Class Project Example

Here is a direct link to the WORD version of the paper (I suggest you click this, because the media does not work in the version below): Tangoprecis

You can also read the paper below, although the media is not included.

Tango: TAKE 1! Action!

Table of Contents

Tango as Making            2

In Context with Sam Gill’s “Dancing as Making”            2

Self Othering and Reciprocity: the dynamic duo            3

Tango, my tango            4

Proprioceptively and Mesoperceptively      4

Tango’s Tale            6

A Conglomeration of Cultures      6

The Temptation of Tango: A Closer Look            7

Tango Lingo            8

The Art of Tango and Themes Therein            10

Tango in Film and Song            10

Tango and Music            11

Tango as a lifestyle: Universal Themes            12

Power: Seduction and Production      12

Tango Breaks Boundaries of Gender, Sex, Age, Race            13

Last but not least: Tango As Comedy      16

It Takes You To Tango            16

Tango as Making

In Context with Sam Gill’s “Dancing as Making”

After a semester in a class with Religious Studies and Movement-Mogul/ Dance Guru Sam Gill, I’ve been inspired to explore Argentine tango, to as full as extent as my young, sometimes lazy brain and body allows. I am going to look into the dance proprioceptively and then mesoperceptively, as a form of seduction rather than a mere production, and looking at its power in its culture, subcultures, amongst the individual, throughout history, and across the world, as well as prevalent themes of the dance and music. The tango is foundational to Argentina, holistically necessary to the rituals, language, art and symbolism of the culture and citizens. But mysteries remain: Is tango, as Baudrillard would attempt to classify it, a masculine power, “production”? Or is it reversible, the more feminine “seduction,” dancing as making? Does it allow for play and symbolic involvement? Does it, in its feminine way, give rise to its own sense of power, without the need for a produce?

In “Dancing as Making,” Sam Gill discusses dancing as making (surprise!), how it is learned through proprioception and mesoperception, and that it is a seductive power rather than one that produces anything. Gill looks into dance as a reciprocative relationship between the sensual self and the abstract, spirit-like other, flesh and “pure depth” united by proprioception.[1] This play, dancing as play, is not done for any reason, it is seducing, inviting, not caught up in trying to prove a point or claim anything. Play is the balanced back-and-forwardness between emotions and reason, the objective and the sensual, and it strongly affects dancers, allows them to learn and experience movement in a non-stressful, natural way. Just as a child grows and gropes the world through play, so do dancers create.

Self Othering and Reciprocity: the dynamic duo

“Tango must be simply danced with a sense of energy flowing between the dancers. This energy grows or decreases as the music ebbs and flows. It is a seduction, or a private conversation, something to be quietly shared, not publicly displayed. More than anything else, the Tango is about a connection, an empathy between two people, the need to embrace, and be in the arms of another, to escape, albeit for just a brief moment of time, and in that moment, to live a life time …”[2] Tango is a social dance, emphasizing the partnering of two dancers instead of the performance as one.

AN individual is not supposed to outshine their partner; rather, there should be a seamless yet electrifying connection between the two persons. Observers should not be able to distinguish between the lead and follow, they are moving precisely together, reading each other’s micro-movements, gestures and other expressions. As Erin Manning terms it in Relationscapes, dancers should be able to follow and know each other without touching, talking, communicating at all. Through this process, entrainment , tango dancers really can self-other: become fully themselves and become fully one with their partner. By making, dancing, without the need to produce, dancers are thereby making themselves.

“Tango is an addiction. When you get tango inside of your body and the connection with a man who’s leading you it’s something you can’t get rid of”

“Everytime I dance with her…she is my woman.”

