Every time Scent of a Woman
comes on my television screen, I stop what I'm doing and watch the
marvelous tango scene. The rest of the movie is good, but it's the
tango that I love. The song they play is called Por Una Cabeza
(For a
Head).
My
sweet husband, Bruce, surprised me with the CD, QuinTango, and I play it all the
time because all the cuts are so spirited and heavy on the accidentals
(sharps and flats) that your imagination can't help but be transported
to the world of romance. It doesn't matter whether you actually tango.
The music of the tango conveys a smoldering message that
can only be interpreted to mean drama of the heart, in other words, pure
romance.
Picture a man wearing a black shirt and tight black
pants. The woman is in full makeup and the highest of heels, with a tight
skirt. She sparkles all over, her perfume spicy, alluring. He offers his
hand. She sets down her glass of wine and accepts as he swiftly pulls her
to her feet. The music begins a serious, unyielding rhythm that unites the
pair for three minutes in a dance of drama.
Eight counts to the measure,
one foot crosses the other as they glide in long walking steps and
turns. Their posture is erect with legs extended, right shoulder
low, right elbow raised. No wiggling left and right of the hips here, but a
smooth turning and twisting with her body facing his as she focuses on her
partner, her friend, her lover perhaps. He is in control, maneuvering,
guiding, directing her to his will. Emotion is key. Without emotion, it
might as well be another rollicking rock and roll or sexy salsa dance.
Tango comes from the Latin word tangere meaning to
touch. Sources agree the dance appeared in the mid 1800s when the music
was played on a bandoneon, a German accordion or concertina-type instrument,
which gave it a haunting, recognizable rhythm.
Argentina is the center of tango culture.
Hardworking gauchos, Argentine cowboys, went unwashed to the dance halls, gambling halls and houses
of ill repute from the llanos, or plains, wearing their chaps, the leather of which had stiffened from
the sweat of their horses. The women who were paid to dance with these gentlemen held
their heads back and away from their partners to avoid having to smell the
less than appealing scents of horse and man. The women's hands rested on the gauchos' hips,
near their pockets, in anticipation of payment. Since
the dance halls were often small, the gauchos steered the women in spinning
circles around and between the tables encompassing the floor.
The songs of the tango told seedy stories of betrayal,
lust, murder and pain, peppered with obscenities. The tango was a way for
the poor to tell their tales of woe with the dancers representing pimps and
whores.
The 1850s had strict rules about dance, one of the most
important being that the bodies of men and women must not touch. While
the Viennese waltz was cautiously accepted in Paris as a close-hold kind of
dance, the tango, with its cheek to cheek, torso rubbing, and leg and foot
intertwined movement was considered
scandalous, but was too tempting to be ignored by upper class men.
Genteel ladies wanted nothing to do
with improper dancing so if their men desired to learn the tango, they had to
practice with
other men. Gradually, the occasional request that a tango be played for
the middle class and well to do was granted, but with disapproving looks
from the spectators. Secretly, gents and ladies would sneak away to dance
clubs where the tango played for the pure excitement of observing or, worse
yet, participating in the forbidden.
As the lyrics were cleaned up and the extremely
suggestive moves of the tango were simplified and made less offensive, it
became "the dance" in Paris cabarets. The tango hit New York City in 1910,
although some women preferred to wear "bumpers" lest their partners get too
close to them. Rudolph Valentino, silent movie star and romantic hero,
popularized the tango for America in the 1920s. It was then that women
began teaching other women the steps.
Today, new composers write fresh music and lyrics, but
the
classics remain popular and the graceful, smoldering sensuality lives on.
The standard American version of the modern tango is
comprised of an amalgam of steps culled from Argentina, Germany and France. The musical theatrical production, Forever Tango has been on Broadway
in New York City since June of 1997 and is the longest running tango show of
its kind.
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