The Alienation of Tango

Tango is facing serious challenges in the liberal West. In a sense it becomes a self-inflicted dance. The steps of tango do not have fixed configurations, and its music allows for interpretation, so dancers are free to improvise and create as they dance. This rather untrammeled nature of tango induces dramatic changes to the dance at time like now when free-spirited foreigners pour in, bringing too many outlandish influences into the dance.

No matter what people do, there are always some who do it to the extreme. Tango is no exception. We humans seek freedom, yet unrestrained freedom defeats itself. Our forefathers understood the danger of this human tendency, which is why they created a political system of checks and balance and the rule of law. Tango outside of Argentina, however, is still an uncharted water where people can do whatever they please at their free will. They replace tango embrace with an open dance hold, supersede tango music with alternative tunes, reassign gender roles, and bring in non-tango elements such as underarm turns, high kicks and body lifts into the dance. Now you go to the milongas in the US, you often hear exotic music of foreign lands and see rogues of all kinds dancing wildly. It is still called tango, but the essence of the dance has been altered. There is nothing resemble the tango danced in the milongas of Buenos Aires.

Tango is a free dance, but it is not a "you can do whatever you want" dance. It has its characteristics. For example, it is a close-embrace dance. Breaking the embrace and drifting the partner apart is not tango (see The Fourteenth Pitfall of a Tanguera). Tango is an intimate and soulful dance. It lies in the feelings stirred by music. In fact, tango is more about feelings than steps. No matter how many new steps people try to create, without feelings it is not tango (see Tango Is a Feeling). Tango is a heterosexual dance danced by a man and a woman to allow his masculinity and her femininity to glitter in each other's company (see Tango and Gender Interdependence). The man is the leader who plots the dance and shines the woman. The woman is the follower who surrenders to the man, synchronizes her movements to his and beautifies the dance. Refusing to surrender, switching gender roles and forming same-sex partnership are against tango (see The Gender Roles in Tango). Tango is danced to the sentimental music specifically created for the dance. Foreigners often don't know that the magic of tango lies in its music, which connects the dancers, stirs up their nostalgic feelings, resonates with them, synchronizes their movements, and inspires their creativity. Changing tango music to outlandish tunes, the dance ceases to be tango (see The Signature of Tango).

Nobody can stop the reformation of a dance that invites free expression, I suppose. Only time can tell which reforms will last. Tango has been through this trial for one hundred and fifty years. Whatever changes that people try to bring to tango today must have been tried by others before. Most of those changes did not stay. The current form of tango, including its music, embrace, steps and protocols as being practiced in Buenos Aires today, is the survivors of fitness among zillions of attempts to alter the dance along its history. Tango will continue to evolve, of course, but it will evolve in the same direction that made it tango. Any attempt to change tango into a non-tango dance or hybrid will fail. If not so, tango would have stopped being the tango danced in Buenos Aires today long ago.

A Cabeceo Story

I don’t know her name. She looked like in her middle 30s, sitting with her girl friend, who was about the same age. They sat across the room in the women’s section, chatting and not dancing. I had an impression that they came not to dance but to spend some time together and watch other people dance tango, which is not uncommon in Buenos Aires.

She looked at me while they were talking. But it wasn't like she wanted to dance with me, it was more like she happened to be staring in my direction. I ignored her and searched for other prospective partners. Occasionally, her girl friend went to dance, but she didn't accept any invitation, just sat there watching. When her girl friend returned, they resumed their conversation.

I danced a lot that night. Every time I went back to my seat, I saw that the two girls were still chatting, and the girl was still looking in my direction. I continued to ignore her because I didn't think she wanted to dance, or even could dance. But I kept my eyes on her girl friend, whose dance impressed me. The girl must have noticed that, for at one point I saw her talking to her girl friend while looking at me, as if telling her I was watching her. But her girl friend only gave me a brief look and quickly turned her eyes away. Only she still gazed at me.

At that moment it suddenly dawned on me that perhaps she was interested in dancing with me. She might not be a good dancer, but I was ready to give a try since she has been looking at me for so long. I nodded at her, and she nodded back. To make sure she was responding to my cabeceo, I looked around to see if anyone was communicating with her, but I found no one doing that. So I stood up and walked towards her. She stared at me all the way until I reached her table. “A very patient girl, brave, confident, and very persistent.” I thought. That was one thing I learned about cabeceo that night.

I was wrong about her. She was an excellent dancer, even better than her impressive girl friend. Her beautiful and stylish footwork showed solid techniques that could only result from years of training. In fact, only a professional could dance the way she did with such control, elegance and precision. In our brief conversation she told me she was a stage dancer. I wondered why a young stage dancer like her would come to a social milonga to dance tango milonguero. “This is not your style. Why do you come here to dance?” I was curious. She paused for a moment, then said, “There are too many young dancers on stage, I can’t compete with them any more. I am getting old.”