In the semi-final of the T.V show Superstars of Dance (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SeuyGkXkAgE), the Argentinean contenders dance a tango and receive an almost perfect score, which judges mostly attribute to their effortless movement together. The reason why the Argentineans are so remarkable in their tango is thanks to the concept of self-othering, a connectivity and reciprocity between two dancers that is alien to Europeans and the North Americans who see the dance in terms of “how flashy can I be with the steps” and greed for learning more steps to look their best, individually. This need to impress is actually the antithesis to social dances such as tango. Vitality, genuine energy and interes,t must be put into the dance and the partner. You get what you give, so might as well give it your all. Pro dancers, Argentinians or not, say that the first moments of their embrace tell them everything they need to know about a partner. Through the embrace, they begin their journey into their proprioceptors and mesopercepters… and to fully become themselves and the other, they merge with the partner.

Tango, my tango

A vital part of my research was attending tango class, practicing the dance with a partner: Looking at both pro-tango-ers and beginners, people I know and strangers, men and women… how do I feel when I dance with each? What does this say about me? What does my partner feel thing? How are we connected? How do dancers see tango? Feel tango? Hear tango? Touch tango?  How do non-tango dancers view tango? How do non-dancers do? How about pros?

I want to reflect, after my practice, on how I feel: do I feel Argentinean? Do I feel like a dancer? Empowered? Failure? Sexy? Lame? Intelligent? Revitalized? Connected? Lust? Rebellious? There are a variety of feelings I could associate directly with the dance…

Proprioceptively and Mesoperceptively

Tango, like many dances, releases the soul of the body, it is ever sensual  and  requires  the dancer to be vulnerable, openly engaging the passion and  other feelings within themselves and their partners

When I see myself dancing tango, in the mirrors of Carlson Gym during the Friday night milongas, I doubt the reflection. Surely I can’t look so awkward when I feel so in charge and sexy? When I dance with a beginner, I guess the image of a shorter, curvy woman girl dragging a tall and gawky young T-rex  backwards holds true…but with advanced partners, I don’t see ME. No, not at all. Gone are critiques of my slightly bend knee, body shape, and other appearance mishaps… instead I witness the tango, itself. Two bodies as one, despite being distinctly separate. Two humans feeling each other’s cores, their spirits, locked in a loose embrace, no need for the gaze to go anywhere but within. Not only is external vision skewed or removed, but as is smell (who cares that he doesn’t shower now?). My ears are loosely engaged into the tango music and rhythms, but it feels as if my body is doing the following by itself. It’s conversing with my brain to stay in check but this is all under the radar. My ears tick in to the click clack glide of my high heel against the hardwood floor, as I swivel my body into dominating ochos, and my hands perhaps detect the pulse of my partner’s wrist, the bulge (or lack there of) of his bicep and shoulder. But after the initial minute or two, once I’ve totally sized up the person  I chose to dance with (sometimes with uncertainty, other times with hormonal excitement) I find that my senses are both hyperactive and silent, absent. Only one senses what Sam Gill refers to as the “dancing sense” remains: proprioception , “the  kinesthetic  sense…that  significantly   extends  the  sense  of  touch… a  neurological  phenomenon [-] based  in  sensory  receptors  associated  with  joints  and  muscles  that  sense  and  provide  feedback  to  the   demands  placed  on  joints  and  muscles  both  from  without  and  within…it is  the  basis  on  which  directed  and  controlled  movement  is  possible… is   fundamental  to  all  of  the  senses  and  all  of  our  actions.” [3]

As I am “making,” tango-ing, my movement, gestures, expressions create the other, who shares and yet dominates my proprioception, clouding all the other senses and then sending them into hyperactivity. The other kicks in after those first few minutes, correcting my posture, developing my skillthrough body  schemas and  sensory-motor  patterns, a memory for the moves I create and follow. I can only feel, am only aware, and can only tanslate between myself and the other, through dancing: I mesopercieve, fell, the other, and together we propriocept, know, play, make. Proprioception  and mesoreception are key and unique to the concept of self-othering, which itself is the key to the dance.

