Following two popular tango shows in Taipei in previous years -- Tango Passion in 1997, Forever Tango last year, there is another heavy-weight Tango troupe from Argentina coming to Taiwan -- the King of Tango, led by renowned dancer Gustavo Russo.
The troupe will play eight consecutive shows in Taiwan's four cities.
Apart from being one of the best Tango troupes in the world, which has sold out shows in London, Vienna, Madrid, Brussels and Berlin, there is another attraction to King of Tango. The repertoire, titled The Tango Seduction, will largely use the music of Nuevo Tango master Astor Piazzolla. Taiwan and Hong Kong have recently gone through a craze for Piazzolla's music and it is expected that the show will attract Piazzolla music fans.
PHOTO: COURTESY OF NEW ASPECT FOUNDATION
Seven musicians, including the accordianist and one singer will accompany 13 dancers to present a show with rich flavors and elegant body movements.
What is tango, exactly? For star dancer Gustavo Russo, the point is to express the entanglement and tension of love.
Those who went to the performance of Tango Passion in 1992 will find Gustavo Russo a familiar face. He was the young first-seat dancer in the show that played 11 years ago in Taipei. Russo is the winner of the Estelares Del Mar (Star of the Sea), a top tango competition in Argentina for seven consecutive years.
He also won the title of Precio Del Argentina, that was presented by the Buenos Aires Academy.
After a string of successful world tours and a short period performing in the Broadway productions, Russo recruited top dancers from various tango troupes in Argentine and formed his own "King of Tango" troupe in 2001.
The show follows a love story that takes place in a pub in Buenos Aires' harbor area. According to Russo it is a story about jealousy and passion.
Act one of "The Tango Seduction" covers the origin and the history of tango styles. The stage, decorated as an old fashioned bar by the harbor, has the dancers playing roles from different social classes, all expressing their sentiment through dancing. Here, tango is a direct, collective expression of the emotions of European
immigrants.
Act two of the show is the "Tango Nuevo." This newly styled tango has now turned into an art form, in terms of dance steps and music. On the stage there will be a giant mirror to create illusory images of the dancers. Piazzolla's music will harmonize with the more complicated steps of the seven pairs to produce a thrillingly rich image on stage.
Russo will be paired with Samanta Garcia, who has performed in Broadway productions such as Les Miserables, Cats and Miss Saigon.
The musical director of the troupe, Fernanado Marzan, also has an impressive background. He was the composer and music director for Madonna's Evita and one of his recent works is Bedita Buenos Aires, co-composed with Japanese musician Taro Hakase.
My friends and I have been enjoying the last two weeks of revelation after revelation of the financial and legal shenanigans of Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) head and recent presidential candidate Ko Wen-je (柯文哲). Every day brings fresh news — allegations that a building had purchased with party subsidies but listed in Ko’s name, allegations of downloading party subsidy funds into his personal accounts. Ko’s call last December for the regulations for the government’s special budgets to be amended to enforce fiscal discipline, and his September unveiling of his party’s anti-corruption plan, have now taken on a certain delightful irony.
The number of scandals and setbacks hitting the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) in such quick and daily succession in the last few weeks is unprecedented, at least in the countries whose politics I am familiar with. The local media is covering this train wreck on an almost hourly basis, which in the latest news saw party chair Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) detained by prosecutors on Friday and released without bail yesterday. The number of links collected to produce these detailed columns may reach 400 by the time this hits the streets. To get up to speed, two columns have been written: “Donovan’s
President William Lai’s (賴清德) vision for Taiwan to become an “AI island” has three conditions: constructing advanced data centers, ensuring a stable and green energy supply, and cultivating AI talent. However, the energy issue supply is the greatest challenge. To clarify, let’s reframe the problem in terms of the Olympics. Given Taiwan’s OEM (original equipment manufacturer) roles in the technology sector, Taiwan is not an athlete in the AI Olympics, or even a trainer, but rather a training ground for global AI athletes (AI companies). In other words, Taiwan’s semiconductor ecosystem provides world-class training facilities and equipment that have already attracted
Despite her well-paying tech job, Li Daijing didn’t hesitate when her cousin asked for help running a restaurant in Mexico City. She packed up and left China for the Mexican capital last year, with dreams of a new adventure. The 30-year-old woman from Chengdu, the Sichuan provincial capital, hopes one day to start an online business importing furniture from her home country. “I want more,” Li said. “I want to be a strong woman. I want independence.” Li is among a new wave of Chinese migrants who are leaving their country in search of opportunities, more freedom or better financial prospects at a
RSS