UK 2011
Tango Fire doesn't know it's own strength: it's sensual and erotic and authentically Argentinian.
The rather learned programme notes for Tango Fire, originally written in Spanish, insist to us that although the tango is “sensual”, it is “never erotic”. Excuse me, but I think that something may have got lost in translation here. This show, which apparently doesn’t know its own strength, is both sensual and erotic: it is also authentically Argentinian. To those who have only seen tango in either vulgarised or showbiz mode, Tango Fire is a recognition that this is the way it ought to be. No Rudolph Valentino smouldering beneath painted eyebrows, no Carmen-outside-the-cigar-factory skirt flouncing, no Strictly Come Dancing storylines about gauchos and fallen women. Just talent: loads of it.
It is the apparent casualness of the dancers that compels most of all. Can anybody not born in Buenos Aires, not steeped in these displays of manliness and femininity, ever do more than imitate what these five couples achieve with such naturalness? The combination of nonchalant, shrugging demeanour and lightning technique is irresistible, particularly in the first half of the show, set in a sketched approximation of a dance hall. The magnificent four-piece band, Quatrotango, plays in front of a blood-red curtain. The performers slink on and offstage, seemingly in their own time, find each other and dance, just as they would in a tango club.
The group routines, which are a triumph, are choreographed by Yanina Fajar. Each of the five couples has a showcase in the second half, and it is fascinating to see how they mould tango to their own skills.
Like ballet, tango has rituals that demand respect even as they are being pushed against; otherwise the form becomes diluted, traduced, simply not as good. One of the Tango Fire couples – German Cornejo and Carolina Giannini – does staggering things with their gymnastic flexibility, and their performance is certainly the most pyrotechnic of the second half. Yet I confess to preferring the earthy slow-burn of Fajar and her partner Mariano Balois, who can make the mere touch of two foreheads seem like the most erotic and sensual dance move you ever saw.
THE TELEGRAPH
By Laura Thompson
26 Apr 2011
Tango Fire, Peacock Theatre, London
SCINTILLATING STEPS SET THE STAGE ALIGHT
Tango shows often promise the history of tango, which tends to mean cheesy brothel scenes, gangsters and waifs getting off the boat in Buenos Aires. In their latest show, Flames of Desire, Tango Fire just dance, which is drama enough. Feet flick with cutting precision; dancers lean into the embrace, going from flirtation to abandon. The format is simple. Five couples dance group numbers and duets. The music is performed live by the splendid quartet Quatrotango, sometimes joined by the soft-voiced singer Jesus Hidalgo. In the first half, the tangos are traditional, with 1940s styling in the hair and costumes. After the interval, we see more acrobatic tango showdances. Both are spectacular.
The five couples choreograph their own duets, showing off their distinctive styles. Yanina Fajar and her partner, Mariano Balois, make wonderful use of their hips: swung and tilted, with bold angles through the opened thigh. It gives their dancing a fierce, syncopated edge. They're perhaps the least gymnastic of these couples, and often the most exciting, with mercurial emotion in those knife-sharp steps.
German Cornejo sweeps the lightly built Carolina Giannini through spectacular lifts. He swings her to the floor and back again, horizontal and upright in a split second. One duet seemed to come to a demure finish – and then, on the last note, she leapt into his arms, legs scissoring on the last note of music.
Juan Malizia and Florencia Roldan have a flirty way with their acrobatics. Sebastian Alvarez and Victoria Saudelli have adagio act nimbleness; he swings her round his hips and shoulders like a Hula Hoop.
José Fernandez and Melody Celatti have particularly fine aerial steps, feet flicking from a raised knee, intricate and astonishingly fast. Their connection is so good that they can keep up a steady glide, regardless of whether Celatti's feet are on the floor: the flow never stops.
THE INDEPENDENT
Reviewed by Zoë Anderson
Tuesday, 19 April 2011
STAGE REVIEW: TANGO FIRE: FLAMES OF DESIRE
THE title is a dead giveaway. This is a dance entertainment specifically designed to increase the serotonin levels of the audience.
It is targeted at parts of the body that normal dance shows fail to reach.
Tango purists may scoff at the rule-bending moves and turbo-charged athleticism of the 10 dancers in Yanina Fajar’s company but there is no denying their technical prowess and virtuoso technique.
Backed by the sublime quartet of pianist Gabriel Clenar’s group, Quatrotango, this is a dazzling display of lightning fast moves and erotically charged role-play that conjures up the midnight mood of downtown Buenos Aires.
Set within the confines of a club draped in bordello-red, the playful opening allows the dancers to create a rapport with the audience as well as each other.
The air is heady with testosterone and pheromones as a mock fight breaks out between jealous rivals in the manner of dirty dancing discos the world over.
However things soon settle down to the business of dancing and a series of duo and group tangos and milongas (an early version of the tango) follow in rapid succession, each displaying the particular skills of the five couples.
There is the Betty Grable lookalike Melody Celatti, sinuous and slick with partner Jose Fernandez: the long-legged, high-kicking acrobatic redhead Victoria Saudelli and her long-haired lover Sebastian Alvarez, and the extraordinary Carolina Giannini, whose diminutive stature and Sarah Jessica Parker looks belie a vision-blurring speed of flickering movement with partner German Cornejo.
The velvet-voiced Jesus Hidalgo replaces old-time crooner Pablo Lago for the between-dance songs though it is clear that the audience warms to him less than the dancers.
However if the first half seems accelerated, the second half is fuelled by nitroglycerine.
Fajar has sharpened and streamlined the choreography, improving the pace since their last visit to Britain two years ago and introduces a tango ballet crossover, Oblivion, which seamlessly combines its disparate elements into a pleasing aesthetic whole.
