Tango Locura

Copyright ©2018 Karlos Bermann Below is an actual satellite photo of the Río de la Plata. Formed by the confluence of the Río Parana and the Río Uruguay, it is only 170 miles long, but 120 miles wide at the mouth, making it the world’s widest estuary. On the northeastern shore is Uruguay with its capital Montevideo, while on the southwestern shore is Argentina with its capital Buenos Aires. It was from this basin with its great port cities that tango emerged during the second half of the 19 th century—from the laborers and fishermen--in the waterfront dives, cafés, and brothels, in the streets of the “ arrabals ”—the poor barrios at the city’s outskirts. The word “ porteños ”—people of the port—appears in the lyrics of many a tango song. In Uruguay, when they feel the need to add any qualifier to the word tango, it is “ tango rioplatense ”—tango of the Río de la Plata.

Copyright ©2018 Karlos Bermann Look, Ma, no hands! Here, on Argentine TV, tango master Carlos  Gavito and his partner Marcela Durán assume an extreme carpa position to demonstrate shared balance. In Spanish the word “carpa” means “tent.” In tango, “carpa” refers to the posture of the dance partners in relation to each other. This posture can be described as an inverted “V.” In English, the image of an “A-frame” is perhaps more evocative than that of a “tent.” In any event, in carpa, each partner maintains a straight posture, much like the yoga “plank” position, while inclining or leaning toward each other.   In practice, the lean is often more evident in a female follower with a male leader, given that the man usually has greater body mass. To offset the greater mass of the man and equalize the pressure/counter-pressure, therefore, the woman inclines more of her weight toward her partner.              Whether the dancers are in c...

This is my translation of Chapter 2 of La Orilla Oriental del Tango: H istoria del Tango Uruguayo (“Tango’s Eastern Shore: A History of Uruguayan Tango”) by Juan Carlos Legido ( Montevideo: Ediciones de la Plaza, 1994). Legido (1923-2011) was an Uruguayan dramatist and Professor of Literature and Art History. In Chapter 2 the author relates an oral history recounting the first tango danced in Uruguay—or anywhere for that matter, because the date given, Sunday, December 2, 1866, predates any account that has yet come to light concerning the origin of the tango dance we know today. Legido himself makes no claim for the veracity of this account; he is skeptical of the protagonists portrayed because they seem too iconic, too neatly symbolic. Nevertheless, those facts and circumstances of this very detailed account that can be verified do, in fact, check out. December 2, 1866 was, indeed, a Sunday ( https://www.timeanddate.com/calendar/?year=1866&country=59 ). Likewise,...