I went to see Tango Fire at the Corn Exchange. (The video on the company’s website does not do them any justice; good thing I did not see it before the show.) There’s no plot as such: it is all about tango. And tango is all about love and loss. The first half is staged as Café del Tango — where the band is playing and the couples, as one could expect, dance, without much interruption except for a comical (if stereotypical) macho pseudo-punch-up scene. The part two was more like showcase for both dancers and musicians (who played three tangos on their own). I preferred the more relaxed and social atmosphere of the Café to the ballroom/ballet/acrobatics of the second half, where the dancers appear to take themselves far too seriously. I wish there was less virtuosity and more spontaneity.
Even so, the encore was a beauty. The band started to play La cumparsita (what else), then the dancers came back to the scene. Then one of the dancers — I think it was Yanina Fajar, who is also the choreographer of the show — invited the bandoneon player, Hugo Satorre, for a dance. He was hesitating; it looked like he never danced tango before. After a few steps, he retreated back to his bandoneon. OK, maybe they do it every performance and this is just a part of the show, but it was so touching and erotic and as spontaneous as Argentine tango should be.
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