sealPurdue News
____

February 20, 2003

Tango Buenos Aires brings sultry dance to Loeb Playhouse

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — Purdue University's Loeb Playhouse will become a turn of the century Argentinean night club when Tango Buenos Aires is presented at 8 p.m. Friday, March 7.

Admission is $22 for general public, $17 for Purdue students and children K-12. Tickets can be purchased at Purdue box offices or charged by phone at (765) 494-3933 or (800) 914-SHOW. Tickets also are available at all Ticketmaster outlets. Tango Buenos Aires is presented by Purdue Convocations.

Tango Buenos Aires is an Argentinean company of 12 dancers and six musicians. The dancers perform with flashy choreography, attitude, flair and physicality. Part dance, part theater and part musical, the dancers use fast footwork, deep lunges and tightly executed turns to trace the development of the tango from its lowly beginning to its current status as an international dance sensation. Full production costume changes, sets, props and live musicians add to the performance.

The music in this production is provided by a sextet composed of a piano, three strings and two bandoneons. They are joined by a cabaret singer who performs torch songs during the costume changes.

The dancers are all tango specialists, rather than classically trained dancers. Almost all of the dance moves are performed with the partners clinched face-to-face. And each of the six couples has a personal style that includes not only their steps and moves but an array of varying reactions to each other, the music and the audience.

Tango Buenos Aires was originally created in 1985 by renowned composer and tango director Osvaldo Requena for the Jazmines Festival at the Buenos Aires cabaret "Michelangelo." The company was immediately added to the season of the General San Martin Municipal Theatre.

The following year, the company traveled to the United States to represent Argentina at the Latin-American Festival, which took place in August at the Delacorte Theatre in New York City's Central Park. This event was followed by an extensive U.S. tour, along with trips to Mexico, Puerto Rico and El Salvador. Since then the company has taken its brand of Latin dance and music to audiences around the globe.

CONTACT: Larry Sommers, Purdue Convocations, (765) 494-5045, lsommers@purdue.edu.

NOTE TO JOURNALISTS: A publication-quality photograph from Tango Buenos Aires is available at ftp://ftp.purdue.edu/pub/uns/tango.jpeg.

Purdue News Service: (765) 494-2096; purduenews@purdue.edu


* To the Purdue News and Photos Page