[Tango-L] communites of all gender leading

[Igor Polk]

Dear Keith of HK,
I did not mention Argentina at all. I said it happened everywhere ( in
jails, at schools, at factory parties) and in all historical periods, with
all dances, but only if there was not enough of the opposite sex to dance
with.

Here is one example I copied from my blog
http://www.virtuar.com/tango/tango_weblog.htm

2006 September 13

Reading a book "Calaveras County Gold Rush Stories" by Edna Buckbee, I have
found the following story happened around 1850 in Angels Camp, about 2 hour
drive from San Francisco now. Angels Camp "had a population of 300 exclusive
of Indians" of gold miners ( you can imagine those folks! ) 

"At Lake's hotel [a one-story frame building, the only one around], though
there were no women in the camp, a ball was given. The dancers depended for
music on two amateurs, a fiddler and flutist. The fiddler shouted out the
various figures of the quadrille and the merry-making was kept up for
several hours. After each dance had come to an end the fiddler, remembering
the dancers' thirst and the welfare of Mr. Lake's barroom, called out in
tones louder than usual, Promenade all to the bar and treat your partner!
The absence of women in the camp was a difficulty easily conquered for it
was arranged that any man wearing a square patch on the seat of his jeans,
was to be treated as a "lady".. It was a strange sight to see a party of
long-bearded men in heavy boots and flannel shirts going through all the
steps and figures of the dance with so much spirit and often with a great
deal of grace."


Note - they did already know how to dance, and how to dance in both roles !
Doesn't it tell something to you?

I do not think the topic of changing roles deserves much attention. It is
always better to dance than to sit in the corner. Only in our spoiled times
somehow modern people ( under the heavey influence of shameless media )
think of it as something extraordinary. No.


Igor Polk