[lit-ideas] Re: The Tango
- From: Jlsperanza@xxxxxxx
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sat, 18 Jul 2009 13:39:46 EDT
In a message dated 7/17/2009 10:37:01 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time,
mimi.erva@xxxxxxxxx writes:
There's nothing less romantic than ballroom dancing. I personally don't
see (or hear) a tango in this, but then I never see the actual steps in
professionally done ballroom dance. It's beautiful to watch though, exactly
for its precision.
----
Well, J. L. Borges was _fascinated_ with the history of tango.
It started as an 'all-male' dance in the _brothels_ -- very common in
Buenos Aires, 'common' not in a snobbish way, but meaning, unrare. Cfr. that
book that should interest you bunches, "The Road to Buenos Ayres" about
white-slave trade.
Girls -- esp. in France -- were reported missing and then suddenly finding
theirselves on the River Plate. Very odd. The pimps were French, mostly.
---- So, with the French prostitutes (for they _had_ to be French!) the
brothels proliferated. Also, by 1900, 3 out of 4 people (I counted them) were
_males_, and 3 out of 4 _males_ were furriners ('dagos' mainly, as the
Anglo-Argentines, who had arrived earlier, would call them).
So you can imagine the brothels. Now for _one_ prostitute to cater for,
say, 15 'dagos' a day, they had to _line_. And what to do in the interim. As
Yost notes, it's an Italian thing, -- 'belcanto' almost, the bandoneon. They
started to play a tune -- and embraced.
Later, the prostitutes joined. But they soon realised that this 'operants'
(they worked in the harbours mainly where the Red-District still operates)
_smelled_.
When Walton and Edith Sitwell composed their Facade (which was all the
rage among Noel Coward in the 1920s), they included a little
'tango'
piece -- there is an orchestral arrangement as well, only. Now, in the
recent (well, 4 decades ago) revival in Sadlers Wells (I know of this because
of the Collier _Tango_ book I was talking about -- with lavish photos) the
choreographer made the
excellent suggestion
to re-enact the original tango-choreography.
So you'll see that the
ESSENTIAL posture
-- made popular by Valentino in "Four Riders" as well -- where he plays an
Argentine --
is
STRAIGHT ARMS
both partners --
and
NO EYE-CONTACT
----
Victoria Ocampo (our Mecenas in more than one way) would recall how she
installed Tango in "La Belle Societe" when after touring London
("Hippodrome") with Ricardo Guiraldes, and the cafes of the Trocadero -- with
the
Argentine lounge lizards catering for the weary divorces -- or Monte Carlo --
broke and all -- decided to add the spice in Buenos Aires.
The districts of Buenos Aires (very much alla early dance-band history in
England -- or London -- where each orchestra was associated with a hotel)
followed suit.
I live blocks away from The Palais de Glace. This was of course, Putnam's
idea of translating his 'twater' -- for 'glace' is 'ice' in French. It is a
_most_ beautiful building and became the Mecca of the _good_ stylish tango
that my family would promote. Other types of tango were a no-no-no-no-no.
They had their own resident orchestra. Any other orchestra was a
no-no-no-no.
Gardel started as a crooner for these tangos. His hit was called "The
Moorish". Unfortunately, while walking away from the palais de dance, someone
shot him to death.
"You'll never sing The Moorish no more"
-- he said.
Obviously implicating, "I'm killing you".
As it happens, he survived -- but a few years later (after he entertained
the Prince of Wales in an estancia in Buenos Aires -- and the Prince, never
wanting to be _less_ -- wanted the 'bombachas' -- what embarrassed Gardel
was that the Prince would add his 'ukelele' to the orchestration, killing
the whole point of the sadness of the bandoneon) he died, Gardel did.
Oddly, when they did the autopsy on him, they found a bullet (in his
stomach). And they said, "Murder!" -- but it was soon proved that the bullet
was
_rotten_ and dated from the days of the Palais de Glace. The bullet did not
kill him but fell in love with him!
Cheers,
J. L. Speranza
Buenos Aires, Argentina
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