Proprioception  is  body  and  movement,  but  it  is   movement  in  process.. flesh  in  its  reversibility, perception  in  its  play,  self  in  its   otherness.    Proprioception  as  incorporeal  materialism  is  seduction, play,  structure. Once dancers make contact with the pisa through the embrace will they be able to dance like one body with four legs. Then they have both extended their self-awareness to encompass the other’s axis and can experience the dance through the person in their arms.[4]

When I dance, I propriocept and mesopercieve an other with my partner, yet  this   other, THE tango,  is  me, we,  my mind and body, his/her mind and body,  there is no  physical  separation.  I experience the tango, together, as if it were my own body, my own self… this paradoxical notion of playing with the dance sense, proprio and meso-perception, is hard to capture in anything but dance. If one does not self-other in tango, then I would venture to say they are not tango-ing. It is not true tango, seduction, making… Read   the Universal Themes, Power: Seduction or Production section for more on the idea of what an authentic tango is.

Tango’s Tale

Now that I’ve fully jumped into my exploration of tango, I will provide a little background and foreplay for you to better grope tango. Ready?

A Conglomeration of Cultures

Although the exact origin of tango is lost in myth and unrecorded history, most scholars believed it emerged in the mid-1800s as African slaves were brought to Argentina and began to influence the culture, particularly in the dance sphere. During the late 1800s and early 1900s, Argentina experienced a massive immigration, intermixing peoples of Africa, Spain, Italy, Britain, Poland, Russian with the native-born Argentines. Its capital, Buenos Aires, had a population boom, from 180,000 in 1869 to 1.5 million in 1914. The resulting melting pot of cultures was most apparent in the mezcla of dances and music that appeared: “traditional polkas, waltzes and mazurkas were mixed with the popular habanera from Cuba and the candombe rhythms from Africa.”[5]

“Most likely the tango was born in African-Argentine dance venues attended by compadritos, young men, mostly native born and poor, who liked to dress in slouch hats, loosely tied neckerchiefs and high-heeled boots with knives tucked casually into their belts. The compadritos took the tango… and introduced it in various low-life establishments where dancing took place: bars, dance halls and brothels. It was here where African rhythms met the Argentine milonga music (a fast-paced polka) and all sorts of dancers improvised steps accordingly.” [6]

Although the Argentine elite looked down upon the activities in the barrios and the ways of the compadritos, not one could escape the temptation of the tango, immensely popular as dance and music. It soon spread from Buenos Aires to provincial towns across Argentina, then South America and in the  1900’s, tango spread globally as wealthy sons of Argentine society families made their way to Paris, London, and New York, societies “eager for innovation and not entirely averse to the risqué nature of the dance or dancing with young, wealthy Latin men.”[7] In the 1920s, as the dance appeared in movies and tango stars gained famed, Argentina reached its Golden Age. As one of the ten richest nations in the world, its culture flourished and the tango came to be not only an international phenomenon but also fundamental expression of Argentine culture and pride.[8] However, this didn’t last forever. Because its fortune was tied to the economic success of Argentina, tango and its music started to be banned as subversive in the 1950s, a time of political repression and economic depression. However, despite the closing of large dance venues and prohibitions of gatherings, tango survived, thriving in smaller, unpublicized venues: the underground. Still, this clandestine effect and the eventual invasion of rock and roll sent the tango into decline. It wasn’t until the mid-1980s when the stage show Tango Argentino opened in Paris that tango excitement was reignited worldwide.

The Temptation of Tango: A Closer Look

Large scale immigration of men to Buenos Aires in the 19th Century resulted in there being fifty men to every women. However, instead of their dream of a better life and “streets paved with gold,” these immigrants found a “lonely squalid place with muddy streets and poor accommodation.” For both men and women, it was a struggle to survive and only one trade flourished: “Academies de Dance,” brothels. Unfortunately, it wasn’t the working women, desperate for income, who profited but their pimps, the compadritos. For them, owning a woman who earned good money working in a brothel, became a status symbol. “It is here in the brothels and bordellos on the back streets of Buenos Aires, that the Tango really came to life.” Although many of the young well-to-do gentlemen would visit the ‘Dance Academies’ for instruction, tango was totally rejected be the upper class elite of Buenos Aires society, as a dirty street dance. Yet the taboo dance survived, and tango evolved into the dance we can see today and travelled across the world. In bars, cafes, dance halls, and most notoriously, brothels, the people Buenos Aires made the Tango, danced the Tango, lived, loved and occasionally died for the Tango. It is the voice of the streets of Buenos Aires, and, were you to visit, you’d be sure to witness it, and, if you allow a slight deterioration in your immune system (stuck-up attitude, that is), you’d catch the contagion.

