Afternoon:
8°c
Critic rating
, Masterly modern tango
Keith Watson 20 Sep 2007
There are few more evocative sounds than the lilting refrain of a accordion striking up the opening chords of a tango.
From the moment the musicians who make up the band Quatrotango sway into Tango Fire’s opening number Don Juan, the mind and feet are swept away into a dark and giddy Argentinian night.
Ignore the dodgily showbiz title: Tango Fire is a shot of the hard stuff. Artistic director Carolina Soler and the top quality tango artists she’s gathered under the Estampas Porteñas banner keep the glitz to a minimum and let the dance do the talking.
And the language is passion, each duet a mini drama, sexual electricity crackling at the twitch of a hip.
In a second half that sizzles with stand-out couplings it’s a touch unfair to pick out a winner but German Cornejo and Carolina Giannini ripping into Astor Piazzolla’s Zum is true heart in-mouth stuff. And it’s here that Quatrotango come into their own too, with masterly interpretations of modern tango classics.
If there’s a rider to all this raving, then it’s that the group numbers don’t cut as stiletto-sharp as the individual numbers. But that’s a minor carp: Tango Fire breathes a bit of Buenos Aires exotica into the dusty heart of Holborn. Keith Watson
Until Sep 29, Peacock Theatre, Portugal Street WC2, Tue to Sat 7.30pm, Sun 5pm, Sat mats 3pm, £15 to £38 (limited availability). Tel: 0844 412 4300. www.sadlerswells.com Tube: Holborn
Details are correct at the time of publication - please check with venue before booking.
Reader views (1)
I've just seen Tango Fire and I thought it was the most boring show I have seen. There was no passion at all. The cafe scene never changed all the way through the first half, the dances and tempo didn't change either, once you'd seen 1 or 2 dances it then became boring. A quick costume change was the only exciting thing but then the style was still the same. The acrobatics were good in the 2nd half, but even then my rating would only have been 6 out of 10 for the dances. The singer absolutely bored the pants off of me! The musicians irritated me in the first half of the show but came 'into their own' during the second half. There seemed to be something missing from the show - maybe a story? The most exciting part of the evening was when the barrier hit a car behind me in the car park!
- K C White, Abingdon, Oxon, 02/10/2007 23:17
Report abuse
