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The deeply informative and inspiring course given by Marta E. Saviglianos at Glosas, (add link) entitled National Identity and Cultural Translations in Buenos Aires in July 2007 prompted me to organize and share some of my research and thoughts. Early attempts were presented at conferences and forums in the UK however I had not real idea, as an independent researcher, of the amount of work necessary to make a worthy contribution in the field (particularly in a foreign language..). I was lucky to receive generous encouragement and insights from both Dr. Brenda Farnell and the excellent Dr Drid Williams and I thank them with all my heart. I presented this version of the paper at the 'Body,Movement and Dance in Global Perspective', International Conference, Hong Kong, CHINA in July 2008 and 3 youtube video links had been produced for that occasion. (add links) The many responses I have received from people who watched the videos had made the effort worthwhile: I thank you all for your comments and support. Many of you have asked me for a printed copy: here it is! I still consider it a work in progress so comments and feedback are still welcome. Lastly, a thank you note to all the people that took time to talk to me as informants and also to Edwin J Adkins and Rossana Chiarelli for additional editing and Daniel Machado for his brilliant photographs. London July 2009 Adriana Pegorer info@adagioconbrio.co.uk www.adagioconbrio.co.uk

Performing Gender in Milongas of Buenos Aires

By Adriana Pegorer Argentine Tango is danced 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 contested. The performance of gender roles in Buenos Aires, ritualized with miradas, cabaceos, piropos and asados, empowers stereotypes of masculinity and femininity

2 (the basis of Tango) with its macho men and their mistresses. The Milonga codes and Tango dancing provide a context where such stereotypes can be performed.

The focus of my investigation is observing gendered behaviour in dancing and I chose to concentrate on Argentine Tango because the categorization of sexuality in this dance form is particularly well defined. A Milonga
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is a dance hall where dancers meet to dance the Argentine

Tango with its many 'romantic' connotations of passion, desire and jealousy. Yet often the purpose of attending a Milonga is not simply to dance but also to meet with other dancers, listen to the music, have dinner or just to be in a sociable environment, because to those addicted to it, attending a Milonga is often an obsessive, irresistible and mysterious experience. When I started attending Tango classes in London in 1996 I became aware that the dance technique of Tango had to be balanced with the same amount of display of gender qualities, so that the couple dancing became a heart with four legs, as the dancers say. I remember seeing fellow students showing a high level of frustration, for the process of negotiating those four legs (two males, two female) in the tight embrace required by the Tango was not an easy task. Women struggle to follow the male dancers lead, on their dangerously high heels, struggling, it seemed to me, both with their balance and their patience, whilst the men struggled to learn their steps, at the same time trying their best to lead. It was also apparent that learning the subtle and complex code of the Milonga requires a long apprenticeship.

Gloria and Rudolfo Dinzel (in the picture above), innovative Argentine teachers and performer with an international reputation, describe the tango: [a]s a monologue in which it is the man who, generally, gives out commands, and the woman whose role is to listen and act accordingly, in a passive and submissive attitude. This is a deep rooted concept traditionally accepted, and repeatedly ratified through oral and written custom. It is, therefore, what the majority describes as tango. (Dinzel 2000: 43)
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I am concerned here to find out if broader social conventions regarding gender relationships in Buenos Aires are in any way similar to Dinzels description of gender dynamics in the Tango.

I will make observations about social recreational activities as these relate to food and courtship in Buenos Aires; investigate some parallels between the dancing rules and the social roles; and identify any signs that might destabilize Dinzels view. Initially, I will introduce the Milongas of Buenos Aires, referring both to the observations that I made during my visits to Buenos Aires in 2001 and 2007 and from information collected from Argentinean dancers in Europe and North-America. Please note that the set of rules identified here form what many Tango dancers call the Traditional code. These are often featured in many Tango schools websites or publications, as students who wish to dance in Buenos Aires need to learn the codes to be able to enter the dancing game of the Milonga. Outside Buenos Aires the Traditional codes is also followed, and many schools profess a strict adherence to it, trying to recreate the Buenos Aires experience. The etiquette includes suggestions from how to dress to how to behave and communicate, but include also a preference for dancing a particular style, referred to as Traditional style.
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Sunderland Milonga in Buenos Aires (Photo by Daniel Machado) A Milonga conventionally consists of a central dance floor with tables and chairs arranged at the sides, with a bar and sometimes a restaurant. Milongas are nomadic and periodic and dancers represent a small but selected social group in the Buenos Aires nightlife. At present one can learn and dance Tango every day and every night of the week in a diverse choice of venues.

