Julio Bocca may take centre stage in much of the repertory danced by Ballet Argentino, but he clearly does not run his small touring company as a vanity troupe. Bocca's career as principal with American Ballet Theatre could thrive without another group, and he seems committed to giving dancers from his native Argentina the chance to perform in some decent theatres and choreography.
The company's debut at the Peacock was justified by its final work - a fusion tango piece choreographed by Ana Maria Stekelman with music by Astor Piazzolla. Piazzolla Tango Vivo is full of the dance idioms of Buenos Aires: slick, menacing footwork, haughty glides and eyeball-to-eyeball partner work. It is danced as elegantly as you would expect from an Argentinian cast. It is also choreographed with a supple alertness to group dynamics, with its surprise patternings and pairings-off. And, when Stekelman expands her tango vocabulary with glossy moves from ballet and modern dance, she seems genuinely inspired by the texture of the music.
Bocca especially shines in this piece - his muscled body and raffish charm come to the fore in the tough posturing and seductive partnering of his role. He and his company also look good in Mauricio Wainrot's Desde Lejos, a cheerful, if self-consciously kooky setting of music by Wim Mertens. Moment by moment the dancing is as easy on the eye as the music is on the ear - but as the steps accumulate the piece starts to ramble. There is no logic holding any of it together.
That sense of logical drift is even more serious in Robert Hill's Encuentros. It starts out by moving its 12 dancers deftly around the stage, but by the central duet (boy wanders around vaguely looking for girl) it has dissipated into meaninglessness. Oscar Araiz's Adagietto (set to Mahler) is also fraught with unexplained yearning - the gimmicky balances and urgent soul-searching of its two dancers may have looked hip when it was made 30 years ago, but should now be consigned to the archives.
It is a shame that the repertory is so mixed. There is a handful of fine dancers in this engaging company who deserve better.
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