Queer Tango

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Two women dancing tango on a Soviet postcard from the 1920s

The Queer Tango is a variant of the tango , in which the traditional gender roles can be changed as well as same-sex couples are possible. In this context, queer is not just a self-designation for the LGBT community (see queer theory ), but also includes heterosexual dance couples who ignore conventional gender roles.

meaning

Traditional man-woman dance

In the tango of the Rio de la Plata , a sensual couple dance, there is a leading and a following dance partner. Traditionally the man leads and the woman follows (often with her eyes closed). In the area of ​​origin of tango, in the port cities on the Río de la Plata , this is described with the rhyme: 'El hombre conduce, la mujer seduce y se luce.' ("The man leads, the woman seduces and shines."). "Tango" is associated with machismo , male chauvinism and heterosexuality :

“ Gender , which in recent years has been unmasked as a social construct and, with great analytical efforts, has been broken down into its discursive components, with tango it becomes nature again. For one evening archaic instincts rule, the body commands the spirit, the man commands the woman. "

- Stefanie Flamm : Gender is becoming nature again. (Quoted from Annette Hartmann.)

In classical tango, the repertoire of movements is determined specifically by gender. The decorative and graceful elements of dance fall to the woman. It "shines" through artistic decorations, e.g. B. 'boleos', and through soft, round and hip movements like 'ochos' (the dancer describes an eight with her feet). In the case of a Sentada , she even completely gives up contact with the ground and sits on the man's thigh. The man, on the other hand, dances “close to the ground”. His repertoire includes the harder, more abrupt movements such as 'paradas' (stops), 'cortes' (interruptions), 'sacadas' (throwing the partner's leg away), 'barridas' (pushing the foot) and 'taconeo' (stamping). He is responsible for the couple's stability. He supports his partner in all figures in which she is in unstable equilibrium.

While standard dances have a fixed sequence of steps, the Tango Argentino is danced in complete improvisation; he only knows small elements that can be freely combined. Every step is a new decision, and traditionally the man is the choreographer, who uses clear body language to organize the dance spontaneously without a prior plan. This interplay is called “Marcar y responder” in Spanish (“giving signals and answering”). Without clear signals ('marcas') from the man, the woman cannot answer (“responder”), cannot develop. These leadership signals from the man are to be understood as an "invitation": if the woman does not follow, the skilful tanguero must immediately suggest another sequence of movements - unnoticed by the audience:

“A woman is able to block a dancer completely, and any dancer, no matter how good, can look like a beginner with a woman who 'doesn't follow'. It could be represented as follows: the man suggests a movement and it is up to the woman whether and how she carries it out. He cannot dance without your cooperation. "

- Melina Sedó : Gender roles in Argentine tango.

The woman slides backwards across the dance floor, the man steps forward and has to keep an eye on everything, because he is responsible for leading his partner across the dance floor safely and without colliding with other couples:

"While the woman can close her eyes and give herself completely to the music, the dance and the 'strong arms of the man', the man takes on the less relaxing role of protecting and taking care."

- Johanna Neundlinger : The tango and the feeling.

Also in the context of the challenge rituals , the man takes on a dominant role at traditional milongas.

Tango is considered an erotic dance in which, due to the unusually large closeness, a sizzling, sensual, flirty tension builds up between man and woman. In order to correspond to the traditional image of women in tango, to look beautiful and to be seductive, tangueras often throw themselves into daring fashion, not only in shows:

“Although it became socially acceptable, the tango has retained its erotic charm [...]. A tall, slim man in his prime takes a woman from the next table to dance. He puts his arm around her, gently and yet firmly he guides her into the movement, the high heels mark an invisible figure eight on the floor. Then he stops them. Her leg, wrapped in black net, slides along his leg, strokes his gray trousers, plays a little. He gives her time for the decoration, enjoys - then an impulse from his upper body leads her into a new sequence of steps. "

- Annett Welsch : sensuality and addiction. Tango Argentino.

Analysis and breaking down of gender roles

Adopting these conventional tango-specific gender roles is not easy for many women and men:

“Modern women have learned to take responsibility, not to let themselves be led, to be creative themselves. […] But the tango is also a challenge for European men: here they have to be purposeful and self-confident, 'set the direction', be decisive, but also bear responsibility. It stands to reason that many find this difficult in a society that says that men should not 'force decisions' on women and that everyone is responsible for themselves. "

- Melina Sedó : Gender roles in Argentine tango.