Example of dancers exchanging glances (Photo by Daniel Machado) What characterizes the traditional code at the Milongas is the mirada (the look) for everybody is looking at everybody else at all time, with conversation generally limited to short anecdotes, brief exchanges or complimentary remarks. The most important things are the dancing: being watched on the dance floor and watching the dance floor. Additionally, the space around the dance floor needs to be monitored constantly. In the Milongas men usually sit together at tables at the edge of the dance floor or they might stand at the bar or walk about and engage in short conversations. Women often sit on their own or with female friends. If a woman sits with a man everybody in the Milonga will assume they are partners and none of the men will invite that woman to dance. Men invite women to dance making eye contact with a quick distant nod, the cabeceo,
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to which women respond by nodding and

standing up if they accept, or by looking away and remaining seated if they decline. A man will often accompany a woman back to her seat

7 after dancing. Women are generally not allowed to cabeceo men: they can look, accept or refuse but not choose. I was told that the origin and reason for the cabeceo lies in the fact that the possibility remains for the man to keep his dignity if he is declined. Having observed the macho behaviour of the male in the tango it might be that the stereotype of the macho/pimp/gangster might have been born through the myth of the Latin Lover
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with the local

Argentine cowboy. The prostitute/femme-fatale figure stems from the cabaret-like bordellos, since prostitutes were the first women to dance the Tango (Guy 1991: 142). Costumes choice often reflects those characters, with men in elegant suits and (often) hats while women often prefer tight, provocative dresses and bright red make up. The dress code reflects the mobility in relation to the body and the environment emphasising flexibility for men with the suit and flat shoes, and restriction for women with the dresses and high heels.

photos: various internet sites (tbc) The stereotypical setting could be related to Tangos origins, but that was last century's context: why is the re-enactment still so relevant today? It is possible that Tango achieved global success because it symbolizes and exaggerates the myth of the male dominant, female submissive heterosexual relationship that many people can relate to, even today,

8 and the Milonga codes and the dancing provide the contexts where it can be performed.

Canning Milonga in Buenos Aires (Photo by Daniel Machado) When carrying out my research during my visit in Buenos Aires in July 2007, I sat and watched the web of fleeting looks fill the hall. Even among confusion and darkness, partners seemed to be able to find each other with a simple glance and nod across a crowded room and through a busy dance floor. Attentive observation and focus is one of the keys to successfully invite and be invited, because dancing skills are not limited to a display of technique but entail a sophisticated method of scanning the room and familiarity with the code. I would like to share two examples from attending two Milongas: A mature Argentine and I shared a table at a Milonga, as it is customary that a waiter places two or three single women at the same table. We barely exchanged a smile while she immersed herself in the dancing, going to the dance floor and coming back, than going dancing again. This is an example of an expert dancer who has mastered the

9 codes of the Milonga. The other example is that I sat with an Argentine I knew, and we talked for a while. I could see her antennas always monitoring the dance floor and the available dancers at the sides. It seemed to me a lot of work. I noticed that the male dancers had been relating with each other in a much more relaxed and enjoyable way than we had. Suddenly, she was invited so she stood up and went to dance. All this happened in few seconds! Although I understand she was there to dance, I felt she was being overly eager. As I mentioned earlier, those who initiate the invitation to dance with the cabeceo are men, but women who may feel like dancing can only sit, keep on scanning and eagerly wait. Both genders seem to employ a skilled, intricate and intense strategy, sometimes thrilling and sometimes slightly exasperating.

Nino Bien Milonga in Buenos Aires (Photo by Daniel Machado) The Milonga code can be used as a test. I was told of how men sometimes promise a dance and than hide to see if the woman accepts

1 other -male- dancers offers, assessing faithfulness and respect.

