http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/video/2008/oct/24/sex-uncovered-dance-brothel?INTCMP=ILCNETTXT3487
Series: Sex uncoveredNext | Index
Sex uncovered: Dance born in the brothelBorn in the sexually repressed India of the early 70s, therapist Supriya Thimmiah has always been fascinated by the Argentine tango. She has got the best teacher in the country - but only 48 hours to convincingly perform 'the dance of pimps and prostitutes'
Sunday, February 27, 2011
http://www.guardian.co.uk/stage/2009/jan/28/world-tour-tango?INTCMP=ILCNETTXT3487
A world tour of tango
As Argentina and Uruguay unite in a bid to win tango world heritage status, Sanjoy Roy offers a video guide to the dance's many guises around the globe
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Comments (6)
Sanjoy Roy
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 28 January 2009 14.57 GMT
Article history
Argentina and Uruguay have temporarily buried the hatchet in their long-held rivalry over the birthplace of tango (was it really Buenos Aires or was it actually Montevideo?). The countries are presenting a joint application to Unesco for tango to be accepted as part of our world heritage. But what exactly is our world tango heritage anyway? Here's a quick global guide.
Hertfordshire's Lisa Snowdon dances with New Zealand's Brendan Cole on Strictly Come Dancing
As the UK's biggest dance show, Strictly provides our main image of the tango. According to the programme, there are two basic styles: the tango and the Argentine tango. The very name "Argentine tango" makes it sound like a specific case, an exception to the general form. Uruguay, meanwhile, doesn't get namechecked at all. In some ways, that's true to history.
Buenos Aires and Montevideo, with their mix of African and European influences, may have been the crucible in which the tango was formed, but the dance became part of "world culture" only when it went abroad. In 1913, tango fever swept Paris – you could buy tango hats, tango stockings and orange was the "in" colour. From Paris, the craze quickly spread to London, Berlin, New York and St Petersburg.
Inevitably, the style changed. The rhythm became more like a march and the distinctive "head snap" was introduced (apparently by a German). It was the English, through the Imperial Society of Teachers of Dancing, who laid down standard rules for tango and, like a dance version of Greenwich Mean Time, exported their version around the world. It is this "ballroom" or "international" style that Lisa and Brendan are performing above. Here's how it's done by some (Italian) pros: killer gargoyle glances, head snaps like doors slamming in your face – that is one fearsome dance.
American tango
New York had already been infected by the Parisian tango craze, but it was Rudolph Valentino (Italian by birth) who took the tango to Hollywood in his first film hit, The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (1926), thus paving the way for the American style of tango. With the focus more on leading and following, the American style is a little more sociable and open – frankly, a little less British – than the international style you see in most ballroom competitions. As Barbara Garvey wrote in a 1993 article in the Smithsonian Magazine: "The American tango is like the beginning of a love affair, when you're both very romantic and on your best behaviour. The Argentine tango is when you're in the heat of things and all kinds of emotions are flying: passion, anger, humour. The international tango is like the end of the marriage, when you're staying together for the sake of the children."
But does being less uptight bring the Americans closer to the true spirit of tango? Hardly. Just take a look at ...
Finnish tango
Depression, isolation, social awkwardness – these are just some of the reasons why tango fits the Finnish soul so well, according to this funny but convincing documentary. Tango came to Finland from Paris and went native, turning into a kind of Moomin-tango: the rhythms slowed down, harmonies turned to minor modes, melodic lines drooped like sighs – and singers such as Olavi Virta, Finland's tango king, scored hit after hit through the 1940s and 50s. The annual tango festival at Seinäjoki, founded in 1985, now attracts more than 100,000 visitors a year. If you're too hung up on tango cliches about "fire" and "passion" to picture it in arctic Finland, try watching this melancholy little film.
Jewish tango
Tango was created by immigrants in the cities of Buenos Aires and Montevideo, many of them Jewish. Some Jewish tango dancers and musicians composed in Yiddish, such as this version of the most famous tango song, La Cumparsita.