Tango Lingo

Essential terms for tango-seekers and pros, I firmly believe that having a vocabulary will increase your success in your endeavors, making, seducing. [9]

abrazo: embrace (as in dance hold).  (pictured above)

boleo: To throw. A boleo may be executed either high or low. Keeping knees together, with one leg in back, swivel on the supporting leg .with a very sharp motion..A whipping action of the leg. Knees should be close together bend one knee in back of the other. .

caminar: to walk. The walk is similar to a natural walking step but the ball of the foot touches before the heel. The body and leg must move as a unit so that the body is in balance. Walks should be practiced for balance and fluidity.

cruzada: cross. A cruzada occurs anytime a foot is crossed in front or in back of the other.

desplazamiento: displacement. Displacing the partner’s foot or leg using one’s leg or foot.

Enganche/gancho: hooking, coupling. Occurs when partner wraps leg around the other’s leg. Leader displaces follower’s feet from  inside. (pictured right).

giro: turn. While woman does molinete, man turns on one foot placing the toe of the foot in front and executing a sharp turn.

Fantasia: stage tango, a showy flamboyant style of tango used for performance.

media vuelta: half turn. Usually done when man’s right foot and woman’s left foot are free. Man steps forward with his right leading woman to take a back step with her left and then leads he to take two steps while turning a half turn.

milonga: may refer to music or the dance which preceded the tango, written in 2/4 time; or may refer to the dance salon or event where people go to dance tango.

Milonguero: one who frequents the milongas. Also a style of dancing during that during the 1940’s and 50’s.

molinete: Little windmill or fan. Molinetes are forward and back ochos (figure 8’s) done in a circle. T he follower moves in a circle around the leader, doing a footwork resembling forward and backward ochos.

ochos: eights. Pivoting forward or backward with the feet together during the pivot and extended during the step as in Figure eights usually executed with feet together (ankles touching) instead of one foot extended.

pasos: Steps.

Pecho. chest. A style of dancing Tango common in Buenos Aires.  A close embrace tango with more of a chest to chest position.

Pista: dance floor.

ritmo: rhythm. In tango, the rythem can 8 count or 4/4

Salón: A style of dancing for the milonga or small club, as opposed to stage tango or Fantasia.

sandwichito: One partner’s foot is sandwich ed between the other partner’s feet.

seguir: to follow.

sentada: a sitting action (pictured left)

sacada: a displacement, to move your partner’s leg out of the way gently with your own.

Vals: a waltz done to tango music in waltz time.

The Art of Tango and Themes Therein

Lady in Orange[10]

Tango in Film and Song

Although not commonly found in higher-social spheres such as Opera and theatre, tango has been the object of many director’s desire for a series of film. Filmmakers eagerly produced tango-concentrated work such as 1917’s El Tango de la muerte, a 1949 documentary on tango’s history, followed by another one 20 years later, 1988’s Tango Bar, 1990’s Naked Tango, Sally Potter’s 1977 The Tango Lesson, Robert Duvall’s Assassination Tango in 2002… The two most recent documentaries are Café de Los Maestros (2008) which consists of interviews with the musicians and singers from the golden era of Tango, and the Argentinian produced El último aplauso (2009).[11]

