[Tango-L] Tango is Argentine

[Nina Pesochinsky]

Hello, everyone.

Interesting discussion.

Is tango sensual?  It can be, but does not have to.

Is it passionate?  It can be, but does not have to, and does not need to be. 
It is difficult at times to participate in something sensual or passionate 
on cue.

I am convinced that this discussion and many others have been influenced by 
an absence of at least two factors.

First, it is important to understand that throughout the century of 
development of tango music and dance, women were valued much more than they 
are now.  Sorry ladies, but women are now dime a dozen and all are hungry to 
dance.  Those who know tango well as a dance, know that men created the 
movements to please the women.  The dance was created because of the women 
and for them and in no authentic movement of tango, salon, milonguero, 
fantasia, stage, etc., is the woman and her movement is secondary.

This factor is lost in the current tango experience of most.  The quantity 
of dancing women has devalued their presence for the men.  As a consequence, 
the social culture of the dance has sufferred.  Neither men nor women 
actually know experientially the emotional content of the dance at a time 
where women were not so available.

The second important factor to consider is not just that there were many 
European influences, but that tango actually belongs to the immigrant 
culture (of Argentina), which is much different than the pure influences of 
other, well-defined cultures.

Immigrants are different people, regardless where they came from.  They 
embrace and reject cultural values and rules according to different sets of 
perceptions.  Immigrant cultures remain illusive to those who do not belong 
to them.  Immigrants are a different kind of people, regardless from what 
country they came from.  They are different from those who remain in those 
countries.  I don't know if it is the psychological makeup, the personality 
or the emotional content that makes immigrants different, but they are very 
different.

We will never know what the immigrant culture of the time was in Argentina 
and we will never know what exactly were the perceptions.  But what is very 
clear in tango music and dance is that the immigrant culture allowed people 
tremendous creativity that may not have been nurtured by any one defined 
culture.  It is that creativity, that harmonious blend of many influences 
that we feel now, dancing again and again to the same recordings a thousand 
times.  These things cannot be taken apart.  The best that we can do is 
honor the elements by acknowledging their influence and that is all.

All the best,

Nina



>> From: bettina maria fahlbusch <bettinamaria7 at gmail.com>
>> Date: Wed, 05 Aug 2009 18:25:39 -0300
>> To: Sergio Vandekier <sergiovandekier990 at hotmail.com>, Tango-L
>> <Tango-L at mit.edu>
>> Subject: Re: [Tango-L] Tango is Argentine
>>
>>>> What I do think is important - VERY important - is to acknowledge the
>> 50% female element. What makes tango so sensual? What makes it
>> passionate? Certainly not the gauchos and compadritos that initially
>> danced together. To say that those women just "danced with their
>> clients" is an understatement I would say that certainly makes up 50%
>> of the elements that developed in Tango.
>>
>> Sorry about saying "string" I simply mixed up the word as a foreigner,
>> certainly it is not a string element, but I do insist those sounds
>> originated in Germany, not in Argentina . . .
>> :-)
>>
>> What is interesting today, as a foreigner, living in Argentina, is the
>> ongoing conversation ain Argentineans referrig back to the fact of a
>> massive European heritage that makes them different from the rest of
>> Southamerica. Like the fact Buenos Aires likes to refer to itself to
>> the "paris from the South" which I think in reality is a far cry away
>> from the real Paris. So if there is pride fr sure to be had about such
>> beautiful vast land as Argentina, then really own that what is truly
>> Argentinean and not European. Finally, the Tango only became accepted
>> in Argentina, once it scored success and reputation  in the upper
>> class Salons in Berlin, Paris and London . ..  shown by the rich boys
>> who again learned it in the Bordellos WITH the European women . . . so
>> it is not all and only that Argentine, is it?
>>
>> Sergio:
>>> "The compadritos were Argentines, born on Argentine soil.  The women in 
>>> the
>>> bordellos where French, Polish, Argentine, etc, but they did not create 
>>> the
>>> tango. They danced with their clients.
>>>
>>> Argentina is a melting pot, their ancestors arrived from all over the 
>>> world
>>> but their children were born on Argentine soil and nurtured by a 
>>> distinct
>>> and strong Argentine Culture, which is different from any other.
>>
>>> Argentines do not miss any identity, they are distinct and proud of who 
>>> they
>>> are."
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