PERFORMING ARTS

From the East Village Opera Company, classical arias turned into rock anthems. (By Dean Karr)

But surrounding gems with junk has always been a favorite Malkmus gambit. At its best ("Gardenia," "We Can't Help You"), the group cruised like a muscular version of circa-'69 Fairport Convention, not only proving that SM still writes compact, abstruse indie-pop, but also offering respite from such dross as "Hopscotch Willie." That back-and-forth (good: "Post Paint Boy"; bad: "Elmo Delmo") continued for the duration. So, it was a shock to hear the overlong encore conclude with a growling version of Mungo Jerry's "Alright, Alright, Alright," which felt bracingly direct. Or maybe that was just because there was no guitar solo.

-- Patrick Foster

Sharna Fabiano Tango

For someone who established her own dance company only as recently as 2006, Sharna Fabiano has a remarkably strong and well-developed choreographic voice. In her company's performance Saturday at Dance Place, it was evident that her style and movement vocabulary are clearly defined and refreshingly distinctive.

Fabiano's work melds traditional tango steps with contemporary dance. She takes tango -- a genre often characterized by smoldering glances and assertive, unabashed dancing -- and dials it down, imbuing it with a quiet, meditative feel and indirect, subtle movement. Fabiano also disregards traditional notions of partnering, sometimes having women partner with women and men dance with other men.

In the program's opener, "Tangos From Here," the dancers occasionally struggled to capture the work's tone. In trying to appear calm and reflective, they sometimes drifted toward uninterested and aloof.

In the second work, "Tangled," choreographed by Fabiano and Francesca Jandasek, the dancers manipulated a long, thin piece of white fabric. Swathing and wrapping one another in the fabric as they moved, they created a number of intriguing tableaux, particularly when one dancer wrapped it around another's throat and pulled backward. As striking as they were when observed individually, however, all these intriguing images did not add up to deliver a discernible meaning.

"Uno" began with a dancer entering the stage, removing a pair of high heels and sitting to read a letter; after doing so, she dropped the paper and danced in place with it underfoot, producing a crinkling sound. A pleasingly curious opening, it gave way to a rich, emotional work about longing, love and desire.

-- Sarah Halzack

Tego Calderon

Tego Calderon performed for only 50 minutes Friday night at El Boqueron II, but that didn't prevent his show from being largely a success, as the Puerto Rican rapper cleverly packed many songs into his set.

It helped that Calderon's DJ offered a well-mixed taste of music from the rapper's albums. And despite the occasional DJ enhancement of his live vocals with the artist's studio versions, Calderon's onstage lyrical flow stood out. Although many Spanish-language rappers vocalize only over the danceable Latin reggaeton beat -- and others use only American hip-hop rhythms -- Calderon, 36, used both approaches and more. He was raised hearing his dad's salsa records, listening to a spectrum of tropical and American sounds while in high school in Miami and then returning to Puerto Rico. With the aid of producers both known and unknown, he offers more than just cliched chanted verse and a generic, steady drum machine pulse.

At El Boqueron II, Calderon let fly with quick stanzas over the merengueton of "Metele Sazon," and leisurely verbiage with the loping reggae rhythms of "Chillin.' " As his two female dancers energetically swirled, Calderon confidently yet coolly paced the stage, never letting his self-assurance turn into an over-the-top cartoonish swagger. Although he has eclectic music tastes, he emphasized his more straightforward reggaeton cuts and more pop-friendly songs, including a reggaeton take on Akon's R&B-pop hit "I Wanna Love You."

All his songs kept the crowd moving, but his finest ones possessed distinctive instrumental touches. This pioneering island vocalist used sampled klezmer clarinet and snake-charmer synth effects on "El Caballito" and a looped salsa cymbal beat on "Llora, Llora." Even without Oscar D'Leon's guest vocal from the latter, this innovative cut still beautifully melded 20th- and 21st-century Latin styles.

-- Steve Kiviat