|
|
|
|
|
Stuff the Economy, Let's Dance!
Despite financial chaos, the Argentines have discovered a hot new export: the tango
By PETER KATEL/Buenos Aires
Hard to believe in these hip-hopping, trip-hopping, acid-jazzing times, but a rigidly stylized dance from another age is poised for global breakout. The tango masters of Buenos Aires find it hard to believe: their students are getting younger, and theyíre showing up from all over Europe, Latin America and even Asia.
Last year the number of tango clubs in the genreís birthplace nearly doubled, from 27 to 50. And young musicians — whose predecessors made the country the capital of "rock en espaÒol" — are studying the intricacies of the century-old music with which Buenos Aires made its mark on the world. After the dance and its melancholy melodies first captivated Argentines, the tango went on to take pre-World War I Paris and New York by storm.
But tangoís origins in the brothels of the Argentine capitalís port district were kept quiet. Now, the aura of sin only adds to tangoís allure. And what seems to be a hopelessly dated display of male power and control is mere illusion.
Tango, suggests 40-year-old enthusiast Juan Zacharski, brings out a womanís inner dominatrix. "Youíd better know what youíre doing," he tells men, "or youíll be humiliated." Tango enthusiast Robert Duvall could give the trend another boost when Assassination Tango — the film he wrote and directed and shot in Buenos Aires, with choreography by star dancer Miguel Angel Zotto — hits U.S. screens later this year.
On second thought ... Young people raised on throbbing bass and pulsing strobe lights could turn up their pierced noses at this more demanding genre in which dancers keep their clothes on.
Web Games Grow Up>>
|
|
|
|
|
