Dance

m¡longa

Festival Theatre, Edinburgh

Mary Brennan

four stars

TANGO – the very word carries a sizzle factor. In Paris in the early days of the last century, couples locked in the smouldering embrace of tango raised eyebrows in some, hackles in others. More recently, British viewers of Strictly even felt the heat of bodies talking tango intimacies on television screens. We’re specifically talking Argentinian tango here: not the militaristic, sharp-edged ballroom tango, but the more supple, sinuous dynamic that was at home on the street corners and smoky cafes of Buenos Aires.

m¡longa, choreographed by Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, is a triumph and a joy because he has engaged with the social history as well as the footwork, and though he has introduced strands of contemporary dance into the mix, there’s a powerful sense of respect for tango’s roots – m¡longa is both a tango party and an early dance style.

On-stage, a live band delivers what feels like an electric current to the six couples stepping out. Whether the pace is fast, with limbs flicking like lickerish tongues round a partner’s thighs, or slow, making the dance into an intense conversation about trust as well as desire, the dancers responded with more than virtuoso technique – they brought alive little everyday flesh and blood stories. Shared tenderness, shared tensions: one explosive duet had the near-brutality of an Apache dance. Three men danced together in a cluster of macho prowess and camraderie, while another trio – one man, two women – graphically illustrated the complexities of adultery.

There was, however, a bigger picture. Back projections gave scenic context to the dance but the featureless, white cut-out figures on the sidelines were like a whisper of times past even as the wistful finale spoke more of m¡longa than the fabulous showmanship that had sizzled beforehand.