From then on it’s a roller-coaster ride as Florencia Roldan enters in a see-through lace catsuit and the couples attempt to outperform each other with catherine wheel overhead spins, one-armed lifts and death-defying rolling catches.
It’s a hot night. And I mean red hot.
Daily Express London
Wednesday April 20,2011
By Neil Norman
USA 2011
Tango Inferno At The Joyce Theater New York
It was actually a little nerve-wracking. I had been lured to the Joyce Theater not only by the promise of a tango performance by bona fide Buenos Aireans, but by the promise of a pre-show Milonga where people could dance on stage before the show. Sitting in the audience, however, we all looked at the empty stage, heard the music, and wondered: who would break the ice, be first to go up, and dance before the scrutiny of everyone else?
An invitation to dance came over the speakers, giving enough reassurance that a small cadre filtered down to the front of the house and ascended the steps to the stage.
I spotted a tango acqaintance in the crowd and soon found myself onstage, too. While dancing, we became aware of the cast, barely visible in the shadowy wings, warming up and looking elegant in their finery. I had just gotten over the feeling that the audience might be judging my dancing, but upon discovering these professionals nearby, a fresh wave of self-consciousness washed over me. Imagine the shock when the cast walked out and began pairing off with us civilians.
Getting to dance with these performers was a rare treat. I moved with care, not wanting to be some clod who injured one of the dancers right before show time. I managed to lead the lovely Melody Celatti around the now decidedly more crowded stage without bumping into anyone. Women of this calibre ably ornament their footwork and I quickly learned to allow enough time for those embellishments before moving on to the next step. After negotiating a single dance with her, it seemed prudent to return to my seat!
Tango Inferno has numerous high-quality elements that make it an enjoyable show – obviously the cast is foremost. This group of young, good-looking milongueros is a team; the troupe doesn’t have a star couple pulling focus – they’re evenly matched, a true ensemble. Another key element is Quatrotango, a quartet of musicians spanning the upstage area: Gabriel Clenar on Piano, Marcelo Rebuffi on Violin, Hugo Satorre on Bandoneon, and Gerardo Scaglione on Double Bass. My favourite was their rendition of Adios Nonino in the second act, which is filled with lush crescendos and achingly drawn-out phases fraught with emotion. Then there is the singer, Jesus Hidalgo, who seems like he was snatched up by a time machine from tango’s golden era and deposited in the here-and-now to remind everyone what class truly is. Some tango singers I have heard are a bit overwrought, but Hidalgo’s singing, and indeed, his entire presence, is tasteful – he’s passionate but with a restraint that never goes out of style. His first number, after a rousing dance by the entire company, is El dia que me quieras, which he sings while softly strumming a guitar and strolling across the stage with the gorgeous Carolina Giannini. She walks next to him, her hands draped lightly on his arm, as he serenades her. The scene is romantic, gently seductive, a nice change of pace after the exciting opening – the entire show is like this, an ever-shifting variety of moods and tempi.
The costuming is also superb. The women’s simple black skirts are topped by black corsets held together with criss-cross laces up each side – though not pulled so tightly that one can’t glimpse some skin. Later, they change into brightly coloured dresses while the men change from black suits into lighter tomes, sometimes dancing in waistcoats and shirtsleeves, which also looks dashing. Act One ends with the women back in black but with sparkly, emerald green bodices. These vivid colours are matched with lighting designs by Megafun. In one memorable scene, side lights pick up ripples of red fabric in the backdrop as rich blue gels highlight smoke hanging in the air. A mottled pattern is cast on the floor, while a few small café tables, sprinkled around the periphery of the stage, are lit by small lamps. It feels like an intimate tango salon and, in the midst of this ambience, some extraordinary dancing happens.
When the cast does unison work, as in La Cumpasita which opens the second act, they are in as sharp a unison as a Russian ballet corps. The duets range from flashy acrobatics to smoking duets, like Jose Fernandez & Celatti in Recuerdo, where the demonstrate the truth of ‘less is more’ by fusing subtle steps with intense emotion.
Yanina Fajar choreographed the group pieces with the exception of two which were co-choreographed with German Cornejo: Canaro en Paris and the fabulous Obilivion, which opens with two men and a woman in a smoldering threesome. Also noteworthy were Cornejo and Giannini in Susu with its slow, sensual opening. She’s in a backless dress, facing upstage; the lights pick up the curves of her bare shoulders and spine. Across the small of her back is Cornejo’s bare forearm, wrapped tightly, pulling her close. The dance picks up speed and she’s lifted, her legs flipping fast and tight like a breakdancer dong swipes.
The stenght of the show lies in these kinds of juxtaposition – the sexy moments versus the virtuoso steps; the mix of slow and fast; dances interspersed with musical numbers. The dancings great, the music’s great, and the shows balance satisfies tango veterans and neophytes alike. As if that’s not enough, there’s the chance to dance with these stars in the Milonga beforehand. If you like tango, don’t miss the Tango Fire Company of Buenos Aires, and remember to bring your dancing shoes
DANCE EUROPE REVIEW
March 2011
By Tim Martin
'Tango Inferno' heats up the Byham stage
City - Pittsburgh
The word tango brings to mind the sultry, smoldering rhythms of Argentina. The intimate embrace of a couple. Legs intertwined, quick footwork, dramatic dips. Perhaps even a dark and mysterious club where partners move across a crowded dance floor, gazing intently into one another’s eyes.
Tango Fire, a dance company originated in Buenos Aires in 2005, sizzled on the Byham Theater stage Saturday night, rousing the packed audience right out of their seats for an encore to the two hour show.
