University of Wollongong Research Online University of Wollongong Thesis Collection 1954-2016 University of Wollongong Thesis Collections 2016 Trouble with Tango: conversations across boundaries Argentine Tango and contact improvision Eleanor Brickhill University of Wollongong Follow this and additional works at: https://ro.uow.edu.au/theses University of Wollongong Copyright Warning You may print or download ONE copy of this document for the purpose of your own research or study. The University does not authorise you to copy, communicate or otherwise make available electronically to any other person any copyright material contained on this site. You are reminded of the following: This work is copyright. Apart from any use permitted under the Copyright Act 1968, no part of this work may be reproduced by any process, nor may any other exclusive right be exercised, without the permission of the author. 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For further information contact the UOW Library: [email protected] TROUBLE WITH TANGO: CONVERSATIONS ACROSS BOUNDARIES ARGENTINE TANGO AND CONTACT IMPROVISATION A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the award of the degree MASTER OF ARTS – RESEARCH From UNIVERSITY OF WOLLONGONG By ELEANOR BRICKHILL BA FACULTY OF LAW, HUMANITIES AND THE ARTS 2016 CERTIFICATION I, Eleanor Brickhill, declare that this thesis, submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the award of Master of Arts – Research, in the Faculty of Law, Humanities and the Arts, University of Wollongong, is wholly my own work unless otherwise referenced or acknowledged. The document has not been submitted for qualifications at any other academic institution. Eleanor Brickhill 29 March 2016 i Contents List of Figures p. iv Foreign and technical terms p. v Abstract p. vi Acknowledgements p. viii Chapter 1 Argentine tango through the eyes of a postmodern dancer p. 1 1.1 Methodology p. 4 1.2 Contextual and literature review p. 7 1.3 Chapter outline p. 13 1.4 From contact to tango p. 17 1.5 Artists and early influences p. 21 1.6 Sex and sensibility p. 27 Chapter 2 Tango: first encounters p. 32 2.1 Social tango p. 32 2.2 Pierre Bourdieu and social practice theory p. 42 2.3 Searching for ‘real’ tango p. 47 2.4 A little tango culture p. 49 2.5 Cultivating norms and stereotypes p. 60 2.6 Discourses of authenticity p. 66 2.7 Tradition and purveyors of authentic tango p. 68 Chapter 3 Authenticity and transgression: Cabeceo and other relational codes p. 72 3.1 Social capital p. 73 3.1.1 Incident 1: A subtle tango code p. 74 3.2 Cabeceo and associated ‘wallflowering’ p. 78 3.3 The embrace p. 83 3.3.1 Men ‘just practising’ p. 83 3.3.2 Women do not lead p. 85 3.3.3 Incident 2: Visible intent and heightened seriousness p. 91 3.4 A heterosexual embrace? p. 92 Chapter 4 Searching for a ‘qualitatively different culture of communication’ – Tango nuevo and queer tango p. 95 4.1 Learning and teaching tango p. 100 4.2 Tango: a debate about authenticity p. 107 4.3 Another pedagogical model p. 118 Chapter 5 Negotiating the spaces in between p. 127 5.1 The paradox of touch p. 129 Chapter 6 Concluding ideas: Fostering an ‘endless gliding’ between differences p. 153 ii References p. 180 Appendix 1 Author’s background p. 190 Appendix 2 Tango’s hybrid history p. 195 Appendix 3 The Dialogue Process: Ten core abilities p. 202 Appendix 4 Formal ethics permissions p. 209 iii List of Figures Figure 1. A Darlinghurst milonga, 2011, Sydney. Photo by Vincenzo, 2011. p. 34 Figure 2. Tango criollo. ‘Call and response’ becomes ‘lead and follow’ (in Thompson 2005, p. 231). p. 54 Figure 3. ‘The tango embrace – tango liso’. From Ferrer, Don Horacio (1980), El Libro del Tango: Arte Popular de Buenos Aires, Book Two, Chapters 26-30. p. 55 Figure 4. Canyengue. Photo by Aaron Davies, UK, 2012. http://aarondavies.photoshelter.com/gallery-image/Portfolio-Tango- Peformers/G0000NoeMuohzcq4/I0000T_5cpt82Gus p. 56 Figure 5. Tango and enacting heterosexual passion. Photo courtesy of Luis Bravo Productions, 2012. https://genevaanderson.wordpress.com/tag/forever-tango/. p. 63 Figure 6. A waltz’s close embrace: Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Bal à Bougival, 1883. http://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/renoir-at-the- frick-go-see-dance-at-bougival. p. 86 Figure 7. Women ‘practising’ together with humour seems to almost defuse the impact of a heterosexual embrace. http://tangoforge.com/queer-argentine-tango-sydney-press-release/. p. 89 iv Foreign and technical terms milonga The name of a social tango event where people go to dance tango: at a milonga, there