In Europe between the wars, Jewish musicians – both in mainstream society and in the ghettos – were as taken with tango as the rest of the continent. But for the many Jews sent to concentration camps, tango inspired extreme ambivalence. On the one hand, it was part of the shared culture of the inmates; on the other, tango was included in the enforced repertoire of the camp orchestras, music groups formed under the direction of Nazi officers. According to historian Simon Collier, the Nazis approved of tango in contrast to jazz. While jazz was thought to encourage disobedience and "collective delirium", tango was seen to provide "an escape, a willing preoccupation with the dance as an oblivion of the self". And so tangos were played, especially at executions – to the extent that any music played by an inmate orchestra during exterminations came to be called a death tango.
We've wandered a long way from South America. So should the big wide world of tango, in all its variety, be included if tango gets world heritage status? I don't think so – because I don't think tango should get world heritage status at all. It's a living practice, not a thing or place that can be located, owned and authenticated. Try to preserve it and it might just end up fossilised.
As Argentina and Uruguay unite in a bid to win tango world heritage status, Sanjoy Roy offers a video guide to the dance's many guises around the globe
Share
Comments (6)
Sanjoy Roy
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 28 January 2009 14.57 GMT
Article history
Argentina and Uruguay have temporarily buried the hatchet in their long-held rivalry over the birthplace of tango (was it really Buenos Aires or was it actually Montevideo?). The countries are presenting a joint application to Unesco for tango to be accepted as part of our world heritage. But what exactly is our world tango heritage anyway? Here's a quick global guide.
Hertfordshire's Lisa Snowdon dances with New Zealand's Brendan Cole on Strictly Come Dancing
As the UK's biggest dance show, Strictly provides our main image of the tango. According to the programme, there are two basic styles: the tango and the Argentine tango. The very name "Argentine tango" makes it sound like a specific case, an exception to the general form. Uruguay, meanwhile, doesn't get namechecked at all. In some ways, that's true to history.
Buenos Aires and Montevideo, with their mix of African and European influences, may have been the crucible in which the tango was formed, but the dance became part of "world culture" only when it went abroad. In 1913, tango fever swept Paris – you could buy tango hats, tango stockings and orange was the "in" colour. From Paris, the craze quickly spread to London, Berlin, New York and St Petersburg.
Inevitably, the style changed. The rhythm became more like a march and the distinctive "head snap" was introduced (apparently by a German). It was the English, through the Imperial Society of Teachers of Dancing, who laid down standard rules for tango and, like a dance version of Greenwich Mean Time, exported their version around the world. It is this "ballroom" or "international" style that Lisa and Brendan are performing above. Here's how it's done by some (Italian) pros: killer gargoyle glances, head snaps like doors slamming in your face – that is one fearsome dance.
American tango
New York had already been infected by the Parisian tango craze, but it was Rudolph Valentino (Italian by birth) who took the tango to Hollywood in his first film hit, The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (1926), thus paving the way for the American style of tango. With the focus more on leading and following, the American style is a little more sociable and open – frankly, a little less British – than the international style you see in most ballroom competitions. As Barbara Garvey wrote in a 1993 article in the Smithsonian Magazine: "The American tango is like the beginning of a love affair, when you're both very romantic and on your best behaviour. The Argentine tango is when you're in the heat of things and all kinds of emotions are flying: passion, anger, humour. The international tango is like the end of the marriage, when you're staying together for the sake of the children."
But does being less uptight bring the Americans closer to the true spirit of tango? Hardly. Just take a look at ...
Finnish tango
Depression, isolation, social awkwardness – these are just some of the reasons why tango fits the Finnish soul so well, according to this funny but convincing documentary. Tango came to Finland from Paris and went native, turning into a kind of Moomin-tango: the rhythms slowed down, harmonies turned to minor modes, melodic lines drooped like sighs – and singers such as Olavi Virta, Finland's tango king, scored hit after hit through the 1940s and 50s. The annual tango festival at Seinäjoki, founded in 1985, now attracts more than 100,000 visitors a year. If you're too hung up on tango cliches about "fire" and "passion" to picture it in arctic Finland, try watching this melancholy little film.
Jewish tango
Tango was created by immigrants in the cities of Buenos Aires and Montevideo, many of them Jewish. Some Jewish tango dancers and musicians composed in Yiddish, such as this version of the most famous tango song, La Cumparsita.
