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Josue Paredes Mendez

00107235

15/04/18

Homework #2

Tango is a world-known form of dance that was born in Rio de la Plata, Argentina. Although

its origins come from this country, it has created its own culture all around the globe, among

every other person who has encountered himself with this ancient art. There is a public event

known as Milonga, which gathers all tango dancers from a certain region (could be a city, a

neighborhood, etc.) occasionally, so that these people are able to find each other and share a

glimpse of skills and connection that is usually brought by dancing Tango. The places hosting

this kind of event are generally small places like cafeterias or restaurants that open a central

space surrounded by tables where the Milonga is held on, every dancer uses this place to dance

a round (composed of three songs) with their respective partner in a clockwise flow, depending

on the space of the Milonga it usually held from 10 to 15 couples. In Quito there are currently

two places, that I often go, which host Milongas, called Café Libro and La Cabaña, only

available on Wednesdays and Fridays respectively. These events are the perfect opportunity for

the tango community to keep traditions that have been around for centauries now, and not only

for Latin American people, but Tango has been acknowledged all over the world.

For tango dancers there are certain traditions that have been carried around since the dance

started and became popular. Most of these traditions can vary from rules to rituals, it is

something that is understood worldwide, it doesn’t matter where you learn to dance, the “Tango

community” has long stablished the way of behavior inside milongas. The Milonga itself would

be the norm, which is to perform the Tango dance. According to history, Milongas were born

after Tango dancing was no longer prohibited (which is how it started), so everybody in the
town would gather around in popular festivities and dance Tango as part of the celebration.

Milongas are the actual event from which tango gets its famous sensual and passionate

recognition, and this is given by the fact that, because it was not well seen to court a woman in

public places at the time and specially in front of their families, Milongas were the perfect

excuse for young men to seduce women by the act of dancing. This takes the norm to become

a value, the value of social interaction but not friendship, but sexual or romantic relationships.

In milongas nowadays it is common to encounter several long-term traditions of social behavior

taken from the secretive births of tango (from its prohibition to the use of it for relations) such

as respect to elderly dancers: represented by the symbol of not being able and considered

disrespectful to pass over and elderly couple. Another one is the way to approach women: by

nodding the head after making eye contact, which would be a symbol of Milongas that replaces

the verbal communication of asking someone for a dance; being both ocular movement and an

emblem. Furthermore, an example of a ritual could be tracked to how “Tangueros” celebrate a

birthday: by making the birthday boy/girl have a dance with all the community around in one

entire song, each person would take a turn to dance with the person being celebrated and then

pass the mantle to another and so on until the song is completed. The proxemics of the dance

are quite interesting because they share both an intimate space (the moment of dancing) and a

public space (when sitting). And just like that, there are many other examples that Tango could

offer.

On the other hand, while the Tango dance is an extremely popular dance worldwide, everybody

has different world view on it, especially if you do not belong to this community, there are few

things that people truly know about the dance and the culture. For example, everybody knows

that Tango is a sensual dance because they’ve seen it, but not everybody has experienced the

actual connection that is created between Tango dancers. This connection could be seen by the

eyes of everybody else as rehearsed steps, but, Tango dancing is actuals a corporal
communication that is being expressed by a man, through the body used as a canal, and receipt

by the women. The man decides where to go, what movements is the woman allowed to do, the

time, the steps, the eye contact, etc. This experience of body language at a much superior level

is what creates a special connection between dancers, like the act of falling in love. Dates, going

to the movies, flirting, and other things can be all resumed and replaced in one single Tango

dance, and it is this part being showed to the rest of the world. Tango can also have several

dimensions within its culture, as it can be a hierarchal as elders and men have control of the

power. It can be collectivist and social lubricant as its whole purpose is to connect people way

beyond what words are able to do.

To summarize, Tango dancing and Milongas are an extraordinary example of a culture that

passes the limitations of territory, nations, and even languages. Two persons that do not talk the

same language could be able to understand each other mainly by the act of dancing Tango in a

Milonga, and it could lead to a connection that is stronger and larger than the ones Facebook

claim to create. For this, Tango exceeds in examples of rituals, norms, values, nonverbal

communication, especially nonverbal communication, and so many other things that are

explored in interculturality.

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