[Tango-L] Origins

[Carol Shepherd]

What kind of dancing?  Tango only?  Where?  To what music?

In many countries people of all social classes engage in partner or solo 
dance as a means of recreation/entertainment, socializing, class and 
society identification, competition for a suitable mate, connecting with 
music and therefore with community and culture, and self expression. 
And, I'm sure, for other reasons.  (I tend to avoid referring to 
economic classes but sometimes economics primarily define social class 
in a society).

In some countries only people of certain social classes dance, for some 
or all of the same reasons.

Society in some countries includes dance as a critical self-identifier 
and part of the definition of the society's culture and a means of 
defining the "not us".  Perhaps the discussion on this list argues for 
Argentine tango as a critical self-identifier in the Argentine society, 
at least in the past, if not in the present.

In the US up through the 1940's dance was an integral part of everyday 
society.  People of all social classes danced.  (What they danced was 
very different; there was broad overlap but certain dances were 
identified predominantly with different social classes.)  There were 
barn dances, jook joints and dime-a-dance halls for the needs and 
purposes of the lower social classes, and dancing schools, social balls, 
and charity events with dancing for the higher.

Today in the US I would venture that there is far less dancing overall 
as entertainment options have vastly proliferated with the mass media. 
The social needs and purposes of people have changed and there are far 
less reasons to dance, apart from recreation and self expression. 
Dancing is minimally important overall, but where it exists it is more 
important to the higher social classes (educated and professional) and 
to ethnic groups reinforcing their subcultures.  It is not important at 
all to the public at large; it presents an unfamiliar curiosity (think 
Dancing with the Stars and So You Think You Can Dance).  I think the 
ethnic group phenomenon transcends social class.

I'm also interested in hearing what dancers in other countries and 
societies say about this.

'Mash wrote:
> What about looking around at people today. 
> What class would you say are the predominantly dancing now?
> 
> 'Mash
> London,UK
> 
> "May we be cautious in our perfection lest we lose the ability to dance."
> 
> 
> On Wed, Jul 18, 2007 at 12:53:58PM -0700, Konstantin Zahariev wrote:
> 
>>On 7/18/07, Andy Ungureanu <abungureanu at googlemail.com> wrote:
>>
>>>Hi Konstantin
>>>
>>>Am 18.07.2007 19:29 schrieb Konstantin Zahariev :
>>>
>>>>In regards to biases and prejudices influencing the narrative, it
>>>>seems quite self-evident now that (1) tango originated with the
>>>>working classes,
>>>>
>>>
>>>What makes you believe, it was the "working" class? I rather believe
>>>someone working 10-12 hours a day as usual at the end of the 18th
>>>century cannot spend too much time hanging around and dancing.
>>
>>
>>I don't have to believe; it is what makes most sense and it is what
>>was done in other countries in similar circumstances. That was
>>ordinary people's entertainment. You have to remember the 1900s was an
>>era without radio, television, movies, or recorded music of any kind.
>>Secondly, do not assume long hours or hard work meant no fun and play
>>in the evening; people are amazingly resilient and adaptive even under
>>most difficult conditions. A friend likes to say that they composed
>>tangos even in Auschwitz. I don't know if this is true, but it is
>>perfectly plausible because this is the nature of people.
>>
> 
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Carol Ruth Shepherd
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