In Europe between the wars, Jewish musicians – both in mainstream society and in the ghettos – were as taken with tango as the rest of the continent. But for the many Jews sent to concentration camps, tango inspired extreme ambivalence. On the one hand, it was part of the shared culture of the inmates; on the other, tango was included in the enforced repertoire of the camp orchestras, music groups formed under the direction of Nazi officers. According to historian Simon Collier, the Nazis approved of tango in contrast to jazz. While jazz was thought to encourage disobedience and "collective delirium", tango was seen to provide "an escape, a willing preoccupation with the dance as an oblivion of the self". And so tangos were played, especially at executions – to the extent that any music played by an inmate orchestra during exterminations came to be called a death tango.
We've wandered a long way from South America. So should the big wide world of tango, in all its variety, be included if tango gets world heritage status? I don't think so – because I don't think tango should get world heritage status at all. It's a living practice, not a thing or place that can be located, owned and authenticated. Try to preserve it and it might just end up fossilised.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jan/25/argentina-uruguay-tango?INTCMP=ILCNETTXT3487
Latin rivals learn it takes two to tango
Argentina and Uruguay agree to share credit for the passionate dance in a bid for heritage status
Share
Rory Carroll and Oliver Balch in Buenos Aires
The Observer, Sunday 25 January 2009
Article history
Tango dancers in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Photograph: Michel Setboun/Corbis
For a century, Argentina and Uruguay have duelled over who invented tango, the sultry music and dance synonymous with Latin passion.
Argentinians insist it was born in Buenos Aires and blossomed as the country came of age in the first half of the 20th century. Uruguay says tango originated on the other side of the River Plate in Montevideo, and that its best song and singer were Uruguayan.
The use of contested tunes at international cultural and sporting events, including the Olympics, snagged diplomatic relations and prompted accusations of cultural piracy.
At last, however, a truce has been declared. The respective culture ministries of Montevideo and Buenos Aires set aside their rivalry jointly to petition Unesco, the UN's cultural agency, to grant tango world heritage status. It takes two, apparently, to get on to the coveted list of "cultural heritage of humanity".
"The candidacy is being examined and the final decision will be made by the intergovernmental committee in September in Dubai," a Unesco spokeswoman said last week.
If approved, both cities plan to build a tango museum with permanent exhibits on each side of the Plate. Its primary goal will be to catalogue the estimated 50,000 tango recordings thought to be in existence.
Other joint plans include a dance institute to teach the intricacies of one of South America's most famous - and most complex - dance forms. A joint orchestra is also on the cards.
The impetus for collaboration stems from tango's explosion in popularity. As it swells into a global phenomenon, Argentina and Uruguay want to keep its roots intact.
"While it's good that tango is spreading around the world, alterations invariably begin to creep in. There are certain original elements that need to be preserved," said Eduardo León Duter, director of culture for Montevideo's city government. The UN's imprimatur would help protect tango's historic purity. "Obtaining Unesco status implies a determination by both countries to implement preservation policies, such as training, diffusion and cataloguing."
Last year's world tango championships in Buenos Aires drew 140 couples from overseas, up from just 30 in the first championship. The Argentinian capital generates about $100m annually in revenue from classes, shows, CDs and tango-themed hotels.
Tango has come a long way. Its exact origins are murky but the music, a blend of Spanish, African and central European rhythm, is believed to have emerged from European immigrants who populated the slums and bordellos of Buenos Aires in the 1880s. Lyrics that sang of nostalgia, loneliness, lust and betrayal were matched by a dance that was simultaneously sensual and aggressive.
The founding articles of the Buenos Aires-based National Tango Academy describe Argentina's "creative validity" over a musical form that serves as the "authentic and deep-rooted expression" of the nation. Tango represents Argentina around the world like few other national art forms, it says.