The first half transformed the stage into a “milonga,” a place where the tango is danced. Quatrotango, the live touring band consisting of bandoneon, double bass, violin and piano, played in front of a bold red curtain. Two top tables stood on either side of the “dance floor.” Pendant lights hung low from the ceiling. Ten dancers entered the scene at random, eventually forming couples.
The women began in black corseted tops, black skirts with high slits up the front of their lean thighs, strappy high heels and sparkling jewelry. Humor infused the choreography, as women dueled for the men and a few bar brawls broke out. The performers expressed their emotion through precise and incredibly swift movement of their feet, but also laughed, taunted and conversed openly as part of the act.
In one group scene, the exquisite (and incredibly elastic) Carolina Giannini, nearly kicked her fellow dancers while being scooped off her feet in various lifts at lightning speed. The scene concluded with a sassy duet where Giannini somehow ended up between the legs of her partner - this, after a sequence of lifts akin to a wind storm.
The second half stripped away the club scene and theatrics, and focused on the pure prowess of the dancers’ technique. Infusing classical tango with jazz and contemporary vocabulary, each couple had their moment to shine.
The women let their hair down, literally and figuratively, while the men demanded attention with their strength and support. Although the aim of the dance is to flaunt the artistry of the female, one couldn’t help but admire the power, laced with true machismo, of their male partners.
Lighting on the scrim changed from bright blues to passionate purples. Costumes became more elegant, with sequins, rhinestones and velvet. In between duets, the band and its singer - the dimpled and adorable Jesus Hidalgo - lit up the space with breathtaking sounds of famed composer Astor Piazzolla.
Each dance seemed to crescendo. Passion, pride and death-defying speed brought the footwork off the ground and into the air. The audience roared with excitement as the show climaxed to a feverish end.
13 February 2011
www.examiner.com
Tango Fire – Albany NY, 5 February 2011
Who knew tango traveled so well? From the dance hall to the proscenium stage, from sassy to sexy, from Buenos Aires to Korea (home of some of its most ardent fans), tango has far more range than we give it credit for.
The Argentinean company Tango Fire is among the form’s most celebrated ambassadors. With five pairs of dancers, a singer (Jesus Hidalgo) and a live four-piece band (violin, piano, double bass and bandoneon), the troupe brought its new show, “Tango Inferno,” to the Egg Friday evening.
The first half of the program focuses on tango as it might be danced at a milonga, or social dance (if everyone in the dance hall happened to be gorgeous and talented); the second half presents tango as a series of dramatic showpieces. While the shift in mood is clear, the variation in the movement itself is more subtle.
What holds steady is the form’s absolute and total elegance. The couples glide effortlessly across the floor, making half-turns in each other’s embrace. The level of action from the knee down rivals “Riverdance,” with the dancers’ legs kicking before them and fluttering behind them, hips and heels swiveling as if on well-oiled castors. Defying the stiff, slow-motion stereotype of tango, they whirl and step with surprising speed, never losing an ounce of poise or precision.
The flirtatious, playful tone of the first half (nicely expressed in a saucy duet between Melody Celatti and José Fernández) is replaced in Part Two with more passionate and showier choreography, sharper angles and crystal-clear articulation. A quartet set to composer Eduardo Arolas’ “Derecho Viejo” has two couples (Florencia Roldan and Juan Malizia, Victoria Saudell and Sebastian Alvarez) intersecting in perfect synchronicity, ending with a splash as the women slide into upside-down splits across the men’s laps.
A string of pas de deux showed off the pairs’ individual styles (the dancers create their own duets, while company choreographers and dancers Yanina Fajar and German Cornejo choreograph the ensemble pieces). Roldan and Malizia are powerful and athletic as they twist around each other, while Fajar and Mariano Balois embody a crisp, classical perfection. Saudell and Alvarez approach the flashy with spectacular lifts and flips; Carolina Giannini and Cornejo are no slouchers in the lift-and-spin department, either, but their movement is lush and romantic.
Several works approach contemporary dance in their structure and composition, most notably an ensemble piece set to Astor Piazzolla’s “Oblivion.” Here the standard arrangement of couples moving in unison breaks up not only into rondo and individual choreography but also into solos, trios and separate groups of men and women. Distinctly tango, distinctly timeless, it also feels very modern.
The Times Union
5 February, 2011 at 12:02 am byTresca Weinstein
By Tresca Weinstein
Special to the Times Union
Flying feet that touch the heart
“Tango Inferno,” the latest production from the Argentine company Tango Fire, chronicles the evolution of the dance.
In “Tango Inferno,” backed by the astonishing band Quatrotango, 10 prize-winning performers demonstrate the evolution of their form — from its origins as a pastime for cowboys and workers in Buenos Aires’ brothels and slums to its current showy, sleek aspect. Choreographer Yanina Fajar and her assistant, German Cornejo, provide group works, bathed in showers of light by Megafun. The various couples, most of which have been dancing together for years, offer their own variations. The women paste their bodies up against the men and dart their sandaled feet between their partners’ legs
The ensemble is young and limber, but respectful of tango tradition. They dramatize the original cafe setting, where men scuffled and women preened, and work their way up to contemporary developments, with virtuoso partnering and lots of air work. Half a dozen costume changes show off the shapely bodies and ornament the rapid-fire footwork. Strolling singer Jesus Hidalgo croons melancholy tunes into a microphone.
The men of Quatrotango, musical directors as well as accompanists, support the troupe with authentic bandoneón-centered tango tunes and offer many welcome instrumental numbers, letting us rest our eyes while the dancers change their clothes. The troupe’s operating metaphor may be fire, but the overall impact is like water, a rain of steps and notes flowing into every corner of our consciousness.
