[Tango-L] Gender Roles in Tango

[Tango Society of Central Illinois]

On Sun, Jul 20, 2008 at 6:34 AM, Martin Waxman <martin at waxman.net> wrote:
> For those on the list who firmly believe that gender roles in
> Argentine Tango are specific.
>
> If the Brothers Macana are not dancing Argentine Tango, what are they dancing?

The Brothers Macana are performing, not dancing at a milonga. What
makes their performance humorous is that they are violating the codes
of the milonga.

In my single days, before I learned tango, I dated a woman who had
been a ballerina in her youth. She explained to me that ballet has
defined roles for men and women. At a particularly innovative modern
dance performance we attended, she said that much of the choreography
was based on ballet, but it went beyond in adding new elements. What
was particularly interesting about this performance (sorry, I can't
remember the dance company) was that the gender roles were reversed at
times. Art can be creative that in breaking rules it exposes the
rules. This is what the Brothers Macana are doing.


On Sun, Jul 20, 2008 at 2:06 AM,  <melvillefox at aol.com> wrote:
>
> I searched on YouTube and found a good example of two men dancing where
> the follower, always the same man, is definitely more feminine than the
> leader, even if perhaps not as feminine as most women:
>
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PBmjQfp1glo
>

This video is another example of a good performance that deviates from
tango, not only in gender roles, but also incorporating elements of
tango, nuevo, and modern dance. It is creative and very well done in
my opinion, but it is not tango, not even performance tango.


On Sun, Jul 20, 2008 at 7:42 AM, Nina Pesochinsky <nina at earthnet.net> wrote:
> Men dancing together is a diffrent thing than a man
> following a woman.  Men dancing with each other has been a part of
> the development of AT, but women leading men has not.
>

Men PRACTICING with men has been part of the PAST history of tango in
Buenos Aires. It is not common today.

This is not to say that both men and women cannot benefit from
learning what is involved in leading and following by exchanging
gender roles (women lead men, men lead men, women lead women) in a
practica or even a class if it is done by consent. In fact, every
tango instructor should learn the opposite gender role. But this a
teaching environment, not the social environment of the milonga.

The gender codes of tango apply to the milonga.

Ron