Skill, superb timing and visual delight

THE Argentinian Tango Pasion, at the Olympia until 7th September, is every bit as sensual and technically brilliant as its publicity promised, but it has one problem. There is a limit to the changes which can be rung on the tango. It is as if Riverdance had been limited to the hornpipe only. Realising this, choreographer Hector Zaraspe has departed in the second half of the programme from the strictly classical tango, gradually blending in more and more ballet and contemporary dance steps till the dance is little more than tango based.

Nevertheless, despite being a couple of dancers short, necessitating the cutting of several numbers and rearranging others, the show succeeds, not only by the skill and superb timing with which the couples intermingle their limbs at speed, but by the marvellous characterisation with which they people the nightclub setting, suggesting a world of dramatic or humorous possibilities. Little intrigues, elaborate manoeuvres, sly deceits and macho posturings fill the background and link the different dances, of which my favourite had the men using billiard cues to suggest everything from duelling swords to Fred Astaire's cane.

Much of the humour was provided by singer Alberto Del Solar, who either ended up with the girl after all the male dancers' virtuosity in Hotel Victoria, or lost the actress he had so assiduously courted with the help of the bored waiter and Eduardo Walczak on solo violin in Ojos Negros. Unfortunately he, singer Patricia La Sala and the excellent Sexteto Mayor Orchestra, seen dimly behind the action as if in a smoke filled room, were over amplified. Visually the show was a delight, from Jonathan Bixby's figure hugging dresses with their flared, slit and fringed skirts, cut out backs and low cut bodices to Ralf Penkert's silhouette and lighting effects. Only those allergic to Latin American rhythm can afford to miss it.