METRO NEW YORK
ELIZABETH ZIMMER
January 18, 2011 6:30 p.m.
Tango Inferno raises fire within
New York The Joyce Theater - 14th January 2011
If it has been stated, now it is being proved... The Argentines do it better – when it comes to dancing the tango. And just when you think you have seen it all, direct from Buenos Aires comes a fiery group of sizzling dancers accompanied by brilliant musicians to present their show Tango Inferno – The Fire Within, at the Joyce Theatre in New York.
As the spectacle unfolds, the audience is left breathless while performers time travel and project an alluring journey through the history of Tango from its origins in Buenos Aires dance halls, involving early 20th century elements, to its ubiquitous presence on the contemporary entertainment scene.
The sinuous dance is at once sensuous and raw, passionate and intimate as at various stages throughout the spectacle couples leg-flick and perform complex co-ordinated steps, lifts and shifts with impressive precision. In this way the traditional roots come under the limelight but at other times the emphasis falls on the racy intensity of the dance itself so much so that a number of performances are executed on a quasi-bare stage, with silhouetted dancers, at times shadowy, against a backdrop of vibrant lighting.
A dancer with Tango Inferno performing a number called Verano Porteno during a dress rehearsal before the opening night at the Joyce Theatre in New York. Photo: Timothy A. Clary/AFP
The audience is spoilt for choice as performers bring out the different moods and innuendos related to the bewitching dance with their fancy footwork, twirls and swirls.
Though other Tango shows abound, “Tango Fire Company leaves you burning to take up where they left off,” claims The London Paper.
Indeed, the fiery dance of Tango has come a long way since its origins when it caused an outcry against the tight embraces and sexual tension it projects.
It seems the world’s most alluring and exciting dance form has come to stay and today it is even more in fashion than ever before thanks to groups like the Tango Fire Company of Buenos Aires which has become a true worldwide phenomenon.
With performances in the US, Canada, the UK, Europe, Asia and South Africa, the company has helped to export the steamy Argentinian concoction!
Alexander Francalanza
www.timesofmalta.com
The Joyce Theater:
Tango Fire Company of Buenos Aires
Tuesday, January 11th marks the opening night of the Tango Fire ten-dancer company along with the live music accompaniment of Quatrotango in Tango Inferno.
After a pre-performance milonga (a chance for audience members to dance with members of the company) the hour and forty-five minute performance takes off will all the leg-flicks, sexiness, and elegant, sparkling dresses one would expect! Despite a couple costume malfunctions and “close-call” completions of some very intricate partner work and lifts, the entire performance sustained a fiery energy.
The group numbers (choreographed by Argentinean dancer and choreographer Yanina Fajar, with the exception of Oblivion and Canaro en Paris, which were choreographed by both Fajar and German Cornejo) highlighted everything from the ladies Rockette-like spins into kicks, and humorous male tango-turned-combat choreography.
Oblivion (Piazzolla) in Act II is particularly memorable as it begins with one female dancer sandwiched between the bodies of two men, grabbing at her, pressing into her. Warm, golden lights shining from the side wings create a softness as the other female dancers decidedly walk on to be met by their partner who pulls them close by the waist before letting them arch back.
Musical interludes throughout the dancing present the incredibly talented singer, Jesus Hidalgo, who embodies a powerful stage presence whether serenading the sexual tension between a couple on stage before him, or us out in the audience. The accompanying orchestra, Quatrotango (Gabriel Clenar on Piano, Marcelo Rebuffi on Violin, Hugo Satorre on Bandoneón, and Gerardo Scaglione on Double Bass) was outstanding, receiving well-deserved praise from the audience.
As for the dancers, the animation and smoldering looks on their faces paired seamlessly with the quick flips of the leg and turns released into slow, risqué poses that make the audience hold their breath. The second act presents duets choreographed by each pair, showing off some of their best tango-tricks.
German Cornejo (Assistant Choreographer) and Carolina Giannini stood out in their remarkably elaborate duet, SUSU (Adrover). The subtleties of how he led her down to the angle he turned his face as he gazed passionately at her were just as impressive as the way he was able to lift her so effortlessly that it took a moment, after watching her melt into a pose, to realize he was holding her up with only one arm. Giannini is a beautiful dancer with a poise that screams “sex-goddess” no matter what choreography she’s performing.
Tango Inferno is presented at The Joyce Theater through January 23rd, 2011.
The Examiner, New York
12 January 2011
AUSTRALIA 2010
Tango couples leg-flick switch to sensuous
Tango Fire Company of Buenos Aires
State Theatre, Melbourne
TANGO is a word that conjures images of tense sensuality and raw intimacy.
In dance, tango has encompassed diverse variations on this theme, Argentine tango's choreographic elements and general mood having been appropriated by various Western dance traditions, not least ballroom, Broadway and ballet.
The polite, stylised gentility of the tango propagated during Hollywood's golden age was a far cry from the racy intensity found in Buenos Aires salons. Gradually, popular attention has shifted towards its traditional roots.
The music of nuevo tango great Astor Piazzolla has become ubiquitous, while recent decades have seen the rise of tango schools worldwide. In this context, the Tango Fire Company of Buenos Aires returns to Australia with their new show.
The first half alludes to traditions of tango de salon, the set a contrived rendition of a dance hall scattered with cafe tables, while costumes recall early 20th-century elements: waistcoats and hats for the gentlemen, ruffles and shimmery satins for the ladies.
The second half moves to contemporary forms of tango fusion, executed on a dramatically bare stage, the dancers shadowy and sometimes silhouetted against a backdrop splashed with single colour lighting. This is show tango, a glitzy display involving multiple couples in co-ordinated routines, all directed towards audience spectacle. The leg flicks, interlocking turns, partner lifts and swift direction shifts of traditional salon tango are all present but the virtuosity is worn on the sleeve rather than concealed behind passionate narratives of couple interplay.