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A Milonga code for women is to sit in a particular spot, because if the man knows where you are sitting he will eventually ask you to dance when the opportunity arises, but if you move about, he wont be able to know where you have moved without some effort. As a glance is all is needed and women outnumbered men at almost all Milongas, the risk of not being asked to dance is simply too high. Wallflowering, according to Savigliano (Savigliano 2003: 166), occurs when a woman is not invited to dance for a long time and it is an accepted role simply because there is not an alternative choice. Savigliano argues that even an experienced Milongueras will fall into the wallflower role and she resolves that the real femme fatales of the Milongas are actually the men (2003: 190). Despite declarations that the antithesis of machismo is

demonstrated by the fact that men traditionally also dance the womans role during practice (Denninston 2007: 24), I argue that by following this reasoning, the antithesis of feminism should be women dancing the males role yet this is not traditionally accepted, not even for practice. Before starting to teach in 1998 I took classes with
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renowned Tango Master Carlos Gavito

(1942-2005). I wanted to know

if I was ready to teach both leading and following roles. His first comment was You will regret it, followed by Learning to lead will ruin your following for ever. I was puzzled: why is knowing the followers role a beneficial advantage for a leader, but for the follower to know a leaders role is considered a catastrophic disadvantage?

Carlos Gavito

Now I will draw some parallels between the Milonga and two important social activities in Argentina, asado and piropos, asking if they are partly recreated in the Milonga.

1 Asado is a culinary event when men gather around a grill on which different cuts of meat are being attended by one man, while the other men drink and converse. Sunday is usually the day in which the asado is prepared and consumed, when men discuss political, sportive and working facts. The grill is usually placed in an open space, garden or balcony. At an asado women are usually preparing salads in the kitchen and doing the dishes and are virtually excluded from the event: asado is both nationalistically Argentine and chauvinistically masculine (Tobin in Pons and Soria 2005: 214). The asado establishes male bonding and identity, perhaps related to the iconic figure of gauchos or cowboys mentioned previously, roaming endlessly the vast Argentinean landscape guarding thousands of cattle. Male friendship bonds extend to dancing together in a Milonga, as a mockery demonstration during special occasions. Alicia Dujovne Ortiz (Mariani 1991: 115) describes the piropos as an important but casual daily interaction: a woman passes. A man, watches her approach .it is the shock of being seen that makes her exist. The man .drops a word or two into her ear.aggressive, lyrical, erotic, romantic, crude, comical, inspired, dullit doesnt matter. He has declared that she is a woman. Some piropos examples are: Heavens opened and the angels came down?; Brunet, you move like the Bolshoi Ballet; If beauty were a crime, you deserve life in prison.
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Asados and piropos are connected because a delicious cut of meat often used for the asado is called lomo. One of the most common piropo expression, is que lomo!, therefore transferring the image of tasty meat to that of a -pleasing looking- woman. The relation between the female body to meat in Argentina dates back to around 1890 when

1 Eduardo Lopez Bago wrote the novel Carne Importada - Imported Meat (Guy 1991: 161) about the white slavery issue in Argentina. It was common for European women to be tricked into sailing to Buenos Aires with the prospect of marriage and decent work to than confront the reality of working in one of the many cabarets: By 1915, fears of rowdy public entertainment shifted from the bordello to the cabaret and from prostitution to the tango (Guy 1991: 143).

In 2001 my very first invitation to dance on Buenos Aires soil was by a Milonguero (a mature male Tango dancer with many decades of experience) who, whilst dancing, stopped at almost every table to present me to his friends. I thought he was being hospitable since I told him I had just arrived. I felt disorientated by his friends making quick comments among themselves -which I could not grasp- and taking his attention away, stopping continuously our dance. When I inquired from other women about this behaviour they responded that it is meant as a compliment, a piropo: the primary relation in tango is not between the heterosexual dance partners, but is between the man who dances with a woman and the other men who watch (Tobin in Washabaugh 1998: 90)

