Prostitute-Free Tango

iScatterings has published a short history of tango, suggesting that prostitutes were not actually directly involved in the early days of the dance.

I have a feeling I've heard this before, but can't remember where. Any ideas?

Comments

[miss tango]

maybe on my blog about a month ago...my former house was a brothel, there was definitely no room to tango ;)

[luis]

Bah! who cares? we love the dance!

Why try to "clean-up" or gentrify the known history of a dance form that we love?

The article is kind of sad and funny, as it states that the prostitutes were TOO BUSY to dance tango, at the BROTHEL...which doesn't mean that they DID NOT dance tango.

It just means that the men who were waiting for their TURN (so to speak) were probably dancing with each other in the waiting room of the BROTHEL. hahahahah!

And as it turns out men danced with each other where ever they had a chance. There was music in the BROTHEL and some spare time and an excess of men to practice your moves on, so why not? So Tango was happening EVERYWHERE, not just in the brothels.

According to the article there is actually a very loose connection between Prostitutes, Tango, and Brothels. In my oppinion to say Tango came from the Brothels of Buenos Aires I think would be a stretch. To say that Tango was NOT danced in Brothels would also be a stretch. To say that Tango had the HIGHEST and MOST ELEVATED beginning, like perhaps what we would assume of Ballet would be an EVEN FURTHER STRETCH of my imagination.

Tango began as a working class dance and was absconded by the lofty, bastardized by the Ballroom community, and is trying to find a happy medium within our socio-economic reality which is evident in the aforementioned article.

I personally am not embarrassed by Tango's iffy origins, that men go to Brothels is stinky, and bothers me more than a bit, but then again I can be a bit of a prude.
-Luis

[miss tango]

I don´t think it has nothing to do with prudishnish, just that these girls really didn´t have the time...20 to 25 men a day doesn´t leave you much time to tango vertically, unless the men only lasted for 1.7 minutes!