Argentine people like to say that the country is all about tango and fútbol. And while soccer has remained at the top of national passions, it is only during the last two decades that Argentines (and foreigners, for that matter) have fallen back in love with tango. Milongas (as the places in which tango is danced are known) are now everywhere in the city, attracting increasingly younger generations of porteños (as the residents of the city of Buenos Aires are known). Nationals and foreigners are seduced by the passion and, at the same time, the melancholia expressed in tango – both in its lyrics and music and, as these pictures wonderfully capture, in the movements of the bodies. Tango is music; tango is dance; tango is also something else, Argentines like to believe. That “something else,” the soul of tango, is beautifully portrayed in the light that falls into these two dancers’ (or is it lovers’?) performance.
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One Essay Response
Javier Auyero | Stony Brook University says:
Argentine people like to say that the country is all about tango and fútbol. And while soccer has remained at the top of national passions, it is only during the last two decades that Argentines (and foreigners, for that matter) have fallen back in love with tango. Milongas (as the places in which tango is danced are known) are now everywhere in the city, attracting increasingly younger generations of porteños (as the residents of the city of Buenos Aires are known). Nationals and foreigners are seduced by the passion and, at the same time, the melancholia expressed in tango – both in its lyrics and music and, as these pictures wonderfully capture, in the movements of the bodies. Tango is music; tango is dance; tango is also something else, Argentines like to believe. That “something else,” the soul of tango, is beautifully portrayed in the light that falls into these two dancers’ (or is it lovers’?) performance.
You must be a Rachel Tanur Memorial Prize applicant to submit an essay response.