This very personal, idiosyncratic volume is not a celebration of
the tango - so common these days - but a meditation on it as an
expression of Argentine identity and history. Taylor is a
ballet-dancer-turned-anthropologist whose initial encounter with
Argentina was a cultural study of ritual dance; she ended up in
Buenos Aires learning to dance the tango. Here she broaches several
themes of Argentine identity that she finds encapsulated in the
tango but that have resonance beyond the country's boundaries. The
tango as Taylor presents it is the embodiment of contradiction: the
blank face and still upper body opposing the rapid movement of
legs; the macho pose of the male versus his inner feeling of
sadness and loss (a paradox of male identity that Taylor situates
in the barrios of Buenos Aires where the tango was born); the
apparent romance between the couple and their actual solitude
within the dance. On a more personal level, the author conveys the
passion with which devotees approach the tango, attending daily
late-night dance sessions where they argue over style with as much
ardor as they dance. But tango, according to Taylor, is also an
expression of violence, defined in a range of ways: as dominance
(of male over female), as terror (of the military junta over the
Argentine people), as sexual abuse (of the author herself when she
was a girl). Similarly, ambiguities in Taylor's own sense of
identity are mirrored in a corresponding ambiguity that she finds
in Argentina: "the particular forms of disorientation, loss, and
uncertainty of the nation's fate inculcated by years of terror." An
original and profound study of the power of a dance to express the
heart of a culture. (Kirkus Reviews)
Tango. A multidimensional expression of Argentine identity, one
that speaks to that nation's sense of disorientation, loss, and
terror. Yet the tango mesmerizes dancers and audiences alike
throughout the world. In Paper Tangos, Julie Taylor-a classically
trained dancer and anthropologist-examines the poetics of the tango
while describing her own quest to dance this most dramatic of
paired dances. Taylor, born in the United States, has lived much of
her adult life in Latin America. She has spent years studying the
tango in Buenos Aires, dancing during and after the terror of
military dictatorships. This book is at once an account of a life
lived crossing the borders of two distinct and complex cultures and
an exploration of the conflicting meanings of tango for women who
love the poetry of its movement yet feel uneasy with the roles it
bestows on the male and female dancers. Drawing parallels among the
violences of the Argentine Junta, the play with power inherent in
tango dancing, and her own experiences with violence both inside
and outside the intriguing tango culture, Taylor weaves the line
between engaging memoir and insightful cultural critique. Within
the contexts of tango's creative birth and contemporary
presentations, this book welcomes us directly into the tango
subculture and reveals the ways that personal, political, and
historical violence operate in our lives. The book's experimental
design includes photographs on every page, which form a flip-book
sequence of a tango. Not simply a book for tango dancers and fans,
Paper Tangos will reward students of Latin American studies,
cultural studies, anthropology, feminist studies, dance studies,
and the art of critical memoir.
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