Mark's Notebook


	Only a mediocre person is always at his best. - W. Somerset Maugham

'Forever Tango' still stokes that fire down below

San Francisco Chronicle Dance Review

Thursday 6 January 2005, 4:18 pm
Keywords: News Articles , Round Dancing

By Michael Wade Simpson

Forever Tango: Through Jan. 9 at the Post Street Theatre. For tickets, call (415) 771-6900 or visit www.ticketmaster.com. Post Street Theatre, 450 Post St., SF; Thu-Fri 8 pm, Sat 2 pm, 5 pm and 8 pm, Sun 2 pm and 7 pm, Tue-Wed 8 pm; $40-$80; (415) 771-6900.

"Forever Tango" is one big seduction, a perfect theater date for couples on the verge of coupling.

Before MTV, dancers didn't make love to cameras. Instead, there were pairs of bodies, locked together. "Forever Tango" is a live, human chemistry demonstration. It's hard to watch and not get pulled in.

The accompanying music, featuring the unmistakable moan of the bandoneon, an accordionlike instrument, is dark, as dismal as the dance is hungry.

Once thought to be exceedingly vulgar, the stiff torsos and formal- looking movements today read as repressed, the opposite of bump and grind. That's why the performances are important, as well as the dancers' facial expressions. It's not about the steps. The closer to the front you sit, the more you'll understand.

San Francisco, land of sex and seriousness, seems the perfect second city for Argentine tango, and the cast of "Forever Tango" looks right at home on the intimate stage at the Post Street Theatre.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2004/12/30/DDG3GAI4CK1.DTL&type
=performance