we worked very hard. We took acting and singing lessons. We designed the set... We did everything! Nobody knew us. Then, we presented a play called Criatura and, since then, we’ve been showing other plays in theatres.

Why did you distance yourself from De la guarda?
We did Villa Villa with De la guarda and it was great. We worked together for five years. But De la guarda and El descueve are two companies which create plays, so we didn’t want to keep working as performers, we wanted to keep directing our own plays. So we got on with other things.

Do you enjoy directing Corazón idiota?
Yes! I love Carla Peterson and Griselda Siciliani. For me, it was awesome to be able to work with them. The play is hilarious.

When did you start dancing?
I’ve always loved dancing. As a child, I took dancing lessons. I started studying Philosophy when I got out of school but soon realized that I wanted to dedicate myself to dancing. I’ve always liked the idea of making use of body language.

What was your first ever job ?
I started giving dance lessons at 18. I also worked as a secretary but that only lasted a month. I couldn’t stand it!

Who are your main influences?
Lots of people. I like La Organización Negra theatre company, Pina Bausch, my own brother (Diego Fenkel, singer of La portuaria), Alejandro Urdapilleta, Talking Heads, Michael Jackson, Pedro Almodóvar... It’s hard to tell because the list is always changing. Lately, I’ve been listening to reggaeton music and to Lisandro Aristimuño’s latest record.