Tango and toss-ups

In previous visits and recent advertising, Tango Buenos Aires listed Cristian Zarate as artistic director. But Saturday at the Orange County Performing Arts Center, a new name appeared at the top of the company roster -- Rosario Bauza -- and a new agenda dominated the performance.

Like most touring tango companies, this one used to focus on isolated couples, with a few ensembles and instrumental interludes punctuating the plotless proceedings. No longer. Under Bauza’s direction, the couples are often seen together in sequences depicting various Argentine hangouts -- a bar and a racetrack besides the inevitable dance hall. As a result, choreographer Lidia Segni has constant opportunities to stage large-scale unison dances.

There’s even a story line of sorts, one involving the fortunes and love life of Franco (Gustavo Rosas), less lucky at the track than in his pursuit of Tania (Gisela Natoli). Their quasi-narrative serves as a loose structure in which Franco’s many friends and even a tourist couple have showpiece opportunities.

Some of those opportunities range far from the traditional tango vocabulary -- especially the “El Opio” trio in which Federico Fleitas and Sebastian Huici compete for Mariella Morassut with ballet steps. That’s right: pirouettes, air turns, the whole bravura arsenal.

The ballroom-style duets have also changed -- not always for the better -- with a heavy emphasis on gymnastic stunts: strenuous lifts that are often crudely unmusical and break the movement flow. Although they dance with admirable lightness and intricacy in Act 1, Cesar Peral and Soledad Buss go for broke after intermission, and their duet ends with him slinging her halfway across the floor.

The romance of tango vanishes at such moments, though a few dancers (Jorge Tagliaferro with Natalia Patyn, for instance) manage to make the lifts play like spasms of passion. Unfortunately, Rosas and Natoli frequently look more like athletes than lovers in their choreographed clinches.

The changes at Tango Buenos Aires reflect a desire by a number of world dance companies to re-evaluate, refocus or update their modes of presentation. Some return to their roots in folklore, trimming away the excesses of theatricalization. Others like this one head in the opposite direction, embracing the strategies of ballet, modern dance and show-dancing to please large audiences in big theaters.

Happily, the company’s transition hasn’t compromised some of its prime assets, notably the musicianship. Directed by Julian Vat, the band (piano, bass, guitar, violin and, of course, bandoneon) not only accompanies the dancing but also holds the stage on its own with alternately sharp and soulful playing, including a spectacular arrangement of Angel Villoldo’s “El Choclo.”

Besides the dancers previously mentioned, the Saturday performance featured Magdalena Cortes, Miriam Larici and Hugo Patyn.