Tango has been introduced to American movie-goers in several hit movies in a variety of genres. Most obvious is the use of Tango for romance in movies, such as 1992’s Scent of a Woman, in which Al Pacinos’ character, who is blind, dances the tango with a beautiful woman and is captivated by the scent of her perfume during the tango’s close embrace.[12] Another example is the emotionally provoking scene in Shall We Dance with Richard Gere and Jennifer Lopez, where she, the instructress orders him to not “move unless you feel it”. Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie dance a murderous yet sensual tango in Mr and Mrs Smith, and they’ve been dating ever since…coincidence? Perhaps. Tango has also been used humorously (see Tango as Comedy) in The Tuxedo, where Jackie Chan used a dance-double for the tango scene, and romantically. Antonio Banderas’ sexy tango scene in Take the Lead enticed young adults[13] and Another Cinderella Story brought tango into the pre-teen world, as Disney stars Selena Gomez and Drew Seeley danced argentine tango at a costume ball. MY personal favorite tango scene in American film, perhaps because of its thematic and historical accuracy, is in Moulin Rouge!, where a prostitute dancer seduces men into dancing with her during the song “Le Tango de Roxanne.” The singer, her pimp, describes the downfalls of falling in love with a woman who “sells herself…her love for the highest bidder” as it will drive one mad with the desire, passion, suspicion jealousy, anger and betrayal.[14] Other extremely accurate (and, accordingly, other favorite) tango scenes are in the movie/musicals Chicago and RENT.  Chicago’s “Cell Block Tango” incorporates the legend of a sorceress-like tango dancer luring in her male prey and is sung and danced by a group of murderous women. RENT’s “The Tango Maureen” is sung by Maureen’s ex-boyfriend Mark and current girlfriend Joanne, who are frustrated by their lover’s mannerisms and the tango between their love triangle.[15] Even though “as she keeps you dancing, your heart she is mangling,” both know they cannot escape the tango: “gotta dance till your diva is through.” The Tango Maureen also explores gender themes of tango, specifically the switching of gender roles in partnering. Joanne, who wears a masculine suit, takes over the dance at one point, to which Mark complains “it’s hard doing this backwards” because men are not used to following in a dance. But, like many women tango dancers, Joanne takes no prisoners or excuses, retorting “you should try it in heels,” forcing the idea that a woman can take on both masculine and feminine roles comfortably, while men have traditionally shied away from embracing their softer side.

Contemporary pop artists, such as Columbian born Shakira, also incorporate tango to illustrate themes of lust, women in power, revenge… Shakira’s Tango Objection is a fast, furious song using tango beats and electric guitar to portray the jealousy of one woman over another when a man plays them. Shakira laments that she fell for the man’s ploys and blames it on “getting dizzy dancing tango,” but vows she will “get away” and never fall in his arms again. Again, tango places agency in dancing and in other spheres of life into the arms of a woman.[16]

Tango and Music

In 1880, the Bandoneon, a new instrument from Gemany, arrived in tango. Its wailing sound caught the very feeling of the Tango and it has since  become inextricably linked to traditional tango music. (Listen to it and see a breathtaking tango here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bXhQNRsH3uc&feature=fvw). In 1900, the Bandoneon was accompanied by new type of lyric consisting a lamenting, melancholic, nostalgic tone, often recalling wasted lives, lost loves, unrequited love, the missing of a mother, the barrios, but most all, one’s obsession with Tango.

“Most immigrants were single men hoping to earn their fortunes in this newly expanding country. Typically poor and desperate, hoping to make enough money to return to Europe or bring their families to Argentina. The evolution of tango reflects their profound sense of loss and longing for the people and places they left behind.”[17]

The lyrics were written in the language of the streets of Buenos Aires, Lunfardo, a mixture of Spanish, Italian and Native Creole (reflecting the origins of the dance itself.) Subsequently, I find that fluency in Spanish has allowed be to better grasp at the heart strings of tango. If I can speak it, I can breather it, think it, dance it… empathize with the people that began in and become the tango of today. I find dancing much more powerful when I’m with a partner who fully embodies the themes and music of tango, as it is only natural for one’s understanding of tango to translate into skill in movement.

