Tango’s passion blended with classic, modern

For all its sensuous appeal, there is something pure and austere about “BoccaTango,” a new evening-length showcase for dance superstar Julio Bocca and his Ballet Argentino that opened a three-night stand Thursday at the Irvine Barclay Theatre.

There are no sets. For the first half of the program, except for a featured soloist or two, the eight musicians are offstage, their music piped in through speakers. The two singers often appear in spotlights in front of the black curtains. The dancers, too, perform backdropped by the curtains or on a bare stage.

The potentially provocative male duets are less “Brokeback Mountain” than short essays in abstract form.

This formality was signaled Thursday when Bocca, taking the woman’s part, and Lucas Oliva appeared in the first dance of the night, both wearing tuxedos. They might as well have been wearing suits of armor.

Yes, tango began in Buenos Aires in the late 1800s with men dancing together because of the scarcity of women. But did this sequence have to be only a history lesson?

The monkey suits were quickly discarded in the show’s steady march to the steamy duet “Romance del Diablo” (no translation necessary) between Bocca, clad in a dancer’s brief, and a lithe Cecilia Figaredo wearing only black panties.

This entwining Argentine Adam-and-Eve duet was dimly lighted by Omar Possemato, however, perhaps with an eye toward family values.

On the way to that highpoint, a shirtless Bocca danced an erotic solo, “Invierno Porteno” (roughly, Winter in Buenos Aires), using a table. Figaredo stripped down to fetishistic black bra, panties and see-through long stockings in another hot duet with Bocca, “El ultimo cafe.”

Offsetting this eroticism were a jokey duet by Stephanie Bauger and Lucas Segovia and various ensemble dances, which showed that the title of the show isn’t just a catchy trademark.

Bocca and choreographer Ana Maria Stekelman have created a style that blends gritty tango with stretched-body ballet and even some aspects of dramatic modern dance. Bocca’s table solo, for instance, has echoes of the “Corsaire” pas de deux, and all the dancers point their feet, square their shoulders and work to defy gravity. The new style perhaps purifies the earthiness of tango too much for aficionados to be satisfied but seems inevitable with ballet-trained dancers.

The smooth-voiced singers are Esteban Riera and Noelia Moncada. Juliant Vat leads the ensemble, fortunately placed onstage where the audience can see them in the second half, and also has moody saxophone and virtuosic flute solos. Horacio Romo is the melancholy bandoneon soloist.

Bocca, who will turn 39 on Monday, is set to retire in June from American Ballet Theatre, which he joined 20 years ago. He’s had a spectacular career there, but he told the Washington Post last month that he’s ready to go. He’s had seven surgeries on his legs and has sustained broken ribs that healed imperfectly, as well as shoulder injuries. That’s the price, it seems, of meeting or surpassing audience demands for superstardom. On Thursday the effort showed.

He did not dance the acrobatic solo on a ladder, “Anos de Soledad” (Years of Solitude), that he performed in Washington and that was listed on the program. According to a theater spokesperson, he said the temperature backstage was too cold. Perhaps he’ll dance it again when the show hits UCLA on Friday and next Saturday.

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‘BoccaTango’

Where: Irvine Barclay Theatre, 4242 Campus Drive, Irvine

When: 8 tonight

Price: $40

Contact: (949) 854-4646 or

www.thebarclay.org

Also

Where: Royce Hall, UCLA

When: 8 p.m. Friday and March 11

Price: $28 to $48

Contact: (310) 825-2101 or

www.uclalive.org