"Tanguera," an Argentina dance-and-musical production which opened Saturday night at the Shanghai Grand Theatre, offers a woman's perspective on the tango.

This is the first-ever tango performance to centre around a heroine, director of the show, Omar Pacheco, said during a press conference on Thursday.

The show is one of the performances featured during the on-going Shanghai International Arts Festival.

"People tell me that the tango is a very masculine dance, I always respond with an immediate, loud 'No'," said Pacheco, who is well-known not only for his dance and drama productions but also his films.

The tango does show the male's cautiousness toward his love enemy, as many believe, Pacheco said, but it also expresses the passion and delicate emotion of a couple deeply in love.

"Its subtlety in fully expressing great love is the tango's most fascinating feature, which is very feminine, I think," Pacheco said.

Under Pacheco's direction, the dances in the show, each of which is no more than 10 minutes in length, are integrated to, first of all, tell the story of a romance and a struggle for freedom -- "Tanguera."

The heroine, a French girl named Giselle, arrives in Buenos Aires, a city with a rich tango legacy.

She meets dockworker Lorenzo, the hero. The two fall in love at the first sight.

Giselle, a mere stranger to the city, is forced by the local gang leader Gaudencio to be a show girl in a night club.

Giselle and Lorenzo struggle hard for freedom and sweet love, but Gaudencio and his vicious men will not leave them alone.

In "Tanguera," Pacheco and his crew have designed the dances in such a way that the hero and heroine have roles of equal weight.

Pacheco invited Mora Godoy, recognized as the "Queen of Tango" in Argentina, to choreograph the dances and perform the lead role.

She is precisely the right person to offer the audience the perfect combination of dazzling movement and high emotion, Pacheco said.

Godoy said that she loves the script of the show very much, as it speaks for the women and tallies with her conception of the female's role in dance.

"From my past experience, I know that females always play small supporting roles in traditional dance performances," she said. "I thought it was high time we changed that."

Godoy worked hard and designed a complicated combination of different styles of footwork for the heroine, meant to depict her inner world.

Godoy doesn't confine herself to the dance language of the tango alone. She also incorporates the techniques of classical ballet and jazz in the show.

"My chief concern is to use movement to express the sweet yet bitter love between Giselle and Lorenzo. Whether the technique is 100-per cent from tango is irrelevant," she said.

The show will be staged in Beijing from November 27 to 30 in Tianqiao Theatre.

(China Daily November 17, 2003)