Colombian tango champion stars in new musical at Thalia Theater

The roads that lead to tango can be unique.

Just ask Colombian dancer Carlos Paredes, who stars with Carolina Jaurena on “Tango 5 Senses,” a new musical opening at the Thalia Theatre in Queens on Friday.

Paredes was half of the first non-Argentinean couple to be crowned World Stage Tango Champions in Buenos Aires in 2.006.

“We won because we have a different style,” says Paredes of his footwork with dancer Diana Giraldo. “

We are not so melancholic when we dance.

Paredes, 30, draws from years of break-dancing, which he took up at age 6. It would take 11 more years for him to embrace tango.

“There’s a lot of break-dance in my movements,” he says. “

You can see it in the movement of my legs.

New York audiences can see for themselves in “Tango 5 Senses,” a multisensorial piece running through March 18 at the Sunnyside theater.

The show also stars dancers Mariana Parma and Carlos Acuña.

“‘Tango 5 Senses’ is a total theatre experience,” says Angel Gil Orrios, Thalia’s artistic, executive director, who created and directs the show.

“We use music, dance and projections to experience tango with the five senses. 

There is an orchestra, a cantor [male singer], a cancionista [woman singer], dancers and also the aromas of fruits and flowers and a wine-tasting during the performance.”

The celebrated bandoneon player and Latin Grammy winner Raúl Jaurena, the father of Carolina, composed the music and also will perform with his band tango classics such as “A media luz.”

“The whole production revolves around [Raul] Jaurena,” says Gil Orrios, 52. “

This is his artistic home in the United States.

The director boasted that the legendary Astor Piazzola called the Uruguayan Jaurena “one of the best bandoneon players in the world.”

For Paredes, who founded in his native Cali, Colombia where he still lives the cultural center Fundación Jacaranda, there’s nothing strange in him performing Argentina’s emblematic dance.

“There’s a lot of tango in many Colombian cities,” he says. “

Tango collectors go to Colombia to search for records music they can’t find in Argentina.