The game of seduction it enshrined was not conducted between equals. When the first women tango singers emerged at the beginning of the Golden Age, they dressed in menâs clothing.
But at this time, the majority of tango writers and musicians were part-time artists whose main source of income was elsewhere. AgustÃn Bardi worked in a shop, Vicente Greco sold newspapers, Juan Maglio was a mechanic â though they would later find an adequate living from tango. But first, tango would need to win the battle for acceptance.
And for that to happen, it had first to wrestle with the suspicion that tango still aroused and the very different visions of the dance.
The room fills with happy people; everywhere one hears phrases that could make a vigilante blush. In the background a group of petty criminals from the barrios with improvised disguises, in the theatre boxes handsome men and even more handsome girls. Suddenly the orchestra begins a tango and the couples begin to form. The china and compadre join together in a fraternal embrace, and then the dance begins, in which the dancers show such an art that it is impossible to describe the contortions, dodgings, impudent steps and clicking of the heels the tango causes.
The couples glide energetically to the beat of the dance, voluptuously, as if all their desires are placed in the dance. In the background, the people form groups to see figures done by a girl from the suburbs, who is proclaimed the mistress without rival in this difficult art, and the crowd applauds theseprodigious figures, drawing back scandalized when the dancerâs companion says âGive me the pleasure, my little âchinaââ. 10
The Scottish writer Robert Cunninghame Graham, however, seemed slightly more shocked by what he saw.
They were so close to each other that the leg of the carefully pressed trouser would disappear in the tight skirt, the man holding her in such a close embrace that the hand ended up by the womanâs face. They gyrated in a whirlwind, bending down to the floor, advancing the legs in front of each other while turning, all of this with a movement of the hips that seemed to fuse the impeccable trousers with the slitted skirt. The music continued more tumultuously, the musical times multiplied until, with a jump, the woman would throw herself into the arms of her partner, who would put her back on her feet. 11
Clearly such antics would horrify the ladies of Palermo and reinforce their resistance to the tangoâs incursions into their lives. Conservative writers like Leopoldo Lugones and Manuel Galvez looked upon the tango with barely disguised racial arrogance: âthe product of cosmopolitanism, hybrid and ugly music . . . a grotesque dance . . . the embodiment of our national disarrayâ. 12 There were persistent attempts to close down the brothels, and eventually new ordinances to control the bordellos were passed in 1915. And the wealthy districts were becoming increasingly nervous about the rise of anarchist groups which they associated with prostitution and criminality.
In the end, their resistance was to no avail. Tango won its right to exist, but only after Tangomania hit Paris.
3 TANGO GOES TO PARIS
PLACES OF PLEASURE
At the Universal Exhibition of 1900, when Paris gathered the products of the new and exciting modern world, from automobiles to electricity, John Philip Sousaâs band played ragtime music for the middle class of Paris. Two years later, in 1902, âLes Joyeux Nègresâ (The Cheerful Negroes), a show featuring The Little Walkers at the Nouveau Cirque, caused a sensation when it introduced the cakewalk to its audiences. In 1906, Debussy composed his (unfortunately named) âGollywogâs Cakewalkâ, while in the following year Picasso and Matisse both produced iconic paintings ( Les Desmoiselles dâAvignon and Blue Nude respectively) which celebrated the art of Africa, which they had seen at the famous
But at this time, the majority of tango writers and musicians were part-time artists whose main source of income was elsewhere. AgustÃn Bardi worked in a shop, Vicente Greco sold newspapers, Juan Maglio was a mechanic â though they would later find an adequate living from tango. But first, tango would need to win the battle for acceptance.
And for that to happen, it had first to wrestle with the suspicion that tango still aroused and the very different visions of the dance.
The room fills with happy people; everywhere one hears phrases that could make a vigilante blush. In the background a group of petty criminals from the barrios with improvised disguises, in the theatre boxes handsome men and even more handsome girls. Suddenly the orchestra begins a tango and the couples begin to form. The china and compadre join together in a fraternal embrace, and then the dance begins, in which the dancers show such an art that it is impossible to describe the contortions, dodgings, impudent steps and clicking of the heels the tango causes.
The couples glide energetically to the beat of the dance, voluptuously, as if all their desires are placed in the dance. In the background, the people form groups to see figures done by a girl from the suburbs, who is proclaimed the mistress without rival in this difficult art, and the crowd applauds theseprodigious figures, drawing back scandalized when the dancerâs companion says âGive me the pleasure, my little âchinaââ. 10
The Scottish writer Robert Cunninghame Graham, however, seemed slightly more shocked by what he saw.
They were so close to each other that the leg of the carefully pressed trouser would disappear in the tight skirt, the man holding her in such a close embrace that the hand ended up by the womanâs face. They gyrated in a whirlwind, bending down to the floor, advancing the legs in front of each other while turning, all of this with a movement of the hips that seemed to fuse the impeccable trousers with the slitted skirt. The music continued more tumultuously, the musical times multiplied until, with a jump, the woman would throw herself into the arms of her partner, who would put her back on her feet. 11
Clearly such antics would horrify the ladies of Palermo and reinforce their resistance to the tangoâs incursions into their lives. Conservative writers like Leopoldo Lugones and Manuel Galvez looked upon the tango with barely disguised racial arrogance: âthe product of cosmopolitanism, hybrid and ugly music . . . a grotesque dance . . . the embodiment of our national disarrayâ. 12 There were persistent attempts to close down the brothels, and eventually new ordinances to control the bordellos were passed in 1915. And the wealthy districts were becoming increasingly nervous about the rise of anarchist groups which they associated with prostitution and criminality.
In the end, their resistance was to no avail. Tango won its right to exist, but only after Tangomania hit Paris.
3 TANGO GOES TO PARIS
PLACES OF PLEASURE
At the Universal Exhibition of 1900, when Paris gathered the products of the new and exciting modern world, from automobiles to electricity, John Philip Sousaâs band played ragtime music for the middle class of Paris. Two years later, in 1902, âLes Joyeux Nègresâ (The Cheerful Negroes), a show featuring The Little Walkers at the Nouveau Cirque, caused a sensation when it introduced the cakewalk to its audiences. In 1906, Debussy composed his (unfortunately named) âGollywogâs Cakewalkâ, while in the following year Picasso and Matisse both produced iconic paintings ( Les Desmoiselles dâAvignon and Blue Nude respectively) which celebrated the art of Africa, which they had seen at the famous
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