2797  Dancing between men

Date: Sun, 19 Sep 2004 16:29:31 -0600
From: romerob <romerob@TELUSPLANET.NET>
Subject: Dancing between men

When the post on this list on the municipal law in Buenos Aires banning
dancing between men in dance establishments in 1916 came about I was curious
to find out why such law would be issued, and what was it trying to prevent.




My 2 cents:



Vicente Rossi writes that it was customary to find couples dancing on the
streets of Buenos Aires before the European immigration in Buenos Aires.



After the European immigration was set in motion in Buenos Aires street
dancing was left to men only, because it was not appropriate for women to be
seen dancing on the streets.



When tango appeared as a dance form it was only allowed in the "prostibulos"
and "conventillos", the men as way to improve their dance skills, and not to
become marginalized as bad dancers (pata duras) danced between other men on
the streets. Dancing on the streets became "the practica" before they went
to "conventillos" and "prostibulos" to dance with women.



It is important to note that as bloc the upscale classes of Buenos Aires
undermined the flourishing of tango because it was associated with the poor
and their customs.



In 1910 the cafes in Buenos Aires began allowing dancing in their premises.
However some of these cafes had a bad reputation and women would not
consider attending such places, such is the case of cafe "La Red" in San
Telmo, where dancing between men was allowed.



Apparently, dancing between men did spread out to other cafes in addition to
"La Red", and it is plausible that the municipal ordinance from 1916 was
issued to contain what could be considered immoral by local authorities.
After the mentioned municipal ordinance to prohibit dancing between men
there was systematic approach to close cafes, ban or restrict prostitution,
ban tango music from being played on the streets by organ players, and
eradicate tango from the poor classes.



In 1919 one Spanish writer, Joaquin Belda, travels to Buenos Aires for 6
months and finds that the majority of the cafes closed and the ones still
open for business are empty.



In 1920 on a reversal of events or rather as a failure by the upscale
classes to eradicate tango its music begins to be generally accepted as a
popular music. However, the accepted form of tango is one, which is cleaned
from anything that reminded people of its poor upbringings.



Regards,



Bruno