Tango Inferno

Tango Inferno
The Tango Fire Company of Buenos Aires. State Theatre, Sydney. Aug 4 - 6

The ornate beauty of the State Theatre conjures up elegance, tradition and opulence. However, on entering the auditorium for the opening night of Tango Inferno - The Fire Within I was a bit taken aback by the performers onstage, who were all shapes and sizes and wildly varying in talent. Was I in the right place? Or was this the local dance studio dance off? Ah no, it is the ‘social’ at the start of the show! Anyone from the audience is invited to come up onstage and take part in the communal ‘Milonga’, for half an hour prior to the show. Anyone can kick up their heels onstage with the pros. What a hoot!

Once the real action starts, things really kick off. The stage has a cabaret ambience and essence with round tables, seats, a heavy red curtain and a cool band, the ‘Quatrotango’ consisting of a piano man, a double bass, a bandoneon (which looks like an accordian) and a violin. These guys are charismatic, fun and cheeky and really add to the whole experience.

There are five couples and the dancers do vary in talent, ability, technique and performance quality. As a group they work very well with excellent timing and fantastic choreography from Yanina Fajar and assistant German Cornejo. However when the dancers break away from the group and perform as duos, the true quality and standard of their dance ability becomes obvious.

The stand-out couple by far were German Cornejo and Carolina Giannini. Giannini has the tightest technique of all the girls, her footwork is crisp and her flexibility is amazing to watch. Cornejo has the agility to make the lifts look seamless as he cuts Giannini into the air and sets her down like she is a feather, an amazing couple that you could watch for hours.

On the flip side there is Sebastian Alvarez, who is slightly ‘hammy’ and reminds my guest of Antonio Banderas in the Mask of Zorro, and his partner, Victoria Suadelli, who reminds me of Rhonda Burchmore. This couple clearly do not have the precision or ability of the others. In Act II Suadelli comes onstage in a purple outfit that looks like it hasn’t been finished, one leg is a ‘boy leg’ style and the other leg is a full leg. Alvarez then attempts to wow the crowd I suppose by flinging Suadelli around his neck like a hoola hoop. I find myself pulling back in my seat and almost gasping, this is not enjoyable dance to watch this is like a circus. It really does frustrate me when dance companies think they need to take it upon themselves to turn perfectly good choreography into acrobatics because it actually turns into comedy. It goes from sophisticated and elegant to chuckle-worthy.

Intermittently throughout the show, Jesus Hidalgo, a singer, comes out in suit and spats and sings along the lines of crooning. Hidalgo has an amazing voice, but something just does not gel with his performance.

As far as passion and charisma go, I thought the performers were varied; some of the girls had little to no expression while others, namely Suadelli, had distracting ‘Dancesport Championship’ semi-snarly expressions.

Tango Inferno - The Fire Within overall is a fantastic, fun night out! Superb costumes by designer Walter Delgado, all glittering and gorgeous, strong routines, excellent choreography and a great band! It really was a hoot and if you are a Tango lover, this is for you. If you’re not a big tango lover, maybe pass this one up, I did hear a woman say “I wonder whether anything MORE is going to happen other than, ya know, just tango.” Well the truth is tango is tango, that’s it. A rose is a rose.

Emma Bell
 

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