Tango with a twist of rock

When the five glamorous young couples of the dance company Estampas Portenas take the stage, the sensuality seems to radiate in waves.

Urged on by the sinuous, passionate sounds of a four-piece tango orchestra playing the music of Argentine composer Astor Piazzolla, they take the audience on a sizzling, but playful journey from an atmospheric Buenos Aires dance cafe or "milonga", circa 1950, through modern tango's daring choreography and breathtaking lifts.

The company's show Tango Fire, which comes to Sydney on July 1, is about as far from old-style melancholic tango as you can get. The combination of youthful exuberance, dramatic effect and exquisite precision is the inspiration of the company's artistic director, Carolina Soler. A former ballet dancer, Soler set up the company in 1996, in which she herself danced for the first few years.

"When I retired from classical ballet I looked for another dance that touched my heart, no?" Soler tells me in her soft, heavily accented English. "And when I saw the tango I loved it and started to study it. I brought different things to the dance, an aesthetical side," she says, struggling to find the right words. "Better forms of movement of the arms and feet, the perfect collation."

We are backstage at a theatre in the Dutch provinces, halfway through the company's gruelling European tour. The evening's show has been a big success, the audience giving the dancers a standing ovation. Still high on nervous energy, they are clustered around the microwave oven, heating their post-show dinners and chattering excitedly in rapid Spanish.

"I wanted to create a structure, a spectacular show with more energy, more high lifts," Soler continues. "Tango is more fun now than it was in the past. It's a new generation, and the young people dance a new form."

One of the dancers, the bearded, affable Pablo Sosa, strolls over to assist with translation. He mentions that he and his girlfriend, Mariela Maldonado, also his dance partner, were discovered by Soler at a shopping mall five years ago.

"I went shopping one day and just at that moment they were dancing," grins Soler. She asked them to join the company on the spot. "What I look for is perfection in the dancer's movements," she says. "Not only in the sensuality - because that comes with the tango - but I'm looking for the perfect harmony … the perfect movement, the perfect line, the aesthetics when they're dancing."

"It's very important to dance with the same partner," Sosa elaborates. "