Tango Buenos Aires

[Giannina]

I'm not too sure where to put this so I'm going to put it here. Plunk!

Tango Buenos Aires

Saturday, Nov. 10

This is one of the strangest performances I’ve ever attended. This dance group was part of my ballet subscription at Orange County Performing Arts Center, and anything other than ballet is a bummer to me; therefore I went to the theater with a negative attitude. Very negative. The first half of the performance had one jump-out-of-your-seat duet, a couple of other truly nice duets, but the whole thing somehow left me bored and I almost went home at the intermission. The 2nd half was sensational. The dancing was a bit better but I don’t think that was the reason. We got to know the dancers, and the band emerged triumphant.

I was never too sure who I was seeing. We were given dancers' names but no pictures in the program.

This is supposed to be true tango and I’ll take them at their word. Though there were story-telling segments done to tango I never felt that the tango was being made theatrical. Carlos Barrionuevo and Mayte Valdes in the first duet were simply sensational; this duet was my favorite of the evening, partly because she was such an unusually beautiful woman. They danced again in the 2nd Act and were almost as sensational. The stars were Gisela Natoli and Gustavo Rosas. There were 2 other women, one a blond, and in the first act they stayed in the background and were rather dumpy in comparison to Valdes and Natoli. In the 2nd act they had starring duets. The blond came into her own; and her partner … well!!! (I think they were Soledad Buss and Cesar Peral.) All of the men were terrific, and with the couples dancing nose to nose and gazing into each other’s eyes everything was very sexy. The men danced as much as the women did, and their partnering was beyond comparison.

Then there was the band. 5 pieces: piano, base, guitar, accordion, violin; on stage behind the dancers. Typical tango music except the arrangements got more involved and beautiful as the evening progressed. By the end they were as popular as the dancers, and at the bows they got the biggest hand. One of the pieces of music was “I Get Ideas”. Jeez, how trite can you get … yet the arrangement was unusual, and one tiny segment was so exquisite that I was lifted from my seat in joy. Yes I was.

This is why we go to the theater; these surprising gems.

Giannina

[Alexandra]

If you count tango as character dance, ballet can claim it (You "plunked" just fine.)

And thank you for plunking -- I'd be happy to see a performance where there was an exquisite segment, even if tiny! I've seen several tango troupes that I found very interesting -- one was really trying to build choreography on the tango, use the tango as a language. We haven't had much here in the past five years or so, and I was happy to read about a tango night.