This is my first attempt at Blog writing, and I’m not entirely sure what I’m doing…or if I’ll even be able to find enough words to write, but if there is one thing I’ve learnt I can talk about lately, (and my family, friends and work colleagues will back me up here, haha) then it is Vincent, Flavia, and their Midnight Tango tour.
I had quite liked the idea of trying to write a blog, and figured writing about this show might be the best place to start, and maybe if I put it all into words here, then I might be able to have some regular un-dance related conversations in my ’real world’ if I get it all out of my system. :D
I can’t even remember when we first heard that Vincent and Flavia were going to be doing their own tango show….(possibly some time last year)…. but being a HUGE fan of theirs, ever since that day it has been something myself and so many others have been looking forward to.
The build up to the show was made even better by Flavia tweeting almost daily updates since the beginning of new year, giving us all progress reports of their choreography…..We could share in the excitement of when they completed a new routine, or commiserate with her a little on those days when things seemed to be moving a little slower. Either way, it made us all feel like this show was something we were all involved in, and actually having seen it now - that feeling of involving everyone still carries through the whole audience, making every single person in the theatre feel they are sitting in that bar with these wonderful dancers entertaining them of an evening (or two).
My friend Holly and I had decided to go and see this together, and since I live in Glasgow, and she lives in Liverpool, we opted for a Manchester venue, which isn’t too far for either of us - (although in the end, over the space of my weekend away I was on 1 taxi, 5 trains, 2 trams and a bus, ….probably more public transport than I had been on in 10 years or so) …BUT totally worth every single second of my trip and I’d do it all again tomorrow if I could.
We booked our tickets for the Saturday matinee when they first went on sale, and managed to get Row B…YAY! ..But decided recently there was no point in travelling all that way for one show, so talked each other into also getting tickets for the evening performance. We weren‘t quite so lucky with the tickets this time and ended up in the Upper Circle, Row D, but as it happened also a very good view and this time over the entire stage where we could take in what every member of the cast was doing at the same time, instead of focussing in on just one area of the stage, which was what I had been doing in the afternoon (mainly Vincent and Flavia of course) …and it gave us a better idea of what was going on with the whole cast, being so high up.
When we got to the venue though we realised there was no Row A, which meant we were sitting front row and BANG in the middle of the stage! This was the point when I soooo regretted not wearing my nice red patent wedge sandals and had went for comfort over style which is a sure sign of getting old and I’ll not be letting that happen again…Grrr!! :(... Still can’t believe I done that, but anyway, I think by then Holly was fed up listening to me ‘wishing’ I had wore my other shoes so I better not start on that one again :p
What a view… a little unnerving being so close to the front ….but had anyone suggested swapping me seats I’d have said a very definite NO! Our seats were the best in the house and so close to the stage that we could see every expression on their faces, and every bead of sweat that flew from their bodies….at one point I thought Flavia had broken a bangle and the beads from it had flew into the audience, but I think it was instead beads of sweat from Vincent which flew into the front row landing on the woman a few seats along who was unfortunately sitting in the ‘splash zone’ :D
The stage looked amazing and before anything even happened, there was a very intimate feel to it all. The old pictures hanging on the wall… the broken shutters on the windows…the winding staircase leading up to the balcony to name just a few….I was glad to have been in our seats half an hour before the show started just to look around the stage and see exactly what was there as I knew once the dancing started, I wouldn’t be able to tear my eyes away and would have barely have remembered any thing else other than that.
Even though I have now watched the show twice, there is so much to take in that there will be loads that I have missed out, and I also don’t want to be too specific about things either, and spoil it for those of you still to see the show, so if you have got this far without dozing off…and want to remain unspoiled, then best not to read any further as there might be some bits that you would rather not know about until seeing the show for yourself.
There is two stories running simultaneously throughout the entire show, one with V&F which I’ll get on to in a sec….and one with the bar owners, a husband and wife, who bring a wonderful comedy element to it all. These two were a massive part of the show, and they were brilliantly cast and got the second loudest cheer at both performances I‘d say. They have a love story all of their own going on in the background where probably like a lot of married couples, they need reminding every once in a while just what it was that made them fall in love in the first place….and everyone in the audience ahhhh’s when these two finally overcome all the obstacles in their way, to discover their love is there still in the end. It was lovely…and me being a bit of a fluffy romantic movie watcher was in my element with not one ..but TWO love stories going on all at the same time.
Anyway to get back on track to the order of the show, these two open up their bar for the evening, to all the cast and musicians who come on stage at different times and I’ll just say now before I forget, that I *think* there are 18 people on stage between the cast and the band, and that every single one of them bring something special to the show - they were all so good that taking Vincent and Flavia out of the picture, I couldn’t pick who stood out most, they really were all amazing…..BUT for saying that, I’d just like to give a special mention to Piano Man, who until Saturday had been a very well kept secret!! He was HOT!! ….Why didn’t anyone ever mention him before? Holly swooned so much she practically fell off her chair in a faint before Vincent and Flavia had even got onstage!!