Today, music remains the blood Argentine Tango’s Heart. The movement embodies the music and the music follows the movement: quick, strong pulls of string against string, fat steps, embrace tightened, violins shreek, sharp gonchos and stealthy ochos… or slow, sexy strings of the cello are mellow, bodies melting into each other, dancers hardly distinguishable, piano keys are softly probed by long fingers, faces weeping emotions, accordion’s melody is heavy and sweet. And then there’s everything in between. The new manifestations of tango music, and the dances done to non-traditional music, techno-funk like Moby or soul and blues like Tracy Chapman.

Here is an example playlist of artists (and a typical song) played at the CU Milongas:

Yo Yo Ma (Milonga del Angel),  Pink Martini (Sympathique), XImena Sarinana (La Tina), Gotan Project (Vuelvo al sur), Carla Bruni (l’excessive), Mazy Preist and Shaggy (That Girl), Manu Chau (Mi Vida), Sting (Sister Moon), Dido (Who Makes You Feel), Try a little tenderness (Otis Redding), Massive Attack (Tear Drop), Litter Drop of Poison
(Tango in Harlem),
 Leonard Cohen (Suzanne), Red Army Choir
(Song of the Volga Boatman), Anya Marina (Waters of March), Gato Barbieri (Last Tango in Paris), Bebel Gilberto (Samba Da Bencao) , Calle 13 (Tango del Pecado)…

Tango as a lifestyle: Universal Themes

By now I should hope my reader would agree that Tango is a dramatic, thematic, emphatic and even conflicting dance. It is sexual yet timid, powerful and pleasing, playful yet intense, sacrilegious but still angelic. In the Film and Song section, I described how tango was incorporated in movies and other productions to release said themes, and now I shall explore a few further.

Power: Seduction and Production

In Dancing as Making, Sam Gill reviews Baudrillard analysis of dance as seduction by  contrasting  it  with  production. Although productions  have “increasingly  characterized  our  culture” since the 19th Century, around the time of tango’s birth, Baudrillard argues that seduction, the vitality of a dancer, is the better tool for tango. Dancing  as  art,  as  performance,  as  done  for  an  audience,  as  a masculine  product  of  culture,  and specifically high society is truly magnificent and is probably the most often witnessed version of most dances: Contemporary  western  societies  have  increasingly  focused  on  making  in  the  sense  of  production,   making  things  and  making  things  that  make  things.[18]  Even  so,  production is not the element of tango, which is improvisational, strongest in the moment of whimsicality, when one dancer is provoked by another and lured into the embrace to begin. Although production is beautiful (as shown in Dancing as Art), it is the mere illusion of dance, its power is not of the real. Making is the true element of tango, and thus tango productions often try to re-create this raw concept, this “seduction” scene in every piece they use tango in. It is rare for true tango to be on a stage, a pre-choreographed routine, and even when it is such, choreographers try their hardest to make it look like PLAY. For Baudrillard, seduction is the  inverse  of   production,  the somewhat silly un-making of what it supposed to be made: “Seduction  precedes  production  and  characterizes  the   primal  structurality  that  gives  rise  to  power,  the  power  to  produce,  to  mean…seduction  is  stronger  than  power  because  it  is  reversible  and  mortal,  while  power,  like  value,   seeks  to  be  irreversible,  cumulative  and  immortal. “   Dancing  is   seduction because both are “reversible  and  circular  and  mortal  and  powerless  and  without  meaning.” Gill asks, “What  could  be  more  exemplary   of  the  reversibility  that  is  seduction  than  dancing  where  the  same  object,  the  body,  is  maker  and  thing   made,  is  at  once  dance  and  dancer?” Seduction is what gives tango its authentic power,  seduction  is  stronger  than  production because it is not limited to having  meaning,  it is not worried over making  anything,  not preoccupied about the final display of art, or artifact.

