TANGO Evolution Fires Up Palace of Fine Arts Theatre

Extreme Tango, in association with Breast Cancer Emergency Fund presented a TANGO Trilogy* at the Palace of Fine Arts Theatre in San Francisco.

TANGO Evolution

Program # 1 of the Trilogy:

San Francisco’s Palace of Fine Arts Theatre was on fire the weekend of April 18-20. Not literally. The combustion was due to the dynamic blending of the award-winning Eroica Trio, bandoneon player, Daniel Binelli, and classical guitarist, Eduardo Isaac. The Eroica Trio is a chamber music ensemble consisting of three gorgeous, lively women in bright red gowns (instead of stodgy, serious people in black): Sara Sant’Ambrogio, cello; Susie Park, violin; and Erika Nickrenz, piano. The newspaper “Tucson Citizen’ wrote of the Eroica Trio: ”They look like supermodels and play like demons on crack.” Eroica Trio has “sent a whole new audience flocking to concert halls around the word. They have performed to capacity crowds at Davies hall with the San Francisco Symphony.

The musicians not only provided the music for guest artists, the breathtaking Argentine Tango couple, Sebastian Huici and Miriam Larici, but also performed duets and solos in their own right.

The Sunday matinee program began with Huici and Larici dancing to the late bandoneon master Astor Piazzolla’s electrifying, “Libertango,” performed by the Eroica Trio, Isaacs and Benilli. Huici’s entrance grabbed the audience. He leapt on stage with balletic grace, coming together with a sultry Luici in a passionate embrace. Dancing Argentine Tango almost requires one to have a background in ballet and gymnastics with its complex foot- and leg-work, lifts, holds, and sweeping turns. Intricate and extended moves that generate applause. Argentine Tango is a mix of sensuality, passion, jealousy, and romance, with an overarching theme of danger. Each dance tells a story, ending in a mesmerizing, dramatic, sculptural pose.

Sebastian Huici’s costumes throughout were mostly casual and dark - - long-sleeved shirt and full-cut pants, setting off Miriam Larici’s classic tango styles of brilliantly colored, reds, blues, silver and black, split-skirt, silver-threaded, and sequined numbers, with rhinestone accessories. Though in one delightful piece, Larici in an apron and Huici in his undershirt, enacted a domestic scene. Still, they danced Daniel Binelli’s own “Anhelo y Misterio,” a romantic piece, in heavenly white ensembles. Their lines, in white, starkly and breathtakingly contrasted with the dark stage and the musicians subtly lit behind them.

Isaac and Binelli performed duets in Mariano Mores “El Firulete,” Piazzolla’s “Bordel 1900,” and, “Anhelo y Misterio” and each had solos: Benelli acted out comically, with bandoneon on his knee, Carlos Cobian’s “Los Mareados”, and Eduardo Isaac played Piazzolla’s soulful “Mieserere Canyengue.” The trio played Piazzolla’s “Primavera Porteno,” J. Turina’s “Trio #l, Opus 35,” and knocked everyone out with Heitor Villalobos’s romantic, haunting, and heartbreaking, “Aria Cantilena.”

Huici and Larici left the audience in an exalted state with their finale, danced to Piazzolla’s “Adios Nonino,” backed by the Eroica Trio, Isaacs and Benilli, receiving two standing ovations.

Huici, born in Buenos Aries, began ballet training at 17 and by 18 was part of a prestigious Argentine dance school, The Colon Theatre in the Argentine Opera House. He performed with the Kirov Ballet, in several productions. He was also with the London Royal Ballet. Still he had a passion for tango and in 2007 became involved with the Columbia Artists stage production “Tango Buenos Aires," and toured the US.

Miriam Larici, from Matheu, Argentina, started dancing at five, and was trained in classical ballet, jazz and flamenco, gymnastics and tango. She was in Warner Bros. “Mambo Kings” and has been seen on television programs throughout the world, and has been part of the show “Forever Tango” touring world wide. She was lauded by dancer Leslie Caron. Miriam achieved her childhood dream dancing at the Colon Theatre in Buenos Aires, in “Forever Tango.” She has performed for two years at Walter Kerr and Marquis of “Times Square on Broadway.”

Classical guitarist, Argentine-born, Eduardo Isaac‘s acoustic guitar album of 2005, "One for Helen” has been called one of the greatest. He had collaborated with Daniel Binelli in 1997, and now records with New Tango Vision Trio in the Bay Area. Arranger and music director, bandoneon master, Daniel Binelli, of whom famed legendary bandoneon master Astor Piazzolla had said, when he first saw 14 year-old Binelli playing the bandoneon on Argentine TV, “who is that monstor?” He has become a fixture in the Bay Ara. In 2007 his performance in San Francisco’s Delores Park drew a crowd of over 5000.


* Put these next programs on your calendar:

Program 2, Tango x3, Argentine Tango & Brazilian Jazz, with Polly Ferman, Jovino Santos Neto, and Erika Nickrenz, takes place August 15- 16, at 8PM, with a 2 and 7PM shows on Sunday, the 17th

Program #3, Leadings Ladies of Tango, Café Victoria - All female tango, Polly Ferman Music Director, and 7 piece Orchestra, featuring Silvana Deluigi, and dancers; TangoMujer/Tango Con*Fusion, takes place November 28 -29 at 8PM and Sunday, November 30, at 2and 7PM.

Go to: Tedvivian@xtango-sf.com 408.594-1132 or www.xtango-sf.com

Tickets at www.tix.com