I must confess, I’m a tango virgin.
One of my very few experiences of the Argentinean dance was that great bit in the film “Scent of a Woman when Al Pacino, playing the blind, ex-Colonel, literally sweeps the beautiful British-Iranian actress Gabrielle Anwar off her feet in that pivotal scene not long before he tries to shoot himself.
The music was brilliant, the moves where calculated but harmonious, and the whole scene left an indelible mark on my memory.
Then last night at the Main Hall of the Cairo Opera House, where the Cairo Opera Ballet Company put on a triple bill titled “Tango Rêve, Pas de Deux and Bolero Ballet , I indulged in my first complete dose of live tango.
But it wasn’t exactly what I expected – which, I discovered later, was partly due to my limited knowledge of the music style of “Tango Rêve’s composer Astor Paizzolla.
In a career that spanned over 50 years and with an opus comprising more than 1,000 works, Piazzolla is credited to being one of the most experimental tango musicians, having created a unique language of his own, mixing conventional rhythms with classical music and sometimes even elements of jazz.
That perhaps explains why the music had this symphonic feel to it, and in turn, a lot of the dancing featured strong elements from both classic ballet and modern dance.
The bandoneon – the instrument often mistaken for the accordion that it resembles, and is responsible for the signature sound in tango music – pervades much of Piazzola’s score. In fact he began his career as a bandoneon player making his first record when he was 10 at the Radio Recording Studio in New York in 1931.
It’s difficult for the untrained eye to distinguish between Argentine tango, which features various styles like, for instance canyengue (where the dancers move with knees bent and make short steps) and orillero, featuring more rapid foot moves, and ballroom tango which was standardized by dance studios to facilitate judging competitions.
For the uninitiated, one of the main differences between ballroom and Argentine tango is in the shape and feel of the embrace (the abrazo). In the former, partners arch their upper bodies away from each other and maintain contact at the hip, while in the latter it’s the opposite with dancers’ chests positioned closer to each other.
And to make things even more complicated, it’s commonly acknowledged that Argentine tango relies heavily on improvisation, that is, there is no basic step.
Armed with this rudimentary understanding of the dance, I braved “Tango Rêve. The show opened with the spotlight on a male figure lying on his side, back to the audience. As the lights flooded the stage and a female dancer in a bare-shouldered black dress with a long flowing skirt and two-inch thick heels joined him, a simple set made up of white scaffolding on three levels was also revealed.
Seven couples danced on their various spots, but there was no synchronization. Each couple seemed to be playing to their own tune, telling their own story, arms gracefully interlocked, bodies turning in a mix of volcadas (tango-speak for a move where the woman rotates around her axis while tilting towards the man) and media lunas or half turns.
Subsequent sketches with slight costume variations featured male duo dances, which, defying expectations, were energetic and emotionally charged. Another scene seemed to be saying something about gender roles, for the female dancer was wearing the male costume, with her hair covered up under a hat. By the end of the dance, she sheds the male persona and there is a romantic reconciliation between the two.
I recommend you don’t approach “Tango Rêve with any expectations. It could be frustrating not knowing a basic plotline. There definitely seemed to be one, even though the brochure made no mentioned of it. So just enjoy the music and the movements without focusing too much on what they are trying to say. Besides, they could engender a diverse set of meanings.
After the intermission “Pas de Deux , accompanied by the live music of the Cairo Symphony Orchestra, featured variations from Swan Lake and Don Quixote by visiting Mexican soloists Harold Quintero and Blanca Rios.
Rios’ technical brilliance had the audience break into wild applause as she performed at least 30 fouettés en tournant (those really fast turns where the ballerina balances on one leg and whips herself around). At times Quitero also seemed to be hovering around the stage effortlessly.
Egyptian Ahmed Yehia partnered with Katia Ivanova for the extract from Le Corsaire, marked by its exquisite costumes. Yehia carries Ivanova for quite a long time, and appears to be flying across the stage as he does so. There was almost no stomping, which was a vast relief.
A Cairo favorite, Ravel’s Bolero, closed the evening, earning the company a five-minute standing ovation.
The one-act ballet is inspired by Spanish dance. In its original choreography, it was set in a Spanish tavern where a gypsy girl begins to dance on a trestle table and is soon joined by everyone else.
Here the setting is minimalist. The soloist (either Ania Ahcin or Tiana Serbes) stands in the center of a large round table, dressed in black tights and a white tank top. The spotlight first focuses on her hands as she seductively moves along with the rhythmic pattern of the music, where one theme is repeated over and over, each time with different instruments or combinations of sounds, including the tambourine and the castanets.
As her erotic dance reaches a crescendo, the nearly 30 male dancers who were sitting on red wooden chairs around the stage, now follow her lead, having joined the dance in twos and threes. At first the moves are restrained and controlled, but by the end they are more impassioned and provocative.
The ballerina emerges as almost a divine figure, worshipped by her entranced followers, drawn into a spiritual orgy that has hypnotized them.
So be sure to catch the last performance tonight. And if you’re stirred enough to take up tango, remember Al Pacino’s famous advice: “If you get all tangled up, just tango on.
Tango Rêve , Pas de Deux and Bolero BalletThe Cairo Opera Ballet Company and Symphony OrchestraMain Hall, Cairo Opera HouseMay 3-4, 9pm
