Daring to make tango even more sensual

THERE has never been anything sedate about tango. After all, it originated in 19th century Buenos Aires with macho men dancing and brawling in brothels in order to work out frustrations or vie for the favors of wanton women.

But it gets an added jolt when danced by Julio Bocca. As founder and lead dancer of Ballet Argentino, the 15-year-old Buenos Aires-based company that makes stops on its international tour this weekend in Irvine and next weekend at UCLA, Bocca knows a thing or two about pushing boundaries.

His most recent endeavor, the erotic and daring “BoccaTango,” features Bocca in a passionate number with a man, as well as dancing with inanimate objects, including a table and ladder.

“Dancing with a man is fine with me,” Bocca says. “I do the woman’s part. It’s a little more complicated -- you have to be ready to follow, and you do more steps than the man.”

Versatility has always been a key for Bocca, who is also a ballet superstar. A gold medal win at the 1985 Moscow International Ballet Competition first propelled him to fame, and for 20 years he has been a principal dancer with American Ballet Theatre in New York. And even as he nears retirement from ABT in June, he is still busy with touring with his own troupe, performing with ABT and making guest appearances with other companies.

“It’s easy,” he says of this hectic pace. “I love to be on the stage.”

For “BoccaTango,” he and six other dancers, accompanied by the musical ensemble Octango, perform a 90-minute program choreographed by Ana Maria Stekelman.

Fusing the grace and beauty of classical ballet with the raw emotions and sizzle of tango, this is no “Scent of a Woman,” rose-in-your-teeth-type show, but one that intensifies the sensuality in an already hot genre. Indeed, New York Post critic Clive Barnes called it “tango with a difference that is gorgeously on show.”

Bocca, a firebrand sporting a small dragon tattoo on his right shoulder, gives a large table a hefty workout in the performance -- climbing on it, balancing atop it and slithering across its shiny metal surface. And taking a cue from his childhood love of roller coasters for the finale, “Anos de Soledad,” Bocca teams with a 10-foot ladder.

Whether suspended from or twisted between the rungs of his “partner,” the bare-chested Bocca tries to ensure that balletic moves, rather than his gymnastic skills, are the focal point

“The ladder was my idea,” he says. “I wanted to do something I did when I was little and living near the park where they had something like a jungle gym.

“So Ana Maria and I brought the ladder, but it was not that tall at first. When you’re 8 or 9, your body’s more flexible than when you are 39. We started doing all the steps and a nice solo came out.”

As for Stekelman, she says she’s watched Bocca mature as an artist (they’ve been working together since 1989), and listens to his wishes.

“Sometimes he likes a piece that involves a lot of dancing, other times he feels a need to represent a particular character,” she says. “But what I love is Julio’s emotional involvement -- towards my work and towards the public.”

IN a nod to purists, “BoccaTango” also features more traditional duets, solos and trios featuring intricate, darting footwork and slinkily performed to the lush, rhythmic music of tango masters Astor Piazzolla and Carlos Gardel. Puritans, however, might object to the topless number, “El Ultimo Cafe,” performed by the ballet-trained Cecilia Figaredo, and “Romance del Diablo,” a torrid pas de deux with Bocca in which she artfully strips down to black bikini briefs.

Naturally, the marketing of the show has a sex quotient surrounding it, albeit one toned down for American audiences: The original ads for the Buenos Aires run of “BoccaTango” featured a naked Bocca, seated, with his arms strategically placed between his legs; stateside, the photo has been doctored, with black “shorts” covering Bocca.

Though all this raciness seems a far cry from one of Bocca’s signature roles -- Basilio in “Don Quixote,” which he danced more than 1,000 times (his final performance was in Japan in July with ABT) -- the elements are basically the same: Each night he dances what he feels in the moment, every performance the culmination of hours of rehearsals and practice, the rigors ultimately affording him spontaneity and the ability to keep moves fresh.

It also probably doesn’t hurt to have Argentine blood coursing through his veins.

“Tango is a way to express a part of our culture and our hearts on the stage,” he says. “What I feel on the stage -- it’s like making love.”

*

‘BoccaTango’

Where: Irvine Barclay Theatre, 4242 Campus Drive, Irvine

When: 8 p.m. today through Saturday

Price: $40

Info: (949) 854-4646, www.thebarclay.org

Also

Where: Royce Hall, UCLA campus, Westwood

When: 8 p.m. March 10 and 11

Price: $28 to $48

Info: (310) 825-2101, www.uclalive.org