I loved the mix of people cast for this show, and they all had a different look to them just like you would see in any bar. Before seeing the pictures of the show, I had imagined them to be wearing similar hairstyles…similar dresses…similar ages….but the different looks they all had going on, just made the show even more real and before long you don’t feel like you are sitting in an audience watching a show - but sitting in that same bar as them on an evening out, being entertained by the comedy couple bar owners, enthralled by these amazing tango dancers….and mesmerised by the brilliance of Vincent and Flavia…..
…Which leads me to their part of the show. I’ll keep this really brief though so as not to give too much away.
Flavia (Sofia) looks absolutely beautiful up on stage, and her dresses are amaaaazing!!…From the simple but gorgeous blue floaty one with matching shoes and cardi for her first outfit…right through to the black sparkly cocktail type dress she wears at the end (also with gorgeous matching shoes) ….and the beautiful white dress for the Rumba in between, oh and also the lovely purplish tweed dress with matching cape, gloves AND purse ….she is so stunning that your eyes are immediately drawn to her. She goes from being all shy and coy hiding behind a book in the beginning of this, to swigging shots and being so sultry and sexy that I am convinced she could have a career as an actress if she wanted to…In fact I’m pretty sure she could run the country if she wanted to…. and Holly actually thinks she could collect an OBE from the Queen for ‘Services To Choreography’ if such an award exists in the New Years Honours List.. :-D… In a nutshell, we don’t think there is really anything she couldn’t do if she tried! HAH!
Vincent (Pablo) also has great new found acting skills and he is also amazing in this. He has such great expression on his face throughout this whole show that you can see exactly what he feels just by looking at him. The story between him and Sofia, which sees him wooo her, and win her heart is so lovely that when Baddie Gaucho Guy comes along and steals her away….he looks so heartbroken that when he wins her back we wanted to WHOOP out loud, but the story is so tense at that part of the show that it might have been a tad inappropriate to do so… The fight scene between him and his arch rival ’El Gato’ to win back the lovely Sofia is fab, and hard to imagine how they managed to keep it so real while dancing Argentine Tango at the same time.
There was so much to love in this show that I have only highlighted a couple of stand out moments …if I was to try and cover every single detail, or tell you of all the things I loved about it, I would be here forever, but I can’t not write a little bit about my very favourite moment in the whole show.
You know how everyone has favourite movies that you watch over and over again…and there are particular bits that you just have to rewind to watch again even though you have just watched it?….Like in Dirty Dancing when ’ Nobody puts Baby in the corner’….or in Mamma Mia! when Meryl Streep sings ‘The Winner Takes It All’ to Pierce Brosnan on that clifftop….or the pottery scene in Ghost where ’Unchained Melody’ is playing on the jukebox……ok…I’ll stop now!…The point I am trying to make is that this next routine, is one that I think I’ll probably play over and over and over when this DVD comes out, so much that I’ll likely wear out my copy…..
The stage is cleared of everyone but a heartbroken Pablo….drowning his sorrows in the bar, while Piano Man plays melancholy music and there is a storm raging outside which very realistically fills the theatre with the sound of thunder and lightning. Sofia appears out of the rain, and wearing a gorgeous white dress and in a dream like sequence, they dance to the most beautiful choreography I have ever seen in my life. The whole audience is stunned into silence and I don’t think I breathed or blinked for the entire performance…..It is absolutely spell-binding, spine-tingling and altogether breath-taking! There isn’t a sound from the entire audience until the final note is played and then the whole theatre erupted in applause that was deafening!! My jaw was on the floor and I really could have actually cried at this dance…it was stunning beyond words, so nothing else I say can come anywhere near close enough to describe how beautiful it is.
The Fiesta sequence after this to end the show is so lively and fun that it was hard not to jump to my feet and join in the dancing and had to be content with clapping along to the music instead, when I sooooo wanted to be whooping and shouting and up on that stage joining in with it all….It was brilliant!!
All in all this really is the most amazing show I have ever seen, and the whole cast and crew have put on such a brilliant tour, that there is just no way is once enough to take it all in
We had amazing group dancing from the whole cast but the highlights of it all really are Vincent and Flavias solo dances. There is a quirky and lively Milonga, and a gorgeously sweet and romantic Tango Vals….A wonderful Argentine Tango which again had people whooping from their seats….and not forgetting the incredibly beautiful Rumba which practically had the audience in tears, it is so clear to see exactly why they are so well loved, and why they are considered to be the best at what they do. They are an amazing partnership and an absolute privilege to watch. I loved every single second of their show and can’t wait to see it all again. Words can’t do it justice…the smokey atmosphere of the bar has to be seen, to get the sense of intimacy of the show…and of course mere words could never describe watching Vincent and Flavia dancing and never more so than in Midnight Tango. It really does have to be seen to be appreciated.
x x x