That claim steps on Uruguayan toes. The world's most popular tango song, "La Cumparsita", was composed by a Uruguayan, Gerardo Matos Rodrígues, 90 years ago. It has inspired more than 2,500 variations and in 1998 became the country's national hymn by presidential decree. Argentinians respond that the best known version of the song has lyrics written by an Argentinian, Pascual Contursi, and that the tune really took off only after Carlos Gardel, the most famous tango icon of all time and an Argentinian hero, recorded his own version in 1924. Beyond dispute is that Gardel's death in a plane crash in 1935 broke millions of hearts and drove several women to suicide. His flower-strewn grave in Buenos Aires competes with that of Eva Perón as the country's most famous tomb.
The sniping will go on, but if Unesco enshrines tango as a cultural jewel the rivals will be forced into each other's arms. It will be long overdue, said León Duter: "The dominant factor is that tango is something we share."
Argentina and Uruguay agree to share credit for the passionate dance in a bid for heritage status
Share
Rory Carroll and Oliver Balch in Buenos Aires
The Observer, Sunday 25 January 2009
Article history
Tango dancers in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Photograph: Michel Setboun/Corbis
For a century, Argentina and Uruguay have duelled over who invented tango, the sultry music and dance synonymous with Latin passion.
Argentinians insist it was born in Buenos Aires and blossomed as the country came of age in the first half of the 20th century. Uruguay says tango originated on the other side of the River Plate in Montevideo, and that its best song and singer were Uruguayan.
The use of contested tunes at international cultural and sporting events, including the Olympics, snagged diplomatic relations and prompted accusations of cultural piracy.
At last, however, a truce has been declared. The respective culture ministries of Montevideo and Buenos Aires set aside their rivalry jointly to petition Unesco, the UN's cultural agency, to grant tango world heritage status. It takes two, apparently, to get on to the coveted list of "cultural heritage of humanity".
"The candidacy is being examined and the final decision will be made by the intergovernmental committee in September in Dubai," a Unesco spokeswoman said last week.
If approved, both cities plan to build a tango museum with permanent exhibits on each side of the Plate. Its primary goal will be to catalogue the estimated 50,000 tango recordings thought to be in existence.
Other joint plans include a dance institute to teach the intricacies of one of South America's most famous - and most complex - dance forms. A joint orchestra is also on the cards.
The impetus for collaboration stems from tango's explosion in popularity. As it swells into a global phenomenon, Argentina and Uruguay want to keep its roots intact.
"While it's good that tango is spreading around the world, alterations invariably begin to creep in. There are certain original elements that need to be preserved," said Eduardo León Duter, director of culture for Montevideo's city government. The UN's imprimatur would help protect tango's historic purity. "Obtaining Unesco status implies a determination by both countries to implement preservation policies, such as training, diffusion and cataloguing."
Last year's world tango championships in Buenos Aires drew 140 couples from overseas, up from just 30 in the first championship. The Argentinian capital generates about $100m annually in revenue from classes, shows, CDs and tango-themed hotels.
Tango has come a long way. Its exact origins are murky but the music, a blend of Spanish, African and central European rhythm, is believed to have emerged from European immigrants who populated the slums and bordellos of Buenos Aires in the 1880s. Lyrics that sang of nostalgia, loneliness, lust and betrayal were matched by a dance that was simultaneously sensual and aggressive.
The founding articles of the Buenos Aires-based National Tango Academy describe Argentina's "creative validity" over a musical form that serves as the "authentic and deep-rooted expression" of the nation. Tango represents Argentina around the world like few other national art forms, it says.
That claim steps on Uruguayan toes. The world's most popular tango song, "La Cumparsita", was composed by a Uruguayan, Gerardo Matos Rodrígues, 90 years ago. It has inspired more than 2,500 variations and in 1998 became the country's national hymn by presidential decree. Argentinians respond that the best known version of the song has lyrics written by an Argentinian, Pascual Contursi, and that the tune really took off only after Carlos Gardel, the most famous tango icon of all time and an Argentinian hero, recorded his own version in 1924. Beyond dispute is that Gardel's death in a plane crash in 1935 broke millions of hearts and drove several women to suicide. His flower-strewn grave in Buenos Aires competes with that of Eva Perón as the country's most famous tomb.
The sniping will go on, but if Unesco enshrines tango as a cultural jewel the rivals will be forced into each other's arms. It will be long overdue, said León Duter: "The dominant factor is that tango is something we share."
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