Luis Bravo's "Forever Tango" at The Wilshire Theater in
Beverly Hills is a sizzling review featuring music, lighting, and
dance. There is an eleven piece orchestra onstage with four
accordian-like bandoneons, strings, keyboards, and grand piano.
Singer Carlos Morel appears solo with the band for several numbers
and with the dancers for a couple. The dancing is stupendous and
Bravo's lighting ties everything together.
The twelve Argentinian dancers appear onstage as couples. Accompanied by steamy
Latin rhythms, they dance cheek to cheek, thigh to thigh, body to body. It's,
by turns, high octane, sensual, sultry. The dancers choreograph their stories,
which appear as a series of about twenty vignettes. They trace the history of
tango, from its origins in 19th century brothels to it's later transformations
and acceptance in high society. Tango inhabits a world where everything can
be said with the flick of a leg, the tug of a hand, and the tap of a foot.
The dancing features smooth lifts and slides, punctuated by sharp
stiletto like leg kicks that go straight out, around the back,
between the legs or straight up in arabesque. There's high stepping
cancan rhythms, bump and grind with dizzying twirls. "Forever
Tango" has body movements like I've never seen. Explosive back
bends where she just rockets back to be caught by her partner, lifted
high overhead, she has her hands on his shoulders, legs up in the
air, while he spins her around. In one outstanding piece, the girl is
lifted high overhead, then in a single sudden movement she's dropped
and caught a split second before she hits the floor. The show is very
structured, but with a freedom and vitality that make it unlike
anything else.
"Forever Tango" is a fiery production of Latin rhythm and dance that continues at The Wilshire Theater in Beverly Hills through February 16.