'From Here': It Takes Shoes to Tango

Sharna Fabiano Tango Company's attempts to marry social tango with modern dance fell short in "Tangos From Here" Saturday at Dance Place.

There were several forces working against this marriage. Most of the dancers weren't nearly as good at modern dance as they were at tango. Also, social tango is like a walled garden: The magic is inside, between two dancers, and energy is directed inward. Modern dance, on the other hand, directs its energy at the audience, like a house that opens to the street. It's hard to put the two onstage at the same time without them looking mismatched.

Finally, the tango music stole the show, including the performance of two affecting numbers by local singer Claudia Gargiulo (accompanied by Glover Gill).

At first, it was enjoyable to see couples dancing tango without excessive theatricality. But when the modern dancers wandered onstage, the spell was broken. They sat and observed, occasionally executing movement phrases whose looser energy paled in the presence of the intensity of social tango. There isn't an arabesque in the world that can compete with the inner focus of two people plastered up against each other and moving in sync.

Curiously, when the dancers removed their tango shoes -- high-heeled red or black numbers for the women and soft black slippers for the men -- the magic of the dance seemed to deflate as well. There is something to the line of the woman's arched foot, and the soft glide of a man who leads that is part of tango's essence. That essence was lost when, for example, two women tangoed barefoot. Their stature diminished, the line of their legs shortened, and the dance regressed to a series of pleasant positions.

Certainly, two totally different dance forms can achieve a successful union. That Fabiano has tried her hand at fusing modern dance and tango is laudable. Yet clearly her forte is social tango.

-- Pamela Squires