Amberlyn, left, and Sebastian Sayago, center, have a high-energy, crowd-pleasing act at Array Variety Show in Sevierville, Tenn. (Mountain of Entertainment Theater Photo)
Even if you have seen the Christmas at Array Variety Show at the Mountain of Entertainment Theater in Sevierville, Tenn., Amberlyn Sayago says you should definitely come back to see this year’s holiday show.
“The entire show changes for the Christmas season and is entirely different from the show the rest of the year and if you have been to the Christmas show before it also changes every year,” she said. “I know we change a lot of our routine and music for Christmas and have again this year.
“There are so many costumes and set changes. If you come and see the show, you just get a great feel for Christmas.”
The “Go Gaucho” performance is unique no matter what time of year you see the show.
Amberlyn and her husband, Sebastian Sayago, have one of the show’s most popular and energetic acts. Malambo is an Argentine folk dance associated with gauchos that has elaborate leg movements, stomping and more. The “Go Gaucho” also include boleadoras, double balls affixed to long leather cords, to dance with their native drums.
She is a professional dancer and choreographer from Boston, Mass. Sebastian is originally from Santiago del Estero, Argentina, and is the 2013 National Champion of Malambo in his country. The two met when they were working on a cruise ship.
“I was dancing for Royal Caribbean and performing and he had his own gaucho show with two other guys,” she said. “Performers tend to live in close quarters on cruise ships and tend to spend a lot of time together.
“My background was always dancing. I have been performing my whole life. I went to college for ballet and have done a lot of training my whole life,” she said. “After we got married I slowly started learning dancing and different styles so we could start our new group. We have been performing full time as ‘Go Gaucho’ since 2019.”
Sebastian first came to Pigeon Forge in 2011 with a group from Argentina to perform at Dollywood.
“I fell in love with the area,” he said. “We decided to stay and dance. With her having a dancer background, we always used some dancers on the cruise ship to help us out and would teach our show to some of the dancers. Any kind of dance background helps and teaching her was pretty easy. She has great technique and teaching her our dances took less time than it would with a normal person because she was so talented.”
Sebastian said for years gaucho performances were male dominated and not seen as something for women.
“The past 10 years more women have been joining the performances,” he said.
“It’s a lot more popular now to see mixed shows,” Amberlyn, who is now an accomplished Malambo dancer, said.
The boleadoras take more time to master than the dance and she says she is “still trying to keep up with the guys” to match their performance.
“There is definitely a lot of adrenaline and stamina involved,” she said. “The whole performance is so active in general. We both do lots of outdoors things and cross train to stay in shape. We love hiking. Sebastian loves mountain biking. We train at the gym. It takes a lot of training to stay in shape for our act.”
Sebastian said a husband-wife performance can be “very hard at times” on each of them.
“At work I am the person who separates relationships and work. I push whoever is there if it is my wife, friend or brother. I expect to have the best out of them at work,” he said.
Amberlyn said the two have been practicing over 10 years together and even though they know each other well they are still learning new things daily.
“We are always figuring out the best way to practice, the best time to start,” she said. “We are always looking for ways to make the show better. The whole experience has been wonderful for us and we want to convey that to the audience every show.
“It has been exciting over time for us to be able to expand our group. We have four members working at Array. We are constantly working to improve the show. Sometimes all four of us perform, sometimes just two depending on who is available. But no matter who is performing you are going to get a high energy, fun show.”
Amberlyn likes to stay busy. She has been a real estate agent for about six years after a “dancer friend” talked her into getting her license but also choreographs the Array Variety Show with Amanda Russell, a former Array dancer.
“We are always working with dancers and singers about placement on stage and other things. My experience as a dancer was just like them and Amanda has a similar background,” Amberlyn said. “We really have a great cast that loves putting on a great show, interacting with the audience and just having fun. The smiles you see on stage are genuine and we all love seeing the same smiles from those attending the show.”
The entire show has the Christmas classics and favorites from various singers and other special acts.
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To purchase tickets or get more information on Array go to https://www.mountainofentertainmenttheater.com/buy-tickets/ or call 865-245-4386. Array Variety Show has shows daily at 7:30 p.m. this month except for Dec. 8-13-15-22-24-25-29.