Yet it is the single couple routines that most enthrall and best illustrate tango's expressive capacity. Former world champions Jose Fernandez and Melody Celatti move as one through complex, virtuosic sequences, making synergy rather than technical prowess the focus. German Cornejo and Carolina Giannini provide an entirely different flavour, their turns, lifts and tosses executed as a tense power play of feisty precision, speed and sensuous extension.
Most compelling is the partnership of Juan Milizia and Florencia Roldan, a sustained frisson of desire: slow, silky lines punctuated with caressed technical elements and scintillating torque.
Also impressive was Hugo Satorre, bandoneon player with the backing band, Quatrotango. Satorre's phrasing and dynamics were immensely musical, embodying tango sensibilities.
Eamonn Kelly
From: The Australian
August 02, 2010 12:00AM
Tango Fire Company of Buenos Aires
WHEN dancing the tango became all the rage on Australian shores in 1913, it prompted an outcry of horrified condemnation: those tight embraces, those flicking legs and flipping skirts, and that - gasp! - sexual tension. But despite the cacophony of wowser protestation, the tangos danced by the youths of the time were positively staid and conservative compared to the smouldering and sultry incarnation of the dance exhibited in The Tango Fire Company of Buenos Aires performance.
In this celebration of everything tango, we see quick, slicing movements and fast spins punctuated by soaring lifts, dramatic drops, and those obligatory end poses of deep splits and puckered lips. But for all its sexiness, The Tango Fire Company generally manages to avoid being crass or crude. The show is enhanced by Walter Delgado's gorgeous costumes.
Yanina Fajar is both performer and choreographer for most of the group numbers, and though her work is enjoyable it is the second-half duets choreographed by the pairs themselves that stand out as the most dazzling of the evening.
It is hard to sustain a single style - and a partnered style, no less - over a full-length performance. However, the performers manage to draw out the different moods and nuances of the tango, and deliver a spectacular performance.
REVIEWED BY JORDAN BETH VINCENT
4 Stars
THE AGE
August 2, 2010
Tango Fire Company of Buenos Aires
Amid plenty of Spanish chatter from the audience, the curtain goes up to reveal cocktail hour in Buenos Aires. Five high-chemistry couples set the stage ablaze in 1950s tuxedos and blush-worthy thigh-high skirt slits. Accompanying them is a live four-piece band and a jovial accordion player who transport you directly to the Paris of the south.
The opening number is a much lighter version of the popular down-and-dirty tango lunges, alive with sprightly jumps and speedy leg flicks. Interspersed throughout each piece are the baritone notes of a Julio Iglesias-style crooner. Whatever he's on about, it does sound oh-so sultry when sung in Spanish.
A tempestuous love story plays out between assistant choreographer German Cornejo and partner Carolina Giannini, with umpteen blink-and-you'll-miss-them flips, leaps and spins. Thankfully, it's free from any of that interdental rose-clenching nonsense. It's hard to believe the twirls could get tighter or the footwork fancier, but the ante is certainly upped right until the entrancing, melancholic ballroom interlude and Cabaret-esque, chair-hopping finale.
This is an elegant production with swift swoops of enviably toned legs and effortless, intricate pas de deux lifts. Muchachos? Come along and learn a thing or two on how to really treat your chica.
6 August 2010
Timeout Sydney
Alecia Wood
LONDON 2009
Steamy scenes at the café
Earlier in the week, I thought it was quite enough excitement for one day when I read the headline (in the Philadelphia Daily News) “Twin gay-porn stars arrested in rooftop burglaries”. But I had forgotten that Tango Fire was opening that same Tuesday evening, and I can now report that it has its own particular and peculiar excitements – though without twins. Here is the tango elaborated, galvanised, given a gymnastic makeover, as we recall from the troupe’s previous visit.
A sense of understated virtuosity is at a premium in ‘Tango Fire’
It is, I find, slightly more vehement than heretofore, more inclined to tricks usually associated with skaters in what they sunnily call “ice-dancing” – the rink as gymnasium. The setting is the basic and inoffensive Café Tango. The lovely women’s dresses seem more exiguous than before, and slightly more blatant but in no way more “sexy”; your teenage boy may get ideas. The men are outfitted according to Argentine tailoring (double-breasted, or four-button single, extra ticket-pocketed, is not unusual), brilliantined, brooding, but have largely and unhappily abandoned patent leather shoes for what look like trainers with ideas au dessus de leur gare. And the tango goes through its many permutations, spreading itself abroad with rather won-the-lottery bravado, yet ever confrontational in its eroticism.
The basic verve and the mercurial flash of legs, kicking and slicing, twisting, just missing vital bits of one’s partner, are still wonderfully there. But acrobatic lifts, predictable final poses, some “artistic” moments, are also on display, and seem to weigh down the natural elegance and vivacity of the five gifted couples involved, turning them into apache dancers. The sophistication of means, the sense of understated virtuosity, that we have seen with Tango por dos and Miguel Angel Zotto, is at a premium.
The marvel of the evening is the accompaniment provided by Quatrotango, four virtuosi of piano, bandoneon, violin and cello. In their playing, and it is gloriously varied, grandly assured and superbly inventive in a couple of solos, the tango lives, blazes, tears at the heart with its sentiments and its unfailing rhythmic strength. Must be heard!
Financial Times
March 19 2009
Tango with Extra Fizz
Agility, athleticism and antipathy on stage at Sadler’s Wells
Half an hour with a tango troupe and you find yourself itching to emigrate to their polished pinstriped planet, where every girl has a heel fetish and every man owns a trouser press. Tango Fire returned to London last week with five couples who sizzled smoothly through 27 numbers in a thoroughly enjoyable two-hour show.