are usually three kinds of dances: tango, milonga and vals – a milonga (dance) is an early, quick-paced form of tango. cabeceo A man’s silent invitation to dance, using his eyes. practica A place to practice tango. nuevo New. tanda A bracket of three or four songs of either tango, vals or milonga. cortina A short non-tango musical break between tandas. codigos Tango codes. machismo Aggressive masculinity. gauchos Cattlemen. pampas South American lowlands. canyengue Describes a kind of ‘streetwise quality’ of an early tango. tango criollo Literally ‘Creole tango’, in early tango. tango liso Tango characterised by simplicity and smoothness. tango de salon An elegant, slow and refined tango. ruffianesque Savigliano’s term describing a quality of rough working class tango. milonguita Term for a young girl who ends up as a prostitute in a tango bar. compadrito A street dandy, or ruffian. milonguero/milonguera Those who frequent milongas and whose life revolves around tango; someone thought to embody tango’s essence. estilo milonguero Milongero style, or close embrace. El Civico/La Moreira A theatrical ‘ruffianesque’ tango couple. tanguidad A sensibility or feeling that tinges everything with nostalgia. tanguero/ tanguera A person who is serious about everything tango: music, lyrics, history, dancers; scholar of lunfardo, music, orchestration, musicians. lunfardo Spanish/Italian slang of the Buenos Aires underworld. tanguerical A quintessentially tango quality. portenos Inhabitants of the port city of Buenos Aires. muliebrity Womanly qualities. v Abstract This thesis explores two different forms of improvised, social partner dance – contact improvisation and Argentine tango – arguing that despite their emergence from wildly different cultural and socio-political contexts, there is nonetheless a shared core of physical partnering skills. It draws on my embodied experience as a professional dancer trained in various forms of modern dance, as well as extensive and ongoing study of contact improvisation, Ideokinesis, and Argentine tango, in order to ask: what are the practices and issues that create difficulties or barriers to the transmission or reception of these core skills from one form to the other? In order to investigate this question, this thesis is particularly interested in the ‘lead/follow’ structure within the tango ‘embrace’, understood as key to the partnering relationship. Consequently, this practice-led thesis draws on field work undertaken at milongas, practicas and classes in Sydney, Hamburg, Berlin and Buenos Aires, as well as on interviews undertaken with key practitioners in both forms. This primary research is supported by scholarship drawing on social practice theory, dance anthropology, gender and performance studies, psychoanalysis and pedagogy. Critical to this thesis is a concern for gender equality and social practice, particularly in the context of best practice in adult education. Consequently another question is whether the tango partnership, with its historically defined roles of leader and follower, has the potential to grow into a more equal and collaborative relationship built around negotiation, as is commonly practised in contact improvisation, rather than being defined almost exclusively by hierarchical heteronormative gender stereotypes. vi Also critical to this research project is an interrogation of the concept of ‘authenticity’ explored through the traditional Argentine tango codigas, or ‘codes’ – the cabeceo and the tango embrace – through which the perception of an ‘authentic’ practice is constructed, maintained and measured. The social practice theory of Pierre Bourdieu, and, in particular, his concepts of hysteresis, habitus, field and social capital, are integral to this research. The recurrent question ‘Is it tango?’ is also explored through an examination of practice and pedagogy, but in particular the philosophies and practices of contact improvisation and queer tango, understood as strategies that may mitigate against a habitual reassertion of normative values. This thesis concludes by finding that even if there are no absolute solutions in efforts to loosen tango’s socially unforgiving binaries, several areas in movement research might be fruitfully explored in order to understand and foster an ‘endless gliding’ between differences – understood as a search for ways that allow participation in tango partnerships to be more socially inclusive – not necessarily so that tango becomes unrecognisable, but in order that some of the understandings of the postmodern enterprise might enrich the beauty and intimacy of a tango partnership.