Tango Desire

Sultry, smouldering dance fantasy from the Argentinian dance company, Tangokinesis

The fact that "tango" means "I touch" in Latin is coincidence - the word is said to originate in the language of the African slaves round the River Plate region, meaning 'meeting' or perhaps 'drum' (and by extension, 'dance'). But it's appropriate for the most smouldering and intimate of contact dances.

How much it originated in the bordellos of Buenos Aires, as convention dictates, is open to question; but it certainly spread round the world during the 1920s and 1930s, taking on its familiar images of high heels, sharp suits, smoky nightclubs where it's always one in the morning, and music in that slow, curiously compelling 3-3-2 rhythm.

This dance film fantasy by Tangokinesis celebrates the form, taking us from a Russian dance teacher's studio to the wharves of Buenos Aires' old harbour.