On 9/13/07, Igor Polk <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > [...] it happened everywhere ( in > jails, at schools, at factory parties) and in all historical periods, with > all dances, but only if there was not enough of the opposite sex to dance > with.
I think you are right. One other factor that contributed to this phenomenon, but is sometimes overlooked, is that all music was live - there was no recorded music. Consequently, dancers depended, in part, on chance encounters with street musicians or impromptu bands if they wanted to practice or dance. Hence they had to do it with whomever was at hand when they happened to be in the vicinity of (live) music. An eyewitness account describing this in a tango context (as something normal and out of necessity to use every opportunity to practice) is, for example, in the memoirs of the police chief (I forget the exact reference but can provide it if needed). I suspect that tango was no more men-with-men dance than any other dance in the 19th century. There is scant photographic evidence from the late 19th and very early 20th century, and unfortunately the one series of five photos of men posing (dancing? fooling around? playing up on what the photographer expected? how would we know?) has been extrapolated from and interpreted as representative, amplified beyond any justification, and of course connected back to that enduring stereotype of tango as 'dirty and exotic'. With best regards, Konstantin Victoria, Canada _______________________________________________ Tango-L mailing list [email protected] http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/tango-l
