Tango Shalom

Tango Shalom, where a female tango dancer (Dancing with the Stars champion Karina Smirnoff) invites an Orthodox Jewish Rabbi (Jos Laniado) to enter a televised dance competition, was an arthouse standout this weekend with a per screen average of over $4,000 at four theaters in New York and LA. The solid performance in a generally dour specialty market shows the power of older demos when they want to come out, nudged in this case by a targeted postcard mailing blitz, according to Atlas Distribution President Harmon Kaslow.

Tango Shalom

Moshe becomes fascinated by a tango class that he spies through a window one day; the dancer's lithe bodies and seductive movements transfix him. They smoothly glide through haptic choreography that harshly juxtaposes the conservative values of his religion. He unexpectedly befriends the dance instructor Viviana (Karina Smirnoff, a Dancing on the Stars regular with a shining presence in her fetching smile and soothing voice) and is roped into replacing her dance partner in a contest.

Moshe Yehuda is a Chasidic Rabbi and amateur Hora dancer desperate to save his Hebrew school from bankruptcy. After a chance encounter with a local dance instructor who is also in financial strife, Moshe turns to a televised tango competition as the solution. Grappling with his orthodox religious principles and the challenges of dancing without touching a woman, Moshe consults with a Catholic Priest, Muslim Imam and Sikh holy man for advice. Together they hatch a plan which will surely appease his family and community's objections and win the competition. 041b061a72