Baudrillard comments that production is masculine and seduction is femine. If tango is seduction, then is it feminim, a woman’s power dance? This would be ironic yet congruent considering its origin as a prostitute dance, and how these girl-dancers were notorious for their sorceress like control over the men they danced with. But then again, it was the man who got the final benefit from the tango: the customer got his sexual favor and the pimp, his money. So if this “feminist tango” is not the case, or at least not in present day, who does it give power to? I would venture to say that whoever is most able to be androgynous, exposed to feeling and groping the dance, is who gains power during tango. But the power does not only better an individual, but the pair of dancers, the self and other. There must be real chemistry between the two bodies, an interchange of power, both emotional and rational. This reciprocity erases boundaries: it doesn’t matter which sex leads or follows, neither is taboo or sacrilegious or wrong. Still, because tango does allow women to lead, therefore holding women in as high a power as man, one would argue that it’s a counter-cultural dance, especially in a patriarchal context such as Roman Catholic Argentina, and most of the Western Contemporary world. Many, such as the elite of Argentina did, consider the dance to be impure, contagious, the devil’s dance… But if they’re judging purely on the basis of women in power, they should shudder at all the other lines tango crosses…

Tango Breaks Boundaries of Gender, Sex, Age, Race

“Come to Tango. There are MILFs galore and, better yet GILFs!! … I’m serious.”

This is the invitation I extend to most people when I want them to come to tango with me. MILFs is a term popularized by sexy celebrity moms (think supermodel/supermom Heidi Klum, who, after 3 kids, still struts her stuff on the runway) circa 2005s. To a mom, this is a total compliment, even if it is a raunchy acronym. However, most people draw the line for “hotness” after age 50, when you’re old enough to have grandchildren. Not so with tango. Never in my life have I seen a set of such attractive, well-aged couples as during a Milonga.  Tango is a dance of vitality. It brings life. It eliminates wrinkles and fears, releases inhibitions, sexual prowerness or sweet playfulness, because it gives each dancer an immediate, attainable control, fierceness and yet, total vulnerability. You are at once the child and the parent, the man and the woman, the instructor and the student.

Nobody is denied the tango. Be you young or old, fat or slim, transgendered or homosexual, you may dance it if you so choose.

The following pictures show the variety of people that dance the tango, who accomplish the feeling of connectivity with themselves and their partners, despite being on the periphery, or even the dredges of society.

“A 60 something year old couple shouldn’t be aloud to look that sexy”- Anna LoSecco

an example of a GILF couple that would not be labeled as such were they not tango dancers (their age disappears when they dance)

Tango can be danced by total opposites, or total parallels. It doesn’t discriminate on race, sex, or age. In the pictures above and below, young women dance with older men. Although this relationship could be taken as lusty, I often find tango to hold an innocence and a charm similar to the relationship of a doting father and his princess daughter. Although it originated in brothels and the lower class, tango is not dark, or beyond the means of purity and sweetness. Seductive power does not exclusively imply sensuality or sexuality, but rather the successful connection between two partners, the selves and the dance, their other. Self-othering is available to all who make an energy and life driven attempt.

The love and connection of  partners needn’t be sexual, or at least not openly so. Above is an interracial, married couple dancing. Although they probably are in a sexual relationship, this is not apparent in the tango. Rather, their respect and love for each other shines through their embrace, movements and even facial expressions (and other micro-movements).

Below is a picture of young women dancing tango. Here, the women interchange the roles of follow and lead, and both are trained in how to do each. Tango does not divide the genders into leads and follows. Anyone can play any role, no matter their sex.

  

Botero’s painting “The Dancers” (upper right) depicts an overweight couple dancing the tango. This conveys that one needn’t be in their physical prime to partake in such a sexy activity: tango is a dance that is blind to physical appearances. Exterior does not affect the interior, the feeling, the knowing of tango that makes a dancer a maker. Furthermore, it continues to demonstrate how tango, when done well (authentically, seductively) makes everyone appealing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y5hgaARu9vc&feature=fvst

I hinted, in the tango as a seductive power section, that tango crosses gender boundaries. Indeed, Queer tango, unlike any other dance in history, is totally changing gender roles and sexuality that is renovating society.

