- Title: UNITED KINGDOM: ARGENTINA MUSICAL "TANGO PASION" REVIVES TANGO DANCING
- Date: 29th May 1999
- Summary: STAGE PERFORMANCE
- Embargoed: 13th June 1999 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: LONDON, ENGLAND, UNITED KINGDOM
- Country: United Kingdom
- Topics: Communications,Entertainment
- Reuters ID: LVA7B9SYVE4S2OVW4ZXEXNM2TZY3
- Story Text: Originally banned by the Pope for being lewd, the tango has always been associated with sex - dancing cheek to cheek, limbs intertwined - it's no wonder that 'Tango Pasion', an Argentinian dance musical, is currently setting audiences' hearts a flutter around Europe with dance routines that come dangerously close to upsetting the Pope again! When you picture the tango, you immediately think of passion, sexuality and some of the fastest, most intricate dance steps ever invented.
Created in the back streets of Buenos Aires in the early 1900s by men queuing outside brothels, this dance is all about sex! Dancing dangerously close to each other, hands moving seductively over each others bodies, legs intertwined, faces constantly touching - it's no wonder the Pope banned it! Since 1992, Tango Pasion, an Argentian dance musical has been wowing audiences all over the world, with the tour currently in London before heading off to Holland, Sweden, Finland, France and Egypt.
The company consists of thirty dancers, singers and musicians, including the world's greatest tango orchestra - the Sexteto Mayor Orchestra.
Ever since Rudolph Valentino's smoldering tango scene in 'The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse', the tango has become famous around the world, and many Hollywood blockbusters feature an explosive tango scene.
Who can forget the legendary dance scene in Al Pacino's "Scent of a Woman", or Arnold Schwarzenegger whisking the beautiful Tia Carrera off her feet in "True Lies" or Sean Connery as secret agent 007 tangoing in "Never Say Never Again".
Tango Pasion's producer Melh Howard says, "Tango is two people dancing as one for openers.For these performers in 'Tango Pasion', it's an act of passion, and only on stage, but it seems that's all they do - I know they eat and they sleep, but inbetween they're dancing all the time, whenever they can anyway.After the show if there's a place in town where tango happens that's where they go - they love it - they eat it, they drink it.
"The story goes that it started actually as a competition dance between men who were waiting on line in the brothels of Buenos Aires a century ago and the girls watch this macho competition going on to the local music that was a compiliation of a lot of different influences and then they did it by themselves and finally as will happen the couple formed and it was really a dance of the lower classes for a long time in Buenos Aires until the sophisticated French picked it up and it became an upper class ballroom wonder in Paris.Then it went back to Buenos Aires and was picked up by the middle class, the upper class of Buenos Aires.It was banned by the Pope as being lewd until finally somehow or other he got to see one and said 'this is okay'."
The tango is seen around the world as a sophisticated, cultured yet highly flirtatious dance. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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