🚀 go-pugleaf

nic wrote:
> =

> Anyone know of any good books, videos, films, etc. describing the
> reltionship of dance to courtship/sex/love?
> =

> nik
> =

> ~ the dnc project
> =

> http://www.websciences.org/dnc/
> =

> dance, networks, computing
> =

> Neither birth nor sex forms a limit to genius.
> =

> Charlotte Bronte

Tango, and the Political Economy of Passion," by Marta Savigliano,
Westview press.

It is her PhD thesis published as a book and so has a bit more academic
language than the average person would like, however, the topic is
DANCE, the dance is TANGO and association is PASSION and the subtext is
SEX.

Here is a brief review I did for our local Tango Colorado newsletter:

Marta Savigliano has written a very modern (and often readable) book
relating not just the =93objective=94 history of dance tango, but also
exploring sexual/gender, wealth/class and colonial issues.

Her historical window to 1905 Buenos Aires and 1915 Paris is
fascinating. And she deals with aspects of the tango that both attract
and disturb many people. =


Savigliano defines tango as:

=93A dramatic expression (dance, music, lyrics and performance) that
originated in the Rio de la Plata region of Argentina and Uruguay toward
the end of the nineteenth century. The worldwide popularity of Tango has
been associated with scandal: the public display of passion performed by
a heterosexual couple, the symbol of which is a tight embrace and
suggestive, intricate footwork. =93

Is the tango just a leader=92s dance? Savigliano challenges this reading.=

While the follower doesn't lead, she often knows more about what's
happening than the leader: =


=93Milonguitas could challenge their male partners with the thrust and
energy invested in the walks; manipulate their axis an the strength of
the embrace; play with diverse qualities of groundness in their steps;
modify the =93front=94 given to their partners, choosing to =93face=94 th=
em in
misaligned angles of torso and hips; disrupt the cadence sought by their
partners by not converting their trampling cortes at the proper musical
time thus add unexpectedly fancy ornamentations (adornos) of their own
to the figures in order to complete a certain figure, adding small
stompings in between each step, lacing one leg around the back or front
of the other before engaging in a conversion), complicating the timing
of the conversions, creating anxiety, and even causing their male
partners to modify their plans for upcoming steps.=94
In other words Savigliano suggests that the follower provokes and
teases, and maybe controls the leader=92s heart and intentions, even whil=
e
the leader is composing the flow of the dance.