Wild Tango by German Cornejo

Tango Argentino, the most sensual dance ever invented, has finally been used as an inspiration for a full-scale show! Tango has been a part of my life since many years: my uncle is a dance teacher who specialises in tango, and travels to Argentina annually to polish his skills. My parents dance tango since many years and even attend summer tango camps (a mix of relax, dance practices and milonga in the evening). So it was always present in my life, weirdly – because I don’t really dance at all 🙂

The cast of German Cornejo’s Wild Tango. Photo: Carlos Villamayor

I’ve heard the name of German Cornejo a couple of times before – he’s a tango superstar, who won the title of World Tango Champion – twice, performed at “America’s Got Talent” and won JLo’s tv show “Q Vida”.

And now, he has combined the charm of Argentinian culture with rock music, aerial performances and – frankly- a set of really weird costumes, into what he named “Wild Tango”. The cast of dancers in “Wild Tango” includes several world tango champions, resulting in a show with an explosive mix of tango, contemporary dance, urban, malambo, and circus elements.

Wild Tango Cast, credit: Sadlers Wells Theatre

The show is inspired by the origins of tango when two men danced among themselves with that unique connection, complexity, synergy, and strength generated between male dancers. (something that I never know, as I always saw tango performed in a mixed couple!) These moments when dancers perform in male-male couple were my highlight of the show. They were powerful, almost aggressive at times, very masculine – but at the same time very sensual and celebrated the beauty of a male body.

The cast is composed of 10 dancers – mostly males. There’s also a live band on stage, playing songs ranging from classic tango, through its modern rendition (think Gotan Project), through rock and pop. My favourite performance was the first song after the intermission – stage was filled with performers playing on drums, creating a powerful, yet extremely catchy melody. The dancers themselves are very talented, however you can see a difference between German Cornejo and his stage presence vs the rest of them. I suppose it’s the number of years of experience showing.

If the show was to focus purely on tango, I feel like it would look much better. Unfortunately, there’s quite a lot of added aerial acrobatics added, and whenever it happens, it’s just very visible that on the stage we see fantastic dancers – but not circus performers. This is especially visible at moments when there are 2 dancers hanging in the air, performing what’s supposed to look like a synchronised performance – that’s when the weakest moments of the show happen. Plus, in the first half of the show the costumes were quite bizarre, very revealing and made of leather, looking a bit like some kind of BDSM-inspired. Together with the already sensual style of dance, this looked a little bit too “in your face” sexy.

Despite these issues, the vibe among the audience was pretty merry. There was a large group of Argentinians sitting besides me and they had a fantastic time – it seemed like some of the songs performed were kind of local bangers, and at times the whole row was singing them loud (wish I knew the songs earlier, some of them were fantastic!).

To sum up: it’s a nice show but it has so much potential. If it was to be re-done to focus more on dance itself, it could be such a great performance! For now, it’s a little bit disappointing.