Sitting at cafes on a busy street, I observed men and women go about their daily business, to try and catch the piropos exchange between them: it was as difficult as catching cabaceos at the Milongas! Both the piropos and the asado require a male active presence and performance. Women take part or receive in the same way they sit in the Milongas and wait for a cabaceo. But many Argentine women assured me they have more power than men in the Milongas and in life because they have learnt to deploy the subtle art of persuasion and manipulation. Surely this art has a purpose within a hierarchical power structure, but if it is performed from the outside of this structure, it remains in my opinion invisible and vulnerable. And redundant. Yet women seem to strongly identify with it. On the other hand, many men affirm that women have all the power, both in Milongas and life. What makes a Tango a Tango is largely due to its distinctive music. Tango music has a very important influence on the dancing at the Milonga as it creates a particular atmosphere and mood. It also

1 provides structure, as different musical sets are played of usually 4 songs, with an intermission in between to permit couples to separate and re-form. I have often imagined the dance floor as being flooded by dozens of tiny waves, hitting the banks and draining away, like a very deep breath. I was first moved to dance the Tango by its music, and it is still my main desire, to follow its melodies and rhythms. But I had to come to terms with the poetry of the Tangos overwhelmingly written by men (Savigliano 1995: 61), dwelling on melancholic events leading to an over analytical and pessimistic view: lost friends and lovers, the distant idealized mother, jealousy and murders, lifes many miseries. As a follower, I am mainly an instrument in the leaders embrace that translates the leaders interpretation of music and lyrics into the dance. The purpose of this paper is to consider the world of the Milonga as a micro-society within Buenos Aires society, and observing both I have encountered a pragmatic repetition of social and gender behaviours widely accepted and seldom contested, as the Dinzels suggested in the Tango dance. However, as there appears to be a contemporary global pressure for integration of differences, whether ethnic, social, economic, of age, religious, musical and indeed of gender, I have encountered/witnessed a distinct change between my visit in 2001 and my visit in 2007, mainly due to an innovation in Tango dance technique and the appearance of Electronic Tango music -with bands such as Gotan Project- in the late 90s. In a Milonga one can usually dance other dance styles, played to encourage a change of dynamic, and Salsa dancing was probably accountable to release the embrace in the Tango, which translated into

1 more freedom within the couple. As this Tango, referred to as Tango Nuevo (note: not to be confused with Astor Piazzollas Nuevo Tango), is more dynamic and requires more space, the traditional Milongas with its strict codes was not an option for dancing and alternative spaces were open where the code is more relaxed: less suits and more jeans and trainers; no tables around the dance floor but sofas and benches instead, no cabeceo as women ask to dance too, peeling off from their roles of wallflowers. Electronic Tangos rarely indulge in languid or desperate romanticism as in the Traditional Tangos, and ones is therefore transported into the dancing with a different approach, with more emphasis on rhythm than melody, or on movement rather than feeling.

My observations at Milongas included also personal active interventions to gather informal responses, suggesting countermoves when following and dancing the male role with a woman. These are examples of my interventions: On one occasion, in a traditional Milonga -but after 4 am when the code is more relaxed- towards the end of my first dance with a male I initiated my own countermoves, to challenge the lead and stretch the boundaries of my role as follower, interpreting his movements and the music. He resisted it few times and finally told me I am leading to which I replied I am dancing. Silence. We went back to our seats: The woman who dares .to converse, to try a dialogue, to
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1 express her own responses to the music, that woman is often suppressed by the man who performs his dancing in a monologue kind of attitude. (Dinzel 2001: 44-45) In another occasion, at a very crowded traditional Milonga, I asked my American female friend if she would dance with me, as the tangos playing were my favourites. As I was leading her around the dance floor, within a firm embrace, low gaze and simple dancing, I could sense a subtle curious puzzlement around us. We kept going for four songs, during which time I was dreading that someone would politely ask us to leave the dance floor, as it often happens if one goes against the code. But nobody did. And my partner was later asked to dance by many men, perhaps to be shown the real Tango.