Argentina’s gay community celebrates equality in Tango: Same sex couples dance freely July 2010 Argentina on Thursday became the first country in Latin America to legalize same-sex marriage, following a landmark Senate vote carried live on national television. Gay rights are slowly evolving in the conservative South American state. Even that most sacrosanct tradition of Argentinian culture — the tango — is changing with the times, and the city’s first “gay milonga” — the dance hall where tango is performed — is resonating to a new beat.[19]

How is it that a dance that is not concentrated on its product has more of an effect on society than say, heavily-product-concentrated dances such as Ballet? I’d say that queer tango further shows how seduction, play, making is more powerful than production.

Last but not least: Tango As Comedy

Seeing as a big part of PLAYING is laughter and groping, it would only make sense that a dance so playful and seductive as tango would be completely compatible with comedy. At CU Club Tango, I was extremely fortunate to have famed, well-travelled, Argentine Tango instructor Nick Jones and partners Amy Anderson and Diana Cruz lead many of my practicas. Nick is a goofball. He is dramatic, with a flimsy, artistic flair so well portrayed by his receding hairline, Russian-violinist look. He insists that we dance with excessive humor and vulnerability, strengthening, through ice-breakers, our innate sexuality and inner child (paradoxical but true),  and lightening our moods the instance we set foot on the pisa. We must dance for OURSELVES, the joy within our true selves, the dirty and the innocent, and thus we will better dance with our partners. The more we open up, the better everyone can understand and dance with each other. Laughing at yourself, your partner, your dance is  vital to self-making and self-othering, and it is accomplished through feeling and grasping (through proprio and meso-perception) all that is available. So, when you tango, PLAY, don’t produce. Take it easy. [20]

It Takes You To Tango

Alas, I’ve done as much looking into tango as these last few days and my ever-tired brain and body will allow. But hey, you’re not off the hook. My dearest reader, I encourage you to venture off into the world of tango. I hope you find yourself and the other. It is highly rewarding, replenishing, renewing. You’ll look 10 years younger, and you won’t be able to stop playing. Here is a link to beginner’s steps of tango. Click on it, try it out, but then be sure to find yourself at CU Club Tango’s practica and milongas at 7pm on Fridays in Carlson Gym (or your nearest tango-club!)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LTBFtsrUpMA&feature=fvw

Sources Used (an incomplete Bibliography)

Brown, Susan August. Argentine Tango: A Brief History. Web November 11, 2010 . http://www.tejastango.com/tango_history.html

Gill, Sam. “Dancing as Making,” pp. 1-8. DanceTalk.

Gill, Sam. Lecture: Dance, Religion, Culture. RLST 3838. Fall 2010. (not in footnotes but extensively used)

Handleman, Play & Culture (1992), “Passages to Play: Paradox and Process,” pp. 1-13 Studio

 

Schiller. Dancing as Play, On The Aesthetic Education of Man, Letters 11

Flamenco Dance in Film Schreiner, Flamenco, pp. 11-20 Pohren, Lives and Legends of Flamenco, pp. 15-31

Manning, Erin. Body Connection, Relationscapes, “Incipient Action: The Dance of the Not-Yet,” pp. 13-28

[1] Schiller. Aesthetic Education of Man. 1793

[3] Gill, Sam. Dancing As Making. DanceTalk. June 2009.

[4] Morral, Stever. Proprioception in Tango, Creative Commons.2005 & (updated) 2008 and 2009. http://www.tangouk.co.uk/proprioception.htm

[5] Brown, Susan August. Argentine Tango: A Brief History. Web November 11, 2010 . http://www.tejastango.com/tango_history.html

[6] Brown, Susan.

[7] Brow, Susan.

[8] Brown, Susan

[9] For the complete list of tango terminology, visit http://www.tejastango.com/terminology.html

[11] Wikipedia.

[17] Brown, Susan

[18] Gill, Sam.

[20] CU Club Tangopictures by Jeff Wagner. http://www.naturaltango.com/contact/

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