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Richard AlstonMarch 2002 London, Queen Elizabeth Hall by John Field |
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Astor Piazzolla's relentlessly energetic Libertango provided the impetus for a dynamic display of dancing at the Queen Elizabeth Hall on the 23rd March. Piazzolla was exactly the right man for Alston's job: an innovator who transformed a traditional form, eventually wooing his home crowd in Argentina with his heavily jazz influenced style (he worked with Gerry Mulligan, Gary Burton and the Kronos Quartet). Alston's choreography, like Piazolla's music, is a break from the norm. What most people recognise about Tango is the la caminata walking style and intrusiones - the swinging, stabbing kicks between your partner's legs. Nothing like that here. 'Touch and Go' deviates, delivering far more space between dancers. What then, you might wonder, does it have in common with the dance that inspired it? At second glance, 'Touch and Go' has close Tango connections. Andrew Obaka and Martin Lawrence dance together, recalling the origins of the dance in 1860s Buenos Aires when women were in short supply and much of the Tango that was danced was practiced between men in the hope that they would find a female partner, eventually. There was chemistry on stage too. The couples were connected, dancing with brio, real enthusiasm and heat, supporting Borges' truism that the communion of the dance creates 'a heart moving on four legs'.
'Touch and Go' is a triumph. Alston successfully throws an older idiom into the melting pot of contemporary dance and emerges with choreography that conveys the passion and speed of Tango feet that one would expect. The dancers were greeted with rapturous applause. They deserved nothing less.
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