To this heteronormative break gender roles, the gender roles ( 'gender roles') in dance to question playful and to lesbians , gays , bisexuals and transgenders - the LGBT Association of - to give a home to the Tango, the idea was born in the 1980s, the Queer Tangos .

Tango dancing beyond gender boundaries

In the queer tango scene in queer tango - in addition to the traditional form - the leading and following roles are formed from woman-woman, man-man and woman-man dance pairs, which go beyond traditional clichés move. Here replace leading and following during Tanda , the roles to better - - sometimes even in the midst of the same dance gender competence to develop greater inner awareness and heightened sensitivity.

The basic idea of ​​the queer tango movement is to want to understand tango independently of sexual identities , whereby heterosexual tangueras and tangueros should by no means be excluded. You are invited to experiment with changing roles in tango. This represents a challenge, because the role reversal requires a great emotional and mental change, a 'mindset change'. Men learn to dance the delicate movement elements of the traditionally "female" repertoire and develop a sharper perception of the subtleties of being led. Women expand their dance creativity by swapping roles. You will learn to think ahead choreographically and acquire the techniques of leading body language:

“A major change also means the 'mindset change': Leadership means determining to be sure at all times of what will happen next. For many women, this is an unfamiliar situation if until then she has danced in the traditional role model of the devoted woman who follows with her eyes closed. But just like women, men who decide to want to follow more often have to struggle with changing roles: just listen physically instead of anticipating the (well-known) steps, while at the same time adapting the body to the more feminine movement patterns (ochos, Turning) and keeping the axis as stable as possible. "

- Veronika Fischer : Leading ladies and obedient men: When women lead ...

By slipping into the other role, women and men not only expand their dance skills, but they are also confronted with the cross-gender problem and encouraged to reflect on the concerns of gender research , the distinction between biological sex and gender role behavior : Doing Tango - Performing Gender , as Annette Hartmann (see literature) put this mental-emotional process in a formulaic way.

"For some, the tango can serve to find or redefine their gender role, others it may scare off or unsettle with its specific role requirements."

- Melina Sedó : Gender roles in Argentine tango.

On the history of the queer tango movement

The exact circumstances of the origin of the tango as a couple dance are in the dark. When looking back at his history, images of same-sex dance couples light up again and again. Even Jorge Luis Borges defended the thesis, invented the tango dance by men and each other danced him originally as a same-sex male couples, often before or in brothels :

“The Argentine poet Jorge Luis Borges expresses what the historians of tango know: that the origin of dance lies in the brothels. 'There is no lack of additional confirmations: the lascivious dance figures, the obvious suggestion of certain titles' - El choclo (the corn on the cob), El fierrazo (the poker) -' the fact that I lived as a child in Palermo and years later in La Chacarita and in Boedo was able to observe: Men danced together on the street corners because the women from the people did not want to take part in a slouch. '"

- Annett Welsch : sensuality and addiction. Tango Argentino.

As a motive for the formation of the man-man dance couples, on the one hand the lack of women in the Rioplatensian population around 1900 is given and on the other hand, reference is made to the disreputable nature of close physical contact. No 'decent' woman was allowed to dance in public like this at the time:

“In an atmosphere of petty crime, prostitution and trafficking in women, the early form of tango was often danced in brothels. Because of the constant lack of women, two men often got together. "

- Hugo Lamas and Enrique Binda : El Tango en la Sociedad Porteña 1880–1920.

As a man-woman couple dance, tango only became socially acceptable in Latin America after a detour via Paris, but in a style that was cleared of 'cortes and quebradas' (abrupt breaks and contortions). At the same time, French postcards have survived from the years 1910/1920 depicting same-sex women dance couples. However, it remains unclear whether these are lesbian couples or posed poses for voyeuristic male eyes.

Today's queer tango movement is aware of this same-sex historical origin of tango with its mostly hidden homoerotic connotation, and builds on it. It originated in Hamburg's gay and lesbian tango scene , where the first tango enthusiasts met in a small gay café called Tuc Tuc in Altona in the mid-1980s .

In 2001 the International Queer Tango Festival was launched in Hamburg . Based on the Hamburg model, a “queer tango scene” gradually formed in individual German cities, such as in Berlin and Cologne. There are tango lessons for gays and lesbians, "queer" tango workshops, "queer" milongas and local queer tango festivals . The last Hamburg festival was held in 2011. In the same year, the International QueerTango Festival in Berlin was created under the direction of Astrid Weiske, which has since been considered the largest European festival of its kind.

