Reviews
The Washington Post
Stage presence is innate: Either you have it or you don't. Valeria Solomonoff has it. Review by Pamela Squires,
El Especial, Escenario Neoyorquino
In her new show, the erotic nature goes hand by hand with satiric observation. Hilarious through out, it let us be insiders of the fascinating and at times suffocating environment of the tango professionals. Sensuality, which is the vital element of the realities of those professionals, impregnates the show. Excellent is the right adjective for the work of the choreographer Valeria Solomonoff, as well as for the rest of the cast. Review by Fernando Campos, October 27, 2009
Eye On Dance
Tango Por Ellos, presents a solid tango performance. Intense, passionate and sexy it’s everything the tango should be. The stories center on the usual theme, lust, rejection, and the sharp little battles that make up a relationship (especially Argentinian ones.) Throw in some competition and jealousy for good measure and the recipe is complete. It is a sound example of an enjoyable tango performance. Review by J. Gonthier, October 27, 2009
The Washington Post
“Plácido and His Sexy Latina Ladies" could have been the alternate title. Six talented women were scheduled to sing, dance and make music alongside Domingo. Several dancers added visual intrigue throughout the 3 1/2-hour program. Valeria Solomonoff flashed bare legs at impossible angles during the tangos. Review by Rebecca J. Ritzel, May 4, 2009
The Washington Times
With a significant assist from the evening’s co-star, the beautiful and brilliant Argentine soprano Virginia Tola, along with the passionate Spanish dancer Nuria Pomares, sexy tango dance team of Valeria Solomonoff and Orlando Farias, the WNO Orchestra, and others, Mr. Domingo’s program blended Hispanic-flavored opera arias, zarzuela showpieces, and Hipanic folk and pop tunes into a world-music celebration of his own Spanish heritage. Highlights? Mr. Domingo and Miss Tola, of course. Also, the marvelous dancing of Miss Pomares, Miss Solomonoff, and Mr. Farias. Review by T.L. Ponick, May 4, 2009
The New York Times
About Solomonoff choreography in "Happily Mad" (Los De Contento): And the dance hidden in their previous movements becomes a profoundly sensuous tango that makes you want to leap from your seat and join it. Review by D.J. Bruckner, July 24, 2002
El Especial
Those who credit Repertorio Espanol with being an oasis of scenic arts in East Manhattan, have been well rewarded by the recent premier of “Tango Intimo”, a brilliant show that will remain on stage with added dates through February 24th. What Repertorio offers through the creative magic of the Argentine Valeria Solomonoff and the six virtuoso dancers is an impressive choreographic prism that explores to the max the tango potential within theatrical context as much as its natural fusion with other musical forms.
Essentially, “Tango Intimo” is a mosaic that touches the fiber of visual pleasure. It fully offers the corporal eloquence that can only be achieved when each movement responds to an aesthetic necessity. This seams to be the way Mrs. Solomonoff sees it, but her vision even goes beyond that: Sensuality emanates with each musical cadence, in the different dimensions of a dramatic, passionate fever that at times is impregnated with humor and wit. Review by Fernando Campos, February 20, 2008
​
El Diario
About Solomonoff choreography and corporal coaching in "Dona Flor and her two husbands" (Dona Flor y sus dos maridos): ...Excelent the scenary, the montage, the music, the lights, the choreography and corporal coaching of the dancer Valeria Solomonoff. Review by Juan F. Merino, April 4th, 2008
Backstage
Six charismatic young international dancers. provide a sizzling between-scenes tango sextet, elaborating on the couple's developing relationship. Acclaimed Argentinian choreographer-dancer Valeria Solomonoff mixes classical and modern tango with elements of modern dance. There's even a stunning number with brooms. Review by Nancy Ellen Shore, April 26th, 2007
The New York Times
Most memorable was the four woman group called TangoMujer... The elegant young performers, trained in modern dance, focused on the tango itself and what it could be used to say, rather than on the process of updating or personalizing the form....And perhaps that reanimation can add luster to the past in ways self-conscious proponents of the 'new' may not imagine. After TangoMujer had performed, traditional tango looked even richer and more colorful." Review by Jennifer Dunning, April 14, 1997
The New York Times
TangoMujer was unusually successful at making something new of an old dance, focusing with intelligence and affection on the tango rather than the updating and the updaters. Modern dance trained, the women succeeded in weaving the two forms with wit and imagination. Review by Jennifer Dunning, September 9, 1996
The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
TangoMujer drove the men loco with a female-on-female killer tango that nearly torched the tent. Review by Jean Horne June, 26, 2000
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
But Tango Mujer, all female troupe of five dancers, broke down stereotypical barriers at their performance...The tango vocabulary provided much of the action - gleeful, sensual, disturbing, angry. It was supplemented by theatrical gesture, something at which the TangoMujer women surprisingly excelled. By the end, the passion was there regardless of the old or new tradition, as it should. Review by Jane Vranish, April 14, 2001
Daily Camera
Tango Mujer's work is visionary, courageous, ingenious and marvelously entertaining. In her sensuous solo "Maria" modern-dance trained Argentine Valeria Solomonoff made the company's tradition-upending style literal and gave a new dimension to the wallflower archetype. Gifted both dramatically and acrobatically, Valeria danced longingly, and often upside-down, against the stage's bare brick rear, with a spotlight projecting her shadow next to her. Tango is often practiced against a wall, but handstand 'ochos' are a must-see. Review by Daniel Gesmer, Colorado, July 24, 1999
The Philadelphia City Paper
The dancers are all superbly trained in various dance forms. Solomonoff is the vamp: tall, sleek and sexy.