Sadler’s Well’s long, steamy love affair with the tango predates the current craze for all things ballroom, but the “Strictly” effect does no harm at the box office, and the Peacock – the Well’s slightly tarty sister theatre in the West End – was packed with wannabes. Several punters spent last Friday night’s interval practising some of the moves, but Tango Fire’s couples specialise in hyper-athletic lifts and throws that should definitely not be tried at home.
Not content with elaborating the standard tango figures, they seemed determined to include as many acrobatic stunts as possible. The audience giggled with delight as dark, handsome men spun women above their brilliantined heads or manhandled them around and across their bodies like conjurors tumbling coins across their knuckles.
It’s all huge fun but the emphasis on youth and agility does become ever so slightly monotonous after an hour or so.
Part of the charm of Claudio Segovia and Hector Orezzoli’s groundbreaking 1985 production Tango Argentino was the way it matched lithe, leggy vamps with portly pinstriped gentlemen, perpetuating the illusion that we were wallflowers at a dance hall rather than clients at a floorshow.
Any variety and spontaneity missing from the hoofers was supplied by the sensational Quatrotango, Gabriel Clener’s hip, young quartet of piano, bandoneon, cello and violin (every one a virtuoso). The foursome hijack once familiar tunes and take them for a crazy, thrill-seeking ride.
Bandoneon virtuoso Hugo Satorre coaxes sound from his machine with the furious concentration of a jazzman deep in his groove. The tempi of standards like La Cumpasita and Astor Piazzolla’s Otono Porteno are so comprehensively broken down they become almost unrecognisable, until Clenar magically allows the melody to pull itself back into shape like the pleats on a bandoneon.
SUNDAY TELEGRAPH
29 MARCH 2009
It may well have recused UK ballroom from the hand-sewn-sequin circuit, but Strictly Come Dancing still smacks, limply, of a gentlemen’s excuse-me. The closest its hoofers get to the red lights of Buenos Aires - birthplace of the tango – is developing snaps of waltzing Rotarians. But, then, the real deal would be wasted on TV. Because it’s not enough to just watch it: your total immersion is critical, something this exquiste Argentine production knows all about. There’s no “history of_” narrative, just 10 dancers, a singer, and a four-piece orchestra who trace the tango from its slum origins to modern shows of near-balletic complexity by simply giving themselves to it. Of course, it all comes down to a man and a woman, virtuoso lovers who have bartered the mechanics of mere sex for a more penetrating intimacy – and Tango Fire leaves you burning to take up where they left off.
The London Paper
19 March 2009
USA 2009
'Tango Fire' at Walt Disney Concert Hall
After-dark prowlers of Buenos Aires know you can find two types of tango shows in that elegantly frayed metropolis. For casual tourists, there are smoothly efficient, slightly kitschy spectacles filled with plenty of slit skirts and slashing stiletto heels.
For the cognoscenti and the local porteños, there are more sophisticated, out-of-the-way venues where you can savor the music and the mildly disreputable ambience as well as the feral intensity of the dancing.
It’s the difference between tango as a melancholic museum piece and tango as a dynamic living art form that continues to evolve, more than a century after its birth in the city’s proletarian dives.
That division roughly characterizes the contrast between the first and second halves of “Tango Fire,” the handsome, ferociously performed touring show that slinked into Walt Disney Concert Hall for one night Sunday.
The first half is predictably set in a mock-up of a late 1940s or ’50s cafe, with couples arrayed around tables trading smoldering glances and breaking into muscular strutting. There’s a lot of distracting melodrama in the staging, with the women seething feigned jealousy and the men engaging in a parody of macho Peronist posturing: pushing one another in the chest, throwing fake punches and so on.
A little of this stylized play-acting goes a long way. More significantly, it detracts from the classy tango and milonga numbers, well served by Yanina Fajar’s rakish, sensual choreography and the debonair crooning of singer Javier “Cardenal” Dominguez, belting out “Mi Buenos Aires Querido” and other Rio de la Plata favorites in his best Carlos Gardel form.
“Tango Fire” really ignites after the intermission, when it drops the back story and turns things over to the performers. Naturally, the main attraction is the 10 sleek, tightly wound dancers, including Fajar and her partner, Nelson Celis. Kick-stepping between each other’s legs, executing perfect over-the-shoulder rolls or vise-gripping each other’s torsos like wrestling anacondas, the attractive couples brought an unusual degree of athleticism as well as panache to their ballroom paces.
Tango generally works best in a tight space, where the barely constrained pulse of the dance always threatens to explode out violently. But this skillful ensemble managed to carve out suitably constricted floor room within the wide Disney stage.
The true highlight of “Tango Fire,” though, as the Disney audience’s applause attested, is the suave, emotionally wrenching playing of its four-man combo: Gustavo Casenave on piano; Hugo Satorre on bandoneón; Marcelo Rebuffi, violin; and Gerardo Scaglione, double bass.
After maintaining a steady but unspectacular presence during the show’s first half, the musicians whipped up a torrent of dark, minor-key passions following the interval. Combining Satorre’s and Rebuffi’s expressively drawn-out solos, Scaglione’s groaning bass and Casenave’s mad sprints up and down the ivories, the quartet’s renditions of several Astor Piazzolla classics, including “Otoño Porteño,” “Fuga y Misterio” and “Adiós Nonino,” drove to the heart of tango’s exquisite tension between euphoria and despair.
LA Times March 2, 2009
'Tango Fire' showcases sensational Argentine dancers
The various tango presentations showing up over the past two decades share a typical approach and format.
