Tango In Argentina?

Argentina and the tango?

• I'm writing a paper for my world music class on the Tango and Argentina. One of the requirements for the paper is to interview someone who knows something about the topic. I ...show more

• Answer:

  Ufff. thats a LOT of questions... OK I´ll try at least to some degree... 1) No. It IS male dominance, the female is totally subjected to the rythm and movements of the male. 2) originated in the south of BA, in the bordello areas of La Boca, where sailors just off the ships went to ladies of the night and those who couldn´t pay a lot got a dance instead 3) ? No misconceptions. It is a sensual, I would even say erotic dance that evolved from the bordello and up to the middle and upper classes but took over 20 years to reach respectability 4) male: dominant, strong, female: totally in the hands of the male. To dance tango you have to let yourself be lead, in every sense, by your partner. that is why if a couple doen´t have that kind of closeness (I don´t mean having sex but knowing each other and the female trusting completely the male) you can see it in the dance. 5) see above 6) I was born in buenos Aires, but I won´t answer the rest because it is too personal and why should you know for the sake of Tango? I live in Ft LAuderdale now, that´s all I´m saying 7) all my life, if you are born in BA you´ll be exposed from earliest stage on 8) from some relatives 9) My grandparents did 10) As a child no (thought it was dorky),now yes 11) It is a part of argentinean culture no doubt 12) Not as a child! But most of them talk about a mean woman who broke a poor guy´s heart, or a guy coming back home a long time ago, or a guy losing all his money at the horseraces becasue he had to impress a mean lady, or a mean lady period. 13) not to my knowledge. 14) Yes, I think it´s 4/8?? but I´m not sure. 15) Accordion (bandoneon), guitar 16) no 17) tango spread all over the world. Some people like it, some otehrs don´t. But if you walk dowm Florida street where all tourists congregate it is impossible NOT to hear tango blasted out of a souvenir shop 18) music 19) it still is a machistic culture, and so is Tango. 20) not true. Go to La Viruta or La Ideal and look at the younger generation: still the same dance. The only ones who dance it differently are the foreigners and also the shows for foreigners (it is called "Tango show" versus "Tango salon" which is the true dance and hasn´t changed. Sorry for the book but it´s not right even if it is published) 21) In the beginning, as I said, it was a cheaper way of getting close to a woman´s body so i guess it has some universal language of its own. 22) To me, it symbolizes the argentinean melting pot, eroticism, male domination. 23) Hope it was enough for your paper. It was a lot of questions so i hope you will give me some points or rate my answer, but if you don´t I wish you good luck with the paper anyways.