Tanguera, dance review: Decent tango doesn't defy any clichés

​Tango first came to the fashionable ballrooms of Europe in the 1910s, but as this long-running Argentinian show reminds us, the dance's beginnings were much seedier than that.

Set at the turn of the last century, an influx of European immigrants arrive in Buenos Aires to try their luck in the new world. But there's not much luck for our heroine Giselle (Melody Celatti). Her heart flutters at the sight of handsome dockworker Lorenzo (Esteban Martín Domenichini) but when she's taken in by the local madam, her life choices are severely compromised.

This is a dance show that nods to musical theatre stylings (with songs in Spanish) but the thin pot doesn't grip. Tanguera debuted in 2002, which may be why it's now a little lacking in energy, although that doesn't hamper Domenichini, who has been playing Lorenzo for 14 years and brings the only real acting grit, becoming increasingly seething as the woman he loves is drawn into prostitution.

Much of the action takes place in the nocturnal world of brothels and cabarets, with red lights, red velvet, red feather boas and a sexy floorshow that's part Fosse, part Stringfellows.

Mora Godoy's choreography is neither the high-octane show dancing of flashier tango spectacles nor the nuanced relationships of more subtle readings, and many of the performances are rather pedestrian – they are portraying women who are paid to go through the motions, after all.

A decent tango drama, but one that lacks electricity and defies no clichés.

Until 6 August, Sadler's Wells; sadlerswells.com