I’m a musician myself, but I’m certainly no expert on dance. That said, my girlfriend and I, over the summer, decided to learn to tango. So we were excited to check out Tango & Fire playing at the Beckman Auditorium at CalTech.

I know very little about the tango, except that apparently it’s quite a passionate endeavor. But unfortunately for this performance, the fire mentioned in the title, seemed to be found almost exclusively in the band. These guys are hot! A fiery Latin jazz blended with spices of folk and classical, Adrover’s Quintet includes: violin, bass, guitar, piano, and bandoneon (squeeze box). The instruments were perfectly mic’d and the acoustics rang crisp in the Beckman. The music was brisk, alive, tight, and textured nicely. Lisandro Adrover composed all the music and lead the quintet on the bandoneon.

Unfortunately, the dance could not match the music’s level of intensity. In fact, besides a spark here and there, the only piece that spoke with the passion I’d expected was “Beginning of Love” with Miriam Larici & Hugo Patyn. Though theme costumes and stories were integrated in some of the dances, they did not ring true – felt hokey. As I said, I’m not an expert on dance, but my advice to the dancers would be to think less about the step and more about the reason for it.

Lastly, this is primarily a music and dance act, there are no words save for some recorded narration. However, the recorded narration is rather unconvincing both in script and presentation. And the pre-recorded echo just doesn’t work – at least not in a venue the size of Beckman.

Click here to see more performances from CalTech Presents.

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