Tango queer in Argentina: Furor in Buenos Aires for this argentine dance

In Buenos Aires, milongas tango queer are multiplying without fixed roles or restrictions to choose a partner.

Queer tango is not exactly gay tango, although the LGBT movement has been promoting it, sustaining it and making it grow in the country so far in the 21st century.

From the dance, queer tango is distinguished by breaking gender roles and opening up to freedom: dance couples are formed according to the law of desire and the one who leads does not have to be a man nor the one who is led by a woman, as in traditional tango. It doesn't matter if one is homosexual, bisexual, heterosexual or whatever.


Photo: tango queer in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Gay tango scenes

Queer tango also has a new aesthetic proposal. And of course it is not the same to dance it secretly, as it was in the beginning, than in open places, as it is today.


Photo: tango queer in Buenos Aires, dance floor

Milonga queer El Tortazo.

Great name, for its powerful lesbian allusion and for its mockery of lyrics such as Tortazos, by Enrique Maroni ("I don't break you with a slap/ for not hitting you in the street"). On the first floor of the bar La Paz, Corrientes and Montevideo -Buenos Aires, Argentina-, women dance with women (they are the majority), men with men, women with men and other variations. In reality, it is not easy to determine who is what, if anyone is anything at all. And besides, who cares. Here, nobody. The steps are rigorous, although the atmosphere is festively relaxed, respectful, inclusive; familiar, let's say, taking away the conservative nuance of this word.

Queer tango revitalized Argentine tango and saved it from being a conservative reducer.

In half-light, among luminous garlands, there are common tables and billiard tables, some with books from independent publishers and another with a giant TEG drawn on the cloth. And people of all ages, although the 35-40 range predominates. Locals and foreigners.

They sound classic. The couples turn on the track with harmonic movements, making eights, turns, boleos, sweeps. Anyone can do, or not, the nod to invite dancing. Obviously, there is no such thing as an expert milonguero table versus an expectant milonguera table. "Although the idea of queer tango is to deshierarchize, hierarchies are in all milongas".
In the queer milonga, on the other hand, communication is established based on respect, equality and inclusion, without the role of the passive woman, which is disabling. Here, the man's proposal falls completely and the woman disposes".
"The queer tango breaks the patriarchal mandates. As a singer, I begin by presenting myself performatively, without respecting the black tango uniform. I put on some color, some refined detail, which for some is a sign of faggotry: the great panic of the Argentinean male. At first, my style caused some resentment among the most conservative. But the acceptance of the young critics was immediate"

El Despelote, tango queer milonga in Buenos Aires

In El Despelote, queer milonga organized by dancers Esteban Mioni and Edgardo Fernández Sesma, who lead inclusive tango spaces with people with some kind of disability or very old people, variations that we also find tonight.

The atmosphere and dynamics are similar to those of El tortazo, although with a predominance of men. We see looks that we imagine are not frequent in traditional milongas, such as beards with polka-dotted soleros or joggineta with silver stilettos, which do not arouse curiosity; a healthy world without a foreign look.

"Queer tango is a phenomenon all over the world, but here in Buenos Aires it is incredible, with so much nightlife".

The strange, the eccentric, the suspicious

Although it exists in other parts of Argentina, queer tango is for now a porteño phenomenon. It is impossible to dissociate it from social advances such as civil union, egalitarian marriage, the law of gender identity or the new feminist wave, added to the incorporation of millennials to the milongas.

The queer revitalized the Argentine tango and saved it from being a conservative redoubt. Its influence in the non-queer milongas is another sign that our dance lives and becomes more flexible...



Photo: tango queer in Buenos Aires 2020 event

Tango queer in Buenos Aires 2020

Tango queer once a month, on Thursdays !

Next date: Thursday january 9, 2020
Tango class 20.30 - Milonga 22hs. to 2.00
In Centro Cultural Macedonia (Sarmiento 3632, Buenos Aires -Argentina)
Info in spanish: 1532526894 / contacto () tangoqueer.com




tango queer argentina
Photos:

Photo: tango queer in Buenos Aires, female lesbian tango dance

Photo: tango queer in Buenos Aires, gays lesbians dancing tango -Argentina