Dear Keith of HK, I did not mention Argentina at all. I said 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.
Here is one example I copied from my blog http://www.virtuar.com/tango/tango_weblog.htm 2006 September 13 Reading a book "Calaveras County Gold Rush Stories" by Edna Buckbee, I have found the following story happened around 1850 in Angels Camp, about 2 hour drive from San Francisco now. Angels Camp "had a population of 300 exclusive of Indians" of gold miners ( you can imagine those folks! ) "At Lake's hotel [a one-story frame building, the only one around], though there were no women in the camp, a ball was given. The dancers depended for music on two amateurs, a fiddler and flutist. The fiddler shouted out the various figures of the quadrille and the merry-making was kept up for several hours. After each dance had come to an end the fiddler, remembering the dancers' thirst and the welfare of Mr. Lake's barroom, called out in tones louder than usual, Promenade all to the bar and treat your partner! The absence of women in the camp was a difficulty easily conquered for it was arranged that any man wearing a square patch on the seat of his jeans, was to be treated as a "lady".. It was a strange sight to see a party of long-bearded men in heavy boots and flannel shirts going through all the steps and figures of the dance with so much spirit and often with a great deal of grace." Note - they did already know how to dance, and how to dance in both roles ! Doesn't it tell something to you? I do not think the topic of changing roles deserves much attention. It is always better to dance than to sit in the corner. Only in our spoiled times somehow modern people ( under the heavey influence of shameless media ) think of it as something extraordinary. No. Igor Polk _______________________________________________ Tango-L mailing list [email protected] http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/tango-l