...choreography was by turns sophisticated, slapstick and hyper-romantic. Most impressive was a Solomonoff's solo...
Highlights included Solomonoff's seductive manipulation of several strands of pearls, itself, worth the price of admission. Review by Nancy Heller. November 2-9, 2000
Denver Rocky Mountain News
The five dancers [of Tango Mujer] nimbly brushed aside all the stereotypes we Americans have formed about this Argentine dance.
Every imaginable and unimaginable twist and turn on the basic start-stop rhythm of this sensual dance is explored. The passion, humor, longing, loving and hating of one person for the other becomes the choreographic material for a procession of intriguing works...The five (dancers) emerge immediately as distinct and distinctive personalities.
They gave a demonstration of first-rate dancing. Consider Somonoff's upside-down solo against the rear wall of the theater, creating a brilliant pas de deux with her own shadow. Review by Marc Shulgold.
Berliner Morgen Post
The audience loved Tango Mujer. Particularly praised was the respectful but still creative way of using the tango traditions. June 20, 1998
The Advocate
Another important element include the bona fide tango dancers, Valeria Solmonoff and Cesar Coelho. They executed their tangos with aplomb, giving motion to the enticing rhythms from the orchestra. Review by Jerome R. Sehulster. March 21st, 2003
http://blogcritics.org/culture/article/theater-review-nyc-tango-fever/page-2/
But it would be all for naught without the artful, romantic choreography of Valeria Solomonoff, the true unseen star of the show. Kudos to her and the whole team behind this Lower East Side winner. Blog by Jon Sobel, September 27, 2012
The show also was accented with powerful interludes of gorgeously choreographed and executed dancing that heightened the story to a level that would not be possible without them. The interactions and storytelling through these movements were so definitive and verbose that the story was understood even while unspoken …There were also some remarkable solos that were so beautiful that they could have been standalone performances themselves…. Major kudos and congratulations to the cast and crew but especially to Choreographer Valeria Solomonoff and Director Jose A. Esquea.” Review By Chauncey D, October 6, 2012
​
Dance.com
“Social dance plays a dual role in any community—socializing and performance…But how do you translate intricate on-the-floor movements and off-the-floor negotiations to the stage?
…"Tango por Ellos," choreographer Valeria Solomonoff's new, tango-based dance/theater conjures the social more overtly.
…Solmonoff has made a brave attempt at staging both social dance's performance and social interaction components by interspersing tango sequences with comedic, and occasionally telling, interactions and dialogue.
…The subtle interactions, the thrill of social dancing, the way it turns ordinary people into performers, is what makes real social dance so fascinating, yet so difficult to produce on a stage. Expertly staged and beautifully danced, however, choreographed social dance has, if the standing ovation both shows received are an indication, its own pleasures.” Review by Carrie Stern, March 2010
New York Post
Argentine dancer Valeria Solomonoff, one of the city's best instructors. Hot Picks. February 2nd, 2005
​
TheFrontRowCenter.com
...and what a tango it is, wow! Kudos to choreographer Valeria Solomonoff.
by Donna Herman, 2018