Starting in Germany, the queer tango idea spread around the world. There are now regular queer tango festivals in Berlin, Buenos Aires, Copenhagen, Stockholm, San Francisco, New York and even Saint Petersburg. In Buenos Aires , where tango is danced in public almost exclusively in traditional roles, there has been a weekly queer tango salon since 2002, La Marshall , which has been headed by Augusto Balizano since it was founded. In addition, Mariana Docampo has been running a weekly queer milonga in the Buenos Aires Club since 2005 .

literature

  • Annette Hartmann: Doing Tango - Performing Gender. On the (de) construction of gender identities in literature and dance. In: Gabriele Klein, Christa Zipprich (Ed.): Dance Theory Text. Münster, Lit 2002, pp. 367–381, ISBN 3-8258-5901-0 ( limited preview in Google book search).
  • Rolf Thum: Sex, machismo, tango. Essay. In: Rolf Thum's cloud stories. July 2003 / April 2005. Retrieved May 19, 2010.
  • Melina Sedó: Gender roles in Argentine tango. Diploma thesis at the University of Saarland , Saarbrücken 2003 (short version). ( Full text (PDF; 883 kB) on tangosalon.de. Accessed on May 19, 2010.)
  • Paula-Irene Villa : Playing with the seriousness of the body: body, discourse and emotions in Argentine tango. In: Thomas Alkemeyer, Robert Schmidt (Ed.): Bodies set at risk. Performances of the social in sports and popular culture. Konstanz 2003, pp. 131–156. ( Full text (PDF; 672 kB) on queer-tango.de. Accessed on May 24, 2010.)
  • Magali Saikin: Tango and Gender. Identities and Gender Roles in Argentine Tango. Butterfly publishing house, Stuttgart 2004, ISBN 3-89657-611-9
  • Manuel González: El Tango es machista? In: Punto Tango, No. 26, December 2008. ( Full text on puntotango.com.ar, Spanish. Retrieved May 20, 2010.)
  • Ute Walter: Tango and inner mindfulness or another approach to tango dancing. The importance of inner mindfulness in Tango Argentino and its communication in the classroom through the inclusion of selected aspects of the dialogue process method. Diploma thesis at the University of Hamburg , Hamburg 2008.
  • Johanna Neundlinger: The tango and the feeling. Machismo, parallel world and sensuality. The fascinations of the Tango Argentino in Vienna. Diploma thesis at the University of Vienna , Vienna 2009. ( Full text (PDF; 801 kB) at the University of Vienna. Accessed on May 19, 2010.)
  • Annette Hartmann: Tango - a game with gender dichotomies. In: Martina Oster, Waltraud Ernst, Marion Gerards (Eds.): Performativity and Performance: Gender in Music, Theater and Media Art. 2nd Edition. Lit-Verlag, Münster 2010, ISBN 978-3-8258-0660-6 , pp. 48-57 ( limited preview in the Google book search).

