Abstract
This ethno-identity dance is equally sexy for both men and women. In looking at the wide variety of tango variations, Shay views them through the lens of theater and fantasy: dramatic and theatrical movements and gestures and the sexual fantasies that the tango performance produces for many participants. He describes the history of the dance: how it originated in the brothels of Buenos Aires, found popularity in turn-of-the-century Paris and London, and gained acceptance among Argentine elites. He describes its movements, stressing the importance of improvisation. Shay then looks at the machismo role of the male dancer and femme fatale role of the woman.
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Notes
- 1.
Youtube shows several clips of tango gay, or tango queer, including sequences from the annual competition. The description could have been any of them, but I selected the one of Luis and Lalo Youtube Luis and Lalo 1. One of the most striking and sizzling male/male tango choreographies is found in Carlos Saura’s film, Tango (1998), in which half of the men are dressed in black and the other half in white, and which features two soloists as well as a corps de ballet.
See David Halperin (2012), for a discussion of the identity issue of effeminacy and homosexuality, especially Chap. 2.
- 2.
Maria Törnqvist in her study of tango tourism notes: “According to an Argentine survey from 2001, between ten and fifteen thousand people travel to Buenos Aires to dance tango every year. Most likely, the numbers have doubled, or more, over the past decade” (2013, 3). Argentina is a relatively cheap tourist destination and provides a comfortable ambience as well, adding to the tango attraction.
- 3.
I am aware that Montevideo, Uruguay also qualifies as the birthplace of the tango, but much less information about the role of Uruguayans in the history of tango is available, only the names of a few musicians.
- 4.
The term milonga refers to either an early version of the tango, or a tango dance event, or the venue in which tango is danced socially. Milonguero/a designates an habitué of the tango dance scene, while a tanguero/a is a tango dancer.
- 5.
All translations from the Spanish are my own, unless otherwise indicated.
- 6.
The Ethnic Police proved to be alive and well after a hiatus (at least in my life) of several decades. During an exhibition of Clothing from South Eastern Europe, primarily the Balkans, at UCLA’s Fowler Museum (Barber and Sloan 2013), the attendees, many of them ex-patriots of the Balkan dance scene, discovered several mistakes in the curators’ labeling, as well as Serbian footwear shown with a costume from Macedonia, and other mismatches. This caused a sensation that kept tongues wagging for a week. I am certain that the unfortunate curators had no idea that a very large number of the attendees had belonged to Balkan dance groups and performed in the costumes frequently, and thus, were as familiar with those garments and footwear as they were with their daily wardrobes.
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Discography
Tango Argentino. 1986. Original cast recording. New York: Atlantic Recording Corp.
Videography
Tango. 1998. Directed by Carlos Saura. Sony Picture Classics.
Tango Argentina. 2006. Daniel Barenboim and Orquesta Filarmónica de Buenos aires. Leopoldo Fredrico y su Orquesta Típica. Live from Buenos Aires. Arte Edition.
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Shay, A. (2016). Chapter 3 It Takes Two to Tango. In: Ethno Identity Dance for Sex, Fun and Profit. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-59318-4_4
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