TRANSCULTURAL TANGO: AN ETHNOGRAPHIC STUDY O F A DANCE COMMUNITY IN THE EAS T MIDLANDS JANE D. HOLGATE DE MONTFORT UNIVERSITY, LEICESTER NOVEMBER 2015 THIS THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE AWARD OF THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY ABSTRACT This thesis examines the practice of an Argentine Tango dance community in the East Midlands, England. It is an ethnographic study whose objectives are to investigate this instance of a local transcultural dance practice in order to learn about participants’ motivations; their experience of and identification with Argentine Tango; and the meanings produced in the process of their participation. As social dancer, teacher and insider researcher, I employ embodiment as a key methodological strategy in order to engage with and share the experience of dancing with participants; to gain sensory understanding and bodily knowledge of the practice; and in the process to gain access to further avenues of meaning-making amongst participants. The study considers questions arising directly from my teaching role to do with the transmission and reproduction of the dance, authenticity, the production of meaning, the construction and performance of identity and the imaginative construction of post-modern cultural practices. The nature of space and place is considered, as is Turner’s distinction between liminoid and liminal activity with regard to ritual and communitas in relation to Argentine Tango. Alongside participant discussions, I explore various perspectives on the cosmopolitan appropriation and exoticisation of Argentine Tango; the diffusion, re- territorialisation and globalisation of Argentine Tango since the late 1980s. Data was produced using ethnographic tools, including video recording, shared reviewing and feedback from participants. The thesis analyses findings to show how participants project narratives of the imagination into their dancing, thereby providing frameworks of meaning which crucially underpin and sustain this practice. These imagined narratives are compared to journeys, both literal and of the imagination, enabling the creative construction of new identities, the exploration of self in relation to others and an escape from everyday life in postmodernity. 2 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First and foremost I wish to offer my heart-felt thanks for the willing co-operation and enthusiasm of the participants of the Leicester and Market Harborough Tango groups. Apart from those participants who had published work to which I have referred, I do not name them individually but have replaced their real names with pseudonyms for the purpose of confidentiality and in order to preserve identity. Their contribution and participation has been nonetheless important despite its anonymity, as this study would have been impossible without them. I am sincerely grateful to my supervisors Professor Theresa J. Buckland , Simon Featherstone and Professor Ramsay Burt for their experience, understanding, painstaking assistance and constant encouragement. However, without the endless patience, love and reassurance of my family, this thesis would not have come to fruition: I would not have made it to the end. 3 TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT ............................................................................................................................................. 2 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ......................................................................................................................... 3 TABLE OF CONTENTS ............................................................................................................................. 4 INTRODUCTION: SETTING THE SCENE .................................................................................................... 8 THE CONTEXT OF STUDY ................................................................................................................................ 8 CHAPTER 1: GENRE AND CONTEXT .......................................................................................................16 HISTORY AND ORIGINS ................................................................................................................................. 16 INTANGIBLE CULTURAL HERITAGE AND NATIONAL IDENTITY ................................................................................ 21 DIFFERING GENRES: SOCIAL DANCE, PERFORMANCE AND BALLROOM TANGO ......................................................... 22 EAST MIDLANDS ETHNOGRAPHY .................................................................................................................... 27 AUTHENTICITY AND OTHER QUESTIONS ............................................................................................................ 29 CHAPTER 2: REVIEWING THE LITERATURE ON ARGENTINE TANGO ......................................................32 TANGO IN BUENOS AIRES: AUTO-ETHNOGRAPHIES ............................................................................................ 34 TANGO AND RACE ....................................................................................................................................... 37 TANGO AND THE PERFORMANCE OF GENDER AND EXPERIMENTAL IDENTITIES ......................................................... 40 TANGO AND THE BODY ................................................................................................................................ 42 POST MODERN TANGO: PERSPECTIVES FROM THE 21ST CENTURY ......................................................................... 43 TRANSCULTURATION AND THE GLOBALISATION OF TANGO .................................................................................. 46 OTHER DANCE ETHNOGRAPHY ...................................................................................................................... 50 RESEARCH ON SOCIAL DANCING .................................................................................................................... 51 CHAPTER 3: FIELDWORK METHODOLOGY AND FIELDWORK.................................................................56 ETHNOGRAPHY AT HOME .............................................................................................................................. 56 A GROUP WITH NO INSIDERS: THE EMIC/ETIC DISTINCTION .................................................................................. 58 FINDING THE FIELD OF RESEARCH ................................................................................................................... 60 RESEARCHER DISTANCE; REFLEXIVITY; OBJECTIVITY ........................................................................................... 62 ACCESS TO THE FIELD AND PRACTICAL TIMESCALE ............................................................................................. 64 METHODS OF DATA COLLECTION, DOCUMENTATION AND STORAGE ..................................................................... 67 EMBODIED PRACTICE AS RESEARCH STRATEGY .................................................................................................. 69 DANCE NOTATION AND VIDEO RECORDING ...................................................................................................... 73 RESEARCHER RESPONSIBILITY AND PERSPECTIVES ............................................................................................... 76 4 CHAPTER 4: THE VISUAL METHODOLOGY .............................................................................................79 RE-ASSESSING THE RESEARCH TOOLS: READDRESSING THE RESEARCH QUESTIONS ................................................ 79 THE PURPOSE OF MAKING VISUAL RECORDINGS ................................................................................................. 79 SENSIBLE REFERENTS AND SYMBOLIC IMAGES .................................................................................................. 82 SEEING THE INVISIBLE................................................................................................................................... 85 PRACTICAL, ETHICAL AND TECHNICAL ASPECTS OF VIDEO-RECORDING ............................................................. 89 ETHICAL ISSUES IN AN IMAGE-MAKING CULTURE: FIRST RECORDINGS ................................................................. 91 FIXED TRIPOD FILMING ............................................................................................................................... 93 CAMERA INTERACTION ................................................................................................................................ 95 WATCHING THE DANCERS BEING WATCHED ...................................................................................................... 96 DANCER’S RECORDINGS ............................................................................................................................... 98 THE ATTRIBUTION OF MEANING DEPENDENT ON CONTEXT .................................................................................. 99 PLAYBACK SESSIONS .................................................................................................................................. 101 ELICITING RESPONSES TO THE VIDEO MATERIAL ............................................................................................... 103 TRANSCRIPTION ........................................................................................................................................ 105 A SPIRAL OF RESEARCH .............................................................................................................................