Web links

Wikibooks: Tango Argentino  - learning and teaching materials

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Mariana Docampo: ¿Qué es Tango Queer? (Spanish) or What is queer tango (English) In: Blog about the queer tango scene in Buenos Aires . Retrieved May 20, 2010.
  2. ↑ Manuel González: Essay, 2008. Johanna Neundlinger: Diploma thesis, 2009. Rolf Thum: Essay, 2003. (See literature .)
  3. ↑ Stefanie Flamm: Gender is becoming nature again . In: du: Das Kulturmagazin , issue 677: Tango. A kind of longing.  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , November 1997, p. 83. (Quoted from: Annette Hartmann: Doing Tango - Performing Gender. See literature: Hartmann .)@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.du-magazin.com  
  4. ↑ Eckart Haerter: Notes from Eckart Haerter on: "Raimund Allebrand: The image of women in Tango: Article in" Hispanorama: Journal of the German Spanish Teachers Association (DSV) "103.2004." Originally in: Hispanorama, Issue 106, 2004, ISSN  0720-1168 . Copy in: Tango Productions Ulrike & Eckart Haerter , haerter-tango.de. Retrieved March 12, 2017.
  5. ↑ a b Melina Sedó: Gender roles in the Argentine tango , p. 43. (See literature: Sedó .)
  6. ^ Johanna Neundlinger: The Tango and the feeling. , P. 60. (See literature: Neundlinger .)
  7. ^ Ralf Sartori: Tango. The unifying power of dancing eros. Bastei-Lübbe, 2001, ISBN 978-3-404-70185-8
  8. ↑ Annett Welsch: Sensuality and Addiction. Tango Argentino - How a dance awakens longing and brings back a lost eroticism. In: parapluie, issue 21, summer 2005. ( full text (PDF, pp. 1 and 2; 51 kB) on parapluie.de. Accessed on May 26, 2010.
  9. ↑ Example of leading and being led: Los Hermanos Macana , the Milonga Reliquias Porteñas dance and change leadership roles several times within the same dance: YouTube video at 0:36, 0:45, 1:19, 1:33 and 1:46 .
  10. ↑ Tanja Thimm: Tango and inner mindfulness or another approach to tango dancing. Conversation with the graduate student Ute Walter, tango teacher and co-founder of the queer tango movement in Hamburg, about her thesis of the same name (see literature: Walter ). In: Tangodanza, Heft 35 ,, 3/2008, pp. 28–31 (Focus section). Full text (PDF, 4 pages; 896 kB) ( Memento of the original from March 1, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. on no-guru.net. Retrieved May 23, 2010. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.no-guru.net
  11. ↑ Veronika Fischer (La potranca): Leading ladies and obedient men: When women lead ... In: Tangodanza, Heft 36. , 4/2008, pp. 28–29 (section Especial). ( Full text ( Memento of the original from March 4, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this note. On la-potranca.com. Retrieved on May 23, 2010.) @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.la-potranca.com
  12. ↑ Melina Sedó: Gender roles in the Argentine tango , p. 44. (See literature: Sedó .)
  13. ↑ Annett Welsch: Sensuality and Addiction. Tango Argentino. Full text on: parapluie.de
  14. ^ Hugo Lamas and Enrique Binda: El Tango en la Sociedad Porteña 1880–1920. Editorial: Lucci 1998. Quoted from lower class tango ( memento of October 10, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) on: “netzwerkrecherche.wordpress.com”. Accessed June 18, 2010.
  15. ↑ a b J. Alberto Mariñas: They dance alone… Tango postcards on: esto.es. Retrieved June 18, 2010
  16. ↑ Tina Fritsche: Tango meets transgender. The 3rd International Queer Tango Festival invites you to play with gender roles. From: ak - analyze + kritik - newspaper for left-wing debate and practice / No. 476 / September 19, 2003. Article online . Retrieved June 18, 2010.
  17. ↑ queer-tango.de: 1st International Queer Tango Festival Hamburg
  18. ↑ Elke Koepping: With leadership potential . In: Tangolazarett. June 29, 2013. Retrieved December 28, 2017 .
  19. ↑ Katharina Böcherer: Open atmosphere. The gay and lesbian tango scene in Berlin. In: tangokultur.info. January 2007 edition. Retrieved May 20, 2010.
  20. ↑ Frauke Hinrichsen: Queer Tango: The other side of the moon. In: berliner-zeitung.de. March 2, 2012, accessed December 28, 2017 .
  21. ^ Elke Koepping: Subversive in motion. In: neue-deutschland.de. September 6, 2014, accessed December 28, 2017 .
  22. ↑ Argentina: Program website of the 'Festival Internacional de Tango Queer de Buenos Aires', November 22-28, 2010 (in Spanish), Denmark: Program website of the International Queer Tango Festival in Copenhagen as part of the World Outgames 2009 ( Memento des Originals from July 19, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Sweden: Program website of the 4th International Queer Tango Festival Stockholm , May 14-16, 2010 , USA: Program website of the International Queer Tango Festival San Francisco , July 30-4, 2010 ( Memento of the original from May 30, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.copenhagen2009.org @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.queertango.us
  23. ↑ In Buenos Aires, tolerance towards gays is limited . Press release Buenos Aires (dpa) November 9, 2004: Platform for gays in Switzerland ( Memento of the original from November 30, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (on g26.ch/gay_kultur_55.html). Retrieved May 28, 2010 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.g26.ch
  24. ↑ website Queer tango salons La Marshall, Buenos Aires . Retrieved December 28, 2017
  25. ^ Website of the Milonga Tango Queer . Retrieved December 28, 2017