Brothels to dance halls
Juan Carlos Copes, a pioneering choreographer of the Argentinean tango for professional productions in the early 1950s, has described this flamingly erotic art form as «one head with four legs unfolding their passions;» a few decades before him, a French countess, Melanie de Pourtales, is believed to have wondered whether one was «supposed to dance it standing up» after experiencing the tango for the first time in Paris in 1913; and, in more recent times, church leaders have condemned the tango’s daring ways. Born in the immigrant suburbs of Buenos Aires in the 1880s, where it was originally danced and heard on streets and in brothels before making its way into more refined surroundings – in Argentina at first, followed by plush European dance halls, initially in Paris during the interwar period – the tango has always had the capacity to shock with its suggestions of sex and violence, and sense of voyeurism. Despite its seedy origins – as was also the case, interestingly enough, during the same period with rebetika in Greece, fado in Portugal, and the blues in the USA – the tango now stands as an unabashed cultural emblem of Argentina. It is currently enjoying strong global popularity, both as musical style and dance, courtesy of fine tango companies that have emerged and toured, both domestically and abroad. One of these, whose course has been pivotal in acquainting audiences worldwide with this fiery art form, is Tango por Dos, which rates as a leading exponent and will perform three shows in Athens at the open-air Lycabettus Theater, tonight through Thursday. Tango por Dos, which has sold out performances and garnered critical acclaim in various major cities since its formation 12 years ago, will bring to Athens one of its seasoned productions, «Una Noche de Tango,» a highly charged journey along the tango’s course that depicts its history from smoky Buenos Aires backrooms to glitzier Hollywood scenes. The production features 10 dancers, a seven-member tango orchestra (one of Argentina’s most celebrated), and two singers who bring back to life the tango sung in duets, a long-lost tradition. Included in the cast is the founder of Tango por Dos, 43-year-old Miguel Angel Zotto, the company’s dancer and choreographer. Milena Plebs, his longtime collaborator, co-artistic director, and former lover, recently departed from Tango por Dos. Keeping sexuality out of the tango’s knotty and steamy equation is, apparently, a demanding task. As it was danced on the streets and in the brothels of Buenos Aires during its unchoreographed, less disciplined early days, the tango, musicologists say, functioned as foreplay – and that is meant literally. Zotto’s view suggests that little has changed. «It is inevitable because of the amount of physical contact you have. I wouldn’t say it happens every time but 90 percent of the time it can lead to sex, yes,» Zotto told The Times of London during a previous engagement there. The group’s dances, which Zotto has choreographed with Plebs, are tales – often turbulent – of their personal loves, lives and obsessions. According to Zotto, the son of a construction worker, the tango was not appreciated as an artistic form by Argentineans prior to his tango company’s establishment. Despite its widespread popularity since the interwar period, as well as the tango’s unquestionable influence on various musical styles around Europe, including Greece, Argentineans have generally viewed their unique creation in condescending fashion, the majority associating it with tacky cabarets and dance halls. But Zotto’s Tango por Dos has helped inject artistic integrity into the tango and place it on Argentina’s cultural map. In the aforementioned interview, Zotto noted that the tango was «the only thing we [Argentineans] have got. We are an immigrant country and the tango is the one thing we have managed to make from the mix of cultures.» Zotto’s former chief collaborator, Plebs, commented that the tango’s global popularity could be partially attributed to its multicultural roots. As for its increased domestic popularity, Plebs believes that the clear-cut, old-fashioned gender roles depicted by the tango, especially amid this era’s murky expectations on the issue, is helping draw young, possibly confused, Argentineans back to the old dance halls. Or as Zotto put it: «He provokes a movement and she accepts it, or not. It is a game of the legs which she is very much part of. She cannot start it, but she can influence it. She determines how far it will go.» Tickets, priced at 45, 35 and 25 euros, are on sale at Papagrigoriou-Nakas Music Publishers (39 Panepistimiou, within the Pesmazoglou arcade), tel 010.331.0277; at Virgin Record stores in Syntagma, tel 010.331.4788, Maroussi, tel 010.610.6041, Pangrati, tel 010.701.0811, Rendi, tel 010.425.1760, Glyfada, tel 010.894.4420; for telephone reservations, tel 010.639.1122; for credit card orders, through Ticket Hellas, tel 010.618.9300.
