JUAN Malizia works with his girlfriend every day – in the closest of clinches.
He and Florencia Roldan make up one of the five dancing couples in Tango Fire, the hot, hot dance company from Argentina whose new touring show, Flames Of Desire, turns up the heat tomorrow night at the Grand Opera House in York.
“For me, it’s lovely to have my partner in life as my dance partner… as it’s a very intimate form of dancing,” he says “But they’re very different: you have your partner in life and your partner on stage, and as I’m with Florencia 24/7 that means you have to have a lot of patience in work and in life.”
How does the partnership work, Juan? “As a man, I’m more simple than a woman. Women are complicated! But with Florencia I have a very good relationship. We enjoy what we do on stage,” he says.
“As partners we have a different dimension now as we’ve danced together for nine years but we’ve been a couple for only two years.”
Juan and Florencia live and breathe tango, whether touring abroad with Tango Fire or taking dance classes in the day or performing in the House Of Tango in the evening in a Buenos Aires hotel. The dancing is all the better, hotter, for their years united in tango.
“When a couple have been dancing together for nine years, you can see they have something extra, because you see the passion and enjoyment they have in performing together,” says Juan.
From April 12 to May 15, he and Florencia are on tour in Britain with Mariano Balois and Yanina Fajar, German Cornejo and Carolina Giannin, Sebastian Alvarez and Victoria Saudelli and José Fernández and Melody Celatti, plus young singer Jesus Hidalgo and the Quatrotango quartet of musicians.
Choreographed by Yanina Fajar, they take a journey through the sizzling history of tango, from its late-night origins as a raw, intoxicating burst of liberated expression in the dance halls of Buenos Aires through to its growing popularity as a contemporary dance form.
“In the first half we take the intimacy and feelings we have in our lives and show that on stage; we show people the tango moves, the roots of tango and the seriousness of tango,” says Juan. “In the second, we have lifts and tricks and it’s more modern.”
Tango is at the height of its popularity, he reckons. “All dancing is evolving at the moment and tango is evolving more than any other dance, so it’s a very good time to be a tango dancer.
“But you have to work very hard to be in this company; we all take our positions very seriously as we’re representing our country and our culture in these shows.”
• Tango Fire, Flames Of Desire, Grand Opera House, York, tomorrow at 7.30pm. Box office: 0844 871 3024 or grandoperahouseyork.org.uk
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