The general understanding for role interchange in Buenos Aires is to attend a gay Milonga, where male and female homosexuals can enjoy same gender Tango dance partnering and where heterosexual

1 dancers are numerous and welcome. I have attended the 4th anniversary of the only regular gay Milonga in Buenos Aires to find that the stereotypes of macho and mistress were partly recreated by whoever was following or leading. I could not see how or why sexual preferences could dictate the place where to go and dance, particularly because gay Milongas are not so frequent as the traditional ones. Besides, if one follows the code, does gender matter? It does, but to a certain extent. I resolved to purchase services from a female taxi Tango dancer to dance the lead role at traditional Milongas, because I knew I simply could not enter the game of cabeceo.
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Since it was obviously a business transaction, the gender

blur is tolerated. Taxi dancers are normally males since as I mentioned earlier, women outnumber men at most Milonga.

Those interventions of mine would have not been easily tolerated during my first trip in 2001, but one could sense even than that something was definitely yet slowly changing/evolving. I have witnessed many small interesting interventions in the traditional structure of the Milongas and of traditional Tango dancing: there is a fertile germination of contemporary ideas both in Buenos Aires and in the many Milongas around the world, from Tokyo to Rome, from Reykjavik to Johannesburg. I would like to conclude by saying that beyond the stereotyped heterosexual Tango roles, sometimes I see two people dancing in such an unluckily combination of unison and canon, so perfect and precise, that from where I am standing, even for just a moment, gender, as well as ethnicity, social extraction, age and religious beliefs, just disappears.

Adriana Pegorer 2007 info@adagioconbrio.co.uk www.adagioconbrio.co.uk Endnotes:

The etymology of Milonga is debated but most sources point towards African origins. See Thompson (2006). 2 The Dinzel's follow by writing But this is simply incorrect, suggesting that a monologue dancing is not appropriate for Tango dancing. However, the Dinzel's later write: it is usually the man the one who does not know how to listen, for he is too much used to his monologue based on his machismo (Dinzel 2006: 45), indicating that men generally prefer to be in control of the dance by leading each step to the women. 3 The Traditional style is generally danced in a very close embrace and is referred to as Tango Salon (Tango danced for one's pleasure in Milonga halls), in opposition to the Tango Scenario/Show (Tango danced by professionals as theatrical entertainment, also referred to as Tango for Export) 4 A brief upward tilt of the head, often accompanied by rising eyebrows. 5 Often considered as Central or South American in origin; the term also refers to a southern Mediterranean male. Most immigrants who travelled to Argentina in the late 1800's came from this area. 6 personal conversation with an Argentinean Tango teacher who resides in Europe 7 Carlos Gavito developed a unique Traditional style which gave space to interaction between the leader and follower. The simplicity of his style was pure artistry. I was fortunate to converse with him on many subjects and despite his Traditional approach to Tango he was very open minded and curious about my research. 8 www.cyber-tango.com/art/piropo.html accessed 17 July 2008 9also referred to as followers voice or back-leading 1personal conversation with female tango dancers from Europe that dance -sometimes exclusively- the lead role
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ReferencesCited: Dinzel,GloriaandRodolfo 2000 Tango:anAnxiousQuestforFreedom.Germany:Abrazos Books. Thompson,RobertFarris 2006 Tango:TheArtHistoryofLove.NewYork:VintageBooks. Denninston,Christine 2007 TheMeaningofTango.London:PorticoBooks. Guy,DonnaJ 1995 Sex and Danger in Buenos Aires: Prostitution, Family, and Nation in Argentina (Engendering Latin America). Lincoln & London: University of Nebraska Press.

Mariani, Philomena 1991 Critical Fictions. Seattle: Bay Press. Pons, Marta Cristina and Soria, Claudia (ed) 2005 Delirio de grandeza: Los mito argentinos: memoria, identidad, cultura Rosario: Viterbo Editora Savigliano,Marta 2003.AngoraMatta:FatalActsonNorthSouthTranslation. Middletown,CT:WesleyanUniversityPress. Washabaugh, William (ed) 1998 The Passion of Music and Dance: Body, Gender, and Sexuality Oxford: Berg Publishers.