Performing Gender in Milongas of Buenos Aires: Part Two
Video conference at 'Body, Movement and Dance in Global Perspective' Hong Kong
24-26 July, 2008
more info at: www.adagioconbrio.co.uk
Argentine Tango, which has been called the world's most passionate dance, is performed in halls called Milongas. In this paper I look at the Tango dancers in several Milongas as a micro-society, in which broader, socially accepted gendered behaviour is repeated and seldom, if ever, contested. The performance of gender roles in Buenos Aires, ritualized with miradas, cabeceo, piropos and asados, empowers stereotypes of masculinity and femininity (the basis of Tango), with its "macho" men and their mistresses. The Milonga codes and Tango dancing provides a context where such stereotypes can be performed.
The focus of my investigation was to observe gendered behaviour in dancing, concentrating on the Argentinean Tango because the categorization of sexuality and gender in this dance form is particularly well defined. In this presentation, I will make some observations about social recreational activities that relate to food and courtship in Buenos Aires and investigate some parallels between the rules of Tango dancing and social roles in Buenos Aires.
