A Movie “Our Last Tango” 5/1/16

May 2, 2016

I have been performing Tango music for a while, and I am always very fascinated by the culture behind the music. I have gone to Buenos Aires for 3 times, and I love that city too. This movie is a documentary film featuring Tango legends, Maria Nieves Rego and Juan Carlos Copes, and following their lives and love story going with the progress of Tango culture. They met as teenagers and danced together for nearly fifty years until a painful separation tore them apart. They were lovers, dance partners and two of the artists who did the most to take tango from the streets of Buenos Aires to Broadway and beyond, even to Japan. But Maria and Juan endured as much backstage drama as we imagine, dancing together for years after they were divorced and hardly speaking to each other. The film is combined their interviews with the young Tango dancers acting as Maria and Juan, following their steps from youth to now, joy and pain, love and hate.. Of course Maria and Juan don’t talk everything, but we can feel their emotions closely. Maria talks most of time, from her side being abandoned, and being alone. Juan has kept dancing on the stage after he separated from Maria even on the stage. He has danced with many young dancers and got married and have 2 children. As I was watching the movie I realized I saw Juan Carlos Copes dancing on the stage in Buenos Aires! I went to the Tango show at Tango Argentina in Buenos Aires one night. I clearly remember the older male dancer came toward the end of the show and danced with the young beautiful dancer. It was not technical, but they showed the great emotion. They were poised. It is a beautiful movie to watch.