Backed by musicians, five or so couples parade before our eyes and deliver striking duets, varied by the occasional comic interlude and large ensemble work.
What saves this predictable recipe from tango-on-ice mediocrity is the consistent talents on display, year after year, tango lineup after lineup. So it proves again with "Tango Fire," a showcase of sensational Argentine dancers and musicians that played the Harris Theater over the weekend. If we're lucky, they'll return.
True, the first act is a little sleepy, more clean and clinical than charged with the sexual tingle and amazing acrobatics tango embraces. Set in a club, it follows a loose, almost imperceptible trip through time, through the 1920s and the present, revealed mainly by the costumes. There's an amusing male ensemble revolving around nightclub fisticuffs, one man twirling elegantly across the floor only to plant a combative knee into another man's backside, for instance.
But the precise, refined dancing in Act 1 hardly prepares you for the fireworks and musical heights of Act 2. Yanina Fajar, the show's director of choreography, approaches tango with a sly, ballet bent. The sleek extensions of the svelte women in the cast are a delight throughout, and, in Act 2, Fajar boosts the ballet component to graft gorgeous lifts, dangerous drops and hints of arabesques to otherwise terrific tango.
My favorite couple was Carolina Giannini and German Cornejo, a steamy partnership buoyed by her quicksilver agility. Enough can't be said for the four-member onstage orchestra, who deliver a couple of rousing musical numbers.
Chicago Tribune
January 26, 2009'
CANADA 2008
Tango Fire? Tango inferno is more like it. The Buenos Aires-based dance troupe set a five-alarm blaze at the NAC Tuesday night, a conflagration sparked by the spectacular - and spectacularly sexy - pyrotechnics of Argentina's most famous cultural export.
Choreographed by Yanina Fajar and Nelson Celis and performed by 10 dancers and five musicians, Tango Fire takes the audience on a journey though the history of the tango, from the 1920s to today. There is literally never a dull moment. Inventive group dances alternate with exhilarating duets that showcase the different personalities and skills of each of the five couples. The women wear a dazzling assortment of slinky, slit-up-to-there dresses, while their male partners cut elegant figures in suits, fedoras and slicked-back hair.
There are solo numbers for the superb musicians as well: pianist Gabriel Clenar, violinist Marcelo Rebuffi, bass player Gerardo Scaglione and the magnificent Hugo Satorre on the small traditional accordion known as the bandoneon. The quartet also backs the suave vocal stylings of singer Javier "Cardenal" Dominguez on several songs.
The first section is presented as an extended milonga, or informal tango party, taking place at the beaux-arts "Café del Tango". These earlier numbers are lighthearted, playful and flirtatious, rather than dark and smouldering. The foot and legwork is dazzling, with the dancers' limbs whipping around in increasingly complicated patterns. It's as quick as lightening, yet laser-clean and precise, and the dancers make everything look utterly effortless.There's an especially intricate and impressive duet for the petite but explosive Carolina Giannini and her excellent partner, German Conejo, although the statuesque, Hitchcock blonde Ines Cuesta and her husband, Mauricio Celis, were also outstanding. There's also a fun, macho "fight" dance for the five men, who are all exquisite partners to their ladies.
The second half showcases some of the more flamboyant, modern forms of tango, including the so-called "acrobatic" tango, which features gasp-worthy lifts, dips, spins and suicide drops. Cornejo and Giannini were again breathtaking in the second half, as were the nervy, sparkling pairing of Victoria Saudelli and Sebastian Alvarez. The finale, with the five couples pulling out all the stops, surely had everyone in the audience longing to sign up for tango lessons.
Ottowa Citizen 11 Nov 2008
USA 2008
Everything may be beautiful at the ballet, but at Tango Fire, everything is smoldering. The troupe of five male-female couples and the group’s great four man Quatrotango Orchestra is more than tango for export.
In their second appearance in Verizon Hall, this could have been easily a rearranged reprise and in fact, is even more cohesive. But, unlike other cultural dance spectacles, choreographer Yanina Fajar expressing all of the moods of the tango, with authority and style.
The opening "Milonga" club social introduces the dancers’ persona, the men in perfect suits and the women in an array of velvet-satin gowns. The second section ’The Show’ is more theatrical.
Fajar goes deeper with tango variations and gestural acting, shown masterfully in the transitional phrasing. Especially rich are the tangos that extend to two parts, with the chemistry built to its climax, melting into expressive resprises for each duet.
Of course, sprinkled throughout are tango’s signature moves- the backward drag steps, the dramatic lift positions, the freeze poses (abrazo), not to mention those dangerously darting legs and death drops.
Since its beginnings, the tango has been adapted and interpreted to cover the Kinsey’s scale of sexual orientation. The closest we get here is a terrific roughhouse tango by the five men that turns into horseplay when the women reenter.
Two double-tempo sequences by the couples feature razor sharp precision (Those between the legs darting leg jabs are downright dangerous). All of the couples burned the floor in their own way and the audience went particularly wild at the attack and lift patterns of Sebastian Alvarez and Victoria Saudelli.
Quartotango filled Verizon with two lush sets of tango music, like many of the dance reprises, so liberated in the continuo, leaving the audience in memorable afterglow.
EDGE Philadelphia, PA Nov 7, 2008
AUSTRALIA 2008
Sexy and breathlessly daring
This exhilarating show has nearly got it all. The couples whirl as one at dazzling speeds. Legs entwine and escape in thrilling, agitated action as if they have a life of their own. Bodies bend and sway. Seductively cut costumes for the women project the sensuality of their movements against the sober suits of the men.
