Being an armchair sociologist with no direct experience in Argentine history or culture (how's that for a refreshingly honest disclaimer ;D) I would observe one other thing.
In most older European derived cultures, women were to be courted and everyone had their role to play in such exchanges. This often meant limited and very circumscribed interactions between men and women. This was especially true in BA where, if census figures are correct from the period, the ratio of men to women was badly skewed. If the men were to impress with their dancing, it was probably a relief to practice with other men since they could actually focus on the technique rather than having all the social baggage they would otherwise have to attend to. In the US/UK men have a lot of contact anxiety that other cultures do not, so they tend to view this topic with a good deal of alarm. Also, because men back then would probably only get a few minutes for their tanda with their prospective paramour, it had to be perfect. Experimentation with the dance to make it more impressive (pretty sure they would have done that back then just like the singles on the prowl do it today -- after all, we lack plumage...). Such practice would also have been easier with guys who were in the same boat and consequently more forgiving of errors, miss -steps etc.. As it is now it was back than: The man proposes, the woman disposes. Women often completely misunderstand how stressful it can be for guys to interact with them. My experiences with other cultures where there are still strong divisions between men and women have shown me that most of the courtship rituals, arranged marriages and such protect the man from direct rejection as much as anything else. I would suspect that men practicing with men was a much safer bet from this point of view. In any case, we should be wary of projecting our own gender issues (and agendas too, I might add) onto another culture -- and BA in 1900 was a bona fide different culture from today. And I could be wrong... $.02 Jeff G [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > tangopeer wrote: > > <<<<I keep waiting for someone to pipe in about men > dancing with men in BsAs years ago. Isn't that how > they learned? I've heard dozens of stories about > that, but I am no historian. Who gots da goods on > this?>>>> > > Although today same-sex people dance with each other and exchange lead and > follow for different reasons, the main reason men danced with men is fairly > simple and a product of the cultural milieu of the day. Tango was not > considered a > respectable dance to do and many women, especially young ones, were not > allowed to go to practicas (inasmuch as they existed in those days). They > might go > to milongas, and even then perhaps accompanied by the parents. We forget in > our enthusiasm that even in Argentina, tango was frowned upon for years by > the > upper classes and "cultured" people did not dance it, and not all of the > "lower" classes danced it either. I have known older Argentine women who told > me > their parents did not allow them to dance tango. Men didn't have too many > choices > for practicing steps except with each other, but this enabled them to be > prepared when they went to the milongas. Tango came out of the bordellos and > conventillos...not a world you wanted your daughter to be associated with. We > may > smile at the depictions of "compadritos" on stage, but the reality was not so > romantic. Compadritos often carried knives and violence was a part of the > early > tango world. Canaro writes in his autobiography of knife fights and > gunshots being exchanged (and barely missing him) at clubs in La Boca. It was > a > different world from the one we know. > Danel Bastone told me that he often practiced with other men, simply because > there were no women around to practice with. I have heard the same from > Gavito > and other milongueros I have known. This persisted well in to the forties and > fifties of the 20th century. We forget in our modern, more-enlightened day > that the social customs were more restricted than today. Women did not have > the > same freedoms and men had to learn from each other. > > Cheers, > Charles > > > ************** > Start the year off right. Easy ways to stay in shape. > > http://body.aol.com/fitness/winter-exercise?NCID=aolcmp00300000002489 > _______________________________________________ > Tango-L mailing list > [email protected] > http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/tango-l > > > _______________________________________________ Tango-L mailing list [email protected] http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/tango-l
