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Alexandra Tomalonis
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Tangokinesis: Cooking Up Dances That Sizzle

Alexandra Tomalonis
Special to The Washington Post
March 15, 2000; Page C8

What do you get when you cross tango with modern dance? When Tangokinesis does the mixing, the result is a swirl of dancing that's sophisticated, sassy and fun. The troupe, which the Kennedy Center presented last night at the Terrace Theater as part of its "America Dancing" series, describes itself as a "modern tango company" to distinguish it from the other tango-goes-to-Broadway groups so popular in recent years. One of the company's four couples (Nora Robles and Pedro Calveyra) danced with Forever Tango; the rest have a variety of backgrounds, the women mostly ballet-trained, the men strictly tango.

Tangokinesis's artistic director and choreographer, Ana Maria Stekelman, has blended these assorted talents and styles into a smooth mix. She experimented for a decade before starting her company in 1991, and the three dances presented last night seemed to mirror her journey of discovery. Although the tango remained the root, the touchstone, of each dance, the dancing became freer and more expressive as the evening progressed.

The opening dance, also called "Tangokinesis," is an exciting, witty series of duets and trios set to a dizzying assortment of music (Vivaldi, Rudnitzky, traditional tangos) that explores almost every variation on the tango's limited vocabulary of stamps, kicks, spins and backbends. The modern dance influence seems to be that of Pina Bausch, and some of her whimsy asserts itself (a barefoot woman in a pink ballet skirt, limp as a doll when she's partnered). At times the score is percussive, like machine-gun fire, which, coupled with the dancers' black costumes and slicked back hair, gives the piece the air of a gangster's prom.

As a dance form, the tango is all tension and sizzling, though controlled, sexuality, and it might seem that the more expressive passages would negate its sleek intensity, but in the program's other two works--"Four Piazzollas" and "Concierto Para Bongo"--Stekelman shows herself to be an excellent choreographer, both of duets and group patterns. Her dances have elements of both fantasy (you don't know exactly what will happen next) and inevitability (what does happen is unexpected, but seems absolutely right) that make them both fascinating and satisfying. The dancers were superb.

The program repeats tonight, Thursday and Friday.