Tango Fire has toured Australia before, but this is their best show yet. The skills and character of the 10 dancers, the singer Pablo Lago and the wonderful band Quatrotango, are cleverly moulded into a very entertaining program of dance.
The first half is set in a cafe, where the tango got its start in bohemian circumstances as a social dance in Argentina. The performers sit at tables, make "conversation" as freshly as if they weren't doing it nightly on tour for months at a time, and come and go on the dance floor - with carefully timed costume changes for each new number.
The tango and its close relative, the milonga, inspire a range of dances. The traditional intimacy of two close-knit bodies combined as a unit is contrasted with breakaway sequences in which two dancers still work as one, but just a heartbeat away - fabulous to watch and very sexy.
There is rarely a solo - a brief, buoyant moment sticks in my mind from one of my favourite dancers, Mauricio Celis, as a song gets under way - but a handful of dynamic ensembles break the duet pattern.
The simulated fight for the men is amusing and well done, yet it is even more exciting to see five couples negotiate the space and each other at speed, stretching or narrowing their steps as required in perfect harmony.
After the interval the performers do their party pieces, which build to a spectacular climax in acrobatic partnerships from German Cornejo and Carolina Giannini, and Sebastian Alvarez and Victoria Saudelli. Both couples are heart-in-mouth daring in how they have developed the tango, though my favourite couple is the traditional Nelson Celis and Yanina Fajar. Yet, for me there was one thing missing: the darker side of longing in this bittersweet dance style. It can be heard in the music, but Tango Fire is visually so upbeat that it misses out in the dance. But that is not much of a complaint, is it?
The Sydney Morning Herard July 3, 2008
Sensuality, power and desire, but the thigh's the limit
THE tango began in the backstreets and brothels of Buenos Aires. Like the flamenco in Spain, it grew in popularity as a national dance the more Argentina was dominated by outside influences.
Tango Fire opened in a smoky replica of a dance hall, with band, singer, and five black-haired men cruising and appraising the women, offering invitations to dance with a discreet raise of the eyebrow to avoid humiliation should they be refused.
This peacock display was wonderfully executed, with an almost identical straightening of tie, adjustment of cuffs, a slide of hand over oiled hair, and a cocky smirk.
It was rather like looking at a boxed set of Antonio Banderases. The routines were dazzling. If flamenco is mostly about the feet, then tango is all about the lower leg.
With torsos aligned, the lower legs twirled with a life of their own, and snapped with a knee-jerk kick backwards and forwards through the half opened legs of their - obviously trusting - partners. The leg was also employed to curl like a velvet vice along the man's taut spine.
The second half, on a bare set except for the band, contained more of the sensual moves you expect from the tango, the kind you get arrested for. Those poised initial movements slid, as they do, into desire-filled horizontal clinches, which could but end in the man's agonised face being laid upon his partners stomach, and his wide-fingered hand being slid along her long thigh. That's the tango for you: beats a night in watching television any day.The 10 dancers were impressively skilled, and visually stunning, the women's dresses slit to the thigh and glowing with colour and jewelled embellishment. It was inspiring to watch the power displayed as those strong women were tossed arrogantly up and over the head, hurled downwards, and nonchalantly aided to glide mercury-like across the floor. To add to all that was the virtuosity of the band, Quatrotango, made up of violin (Marcelo Rebuffi), bandoneon (Hugo Satorre), piano (Gabriel Clenar) and double bass (Gerardo Scaglione). Their soulful, minor-keyed music was painfully beautiful and conjured visions of an ardent Argentina.
The Australian June 23, 2008
USA 2008
Tango company is on ‘Fire’ at Cutler Majestic Theatre
Tango Fire has been promoted as Buenos Aires’ “most acclaimed tango company,” which seems like hyperbole - but these glamorous men and women are the finest tango artists I’ve ever seen.
I’ve followed the scene closely since the beginning of the American tango craze in the early 1980s, and “Tango Fire,” which opened Friday night at Cutler Majestic Theatre, represents significant advances in sophistication and contemporary interpretation.
Audiences adore tango because it is simultaneously rhythmic, technical and erotic. It is also a style that seems to absorb all of the space around it; one traveling couple is all that is needed to illuminate the largest of stages.
Like the successful Broadway revue “Tango Argentino,” “Tango Fire” attempts to survey the history of tango, but without resorting to chronology. The first part offers a series of intimate duets and ensemble dances focused on “Milonga,” a countryside dance from the early 19th century that originated in Buenos Aires, Argentina, as a popular song style in duple meter.
Singer Javier Di Ciriaco, with his matinee-idol good looks, offered soaring vocals in the passionate melodies of “Grisel” and “Ventarron.” It made perfect sense, since the entire first half is set in the imaginary “Caf del Tango,” complete with tiny tables and lamps. Along with the blazing duets, there is even a staged fight for five men that transforms into a rousing unison dance.
Part two segues into modern tango, epitomized by the wide-ranging compositions of the late Astor Piazzolla, and features extreme, daring lifts and aggressive choreography. Pablo Sosa and Mariela Maldonado in a handsome rendition of Piazzolla’s classic “Libertango” provided the artistic arc of the show.
Boston Herald, Jan 13 2008
‘Tango Fire’ blazes with danger and exuberance
Rarely has the tempestuous tango looked like so much exuberant, out-and-out fun as in “Tango Fire”. This is tango with a big smile and boisterous high jinks performed by 10 exquisitely skilled dancers with spirit and charisma to match. All in their 20’s and 30’s, they are uniformly gorgeous. The women are lithe with deeply arched backs and finely sculpted legs that slice like machetes with stunning precision and flexibility. The men have taut, muscular torsos of commanding confidence, and feet and legs as nimble off the ground as on.
The Boston Globe, Jan 15 2008
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