Fruits of Insanity

Uruguay: Thoughts on the Tango

We think of the tango as an Argentine thing (there is a specific dance called the Argentine Tango, which has different movements and footwork than a standard ballroom tango), but in my research, I discovered that Uruguay claims it as well. In fact, one of the most famous tangos of them all La cumparsita, was written by a Uruguayan composer.

It is one of the national dances of the country—a country that is one of the most cultured and progressive countries in the world. Which has absolutely nothing to do with the tango, of course, but I found that interesting. In some ways, according to the research that I did, living in Uruguay is more comfortable than living in the United States. Most of its power is renewable, most of its children are educated—Uruguay is an example, both for the countries around it and for the rest of the world.

I’ve only tangoed once in my life. It was in class, so there were other college students who I’d been dancing with through the semester—sometimes I took the boy’s part, of course, because there’s always more girls in the ballroom classes, but this time, I was the girl.

The hold for the tango is different—closer than the hold for other ballroom dances because the movement is so much sharper. I could follow the rhythm, but the hold made me blush. In this hold, the woman gives over control of her body’s movements to her partner—yet at the same time, there are moments in a tango where the woman takes the lead. There is more touching—in a standard hold, the male’s right hand is at the female’s waist, but in the tango, it moves around to the small of the back. In standard dances, partner’s legs are offset—in the tango, the partners stand so close that the only possible forward movement is between the partner’s legs.

I’ve read books in which the people of regency England (in about the same time frame as the French or American revolutions) were scandalized at the idea of waltzing—where the man took his partner in his arms and whirled around the ballroom instead of doing the more stately forms that were a hallmark of most earlier styles. The tango would have really been enough to shock them.

The thing about it is, the tango is a song about a battle—between man and woman. They stalk across the floor, bending their opposition to their will, and then bending in turn. Every movement is precise, like sword play. It is aggressive and sensual—sexual even. Which says a lot about the culture of a people who think of it as their national dance. There is no contesting the strength of a woman (or a man) who do the tango—or at least there shouldn’t be. It makes me think that in Uruguay, women are seen as strong, fundamentally—that they can give and take even in a South American culture where male authority is very recognized. And that makes me happy.

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