Queer Tango is to dance Argentine tango without regard to the traditional heteronormative roles of the dancers, and often to exchange the leader and follower roles. Therefore, it is related to open role or same-sex tango. The queer tango movement permits not only an access to tango for the LGBT community, but also supports female leaders and male followers, regardless of orientation.
Gender roles in the traditional Argentine tango
Conventional tango is said to be the stronghold of heterosexism and machismo: Dancing in very close embrace – this intimacy is what defines tango as a "three-minute love affair" -, the male dance partner is the lead and the female dance partner is the follow. These two gender roles are sexually defined: Traditional tango is steeped in machismo culture. It is a reflection of Argentine societal views on sexuality and gender relations. The man is the active participant while the woman is passive. Argentine tango is a full improvisational dance. The male leader moves forward, guides the step pattern, the tempo and protects the female follower who steps backwards in complete trust, her eyes might be closed. She adds expressive elements to the dance: adornos. The man, choreographer, creates the structure of the dance, and his purpose is to make the woman appear pretty. The lady must wait for the man to guide the movement and with a bad leader, she’s lost. At conventional milongas it’s the man who invites the woman to dance with eye-contact and a nod of the head, called cabeceo.
Gender neutral dancing: open role reverse and same-sex tango
Queer Tango was not approved at first, due to the blurred lines of gender roles and social class rankings being affected. The Queer Tango movement breaks these rigid heteronormative gender roles of the tango world and permits all the permutations of partnering within tango. Same-sex tangoing is frequent: men dance with men, women dance with women, who can lead or follow. Also men dance with women, exploring open role reverse. The term queer, commonly used as a synonym for the LGBT community, is used here in a larger sense. A queer tango dancer shifts the focus from sexuality to gender which allows to enhance his expressiveness by way of role exchange. Therefore, the Queer Tango scene gives not only a home to gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, intersextangueras and tangueros, where they can feel comfortable. It creates a liberated tango environment for gender-neutral dancing, where rules and codes of traditional tango no longer restrain communication between people. By way of queer tango teaching, heterosexuals dancers can learn the open role reverse and enhance their competences in tango: The skill level of Queer Tango is low; the actual movements are seen as ordinary. It is more of an expressive and relaxing experience for people. "Bodies without organs" is a concept explored through same-sex tangoing, which allows people to experiment the dynamic presented in the technique. Living outside of the body and its organs can be a way for people to work more creatively and release ongoing stresses:
We suggest that redrawing, blurring and/or smudging the boundaries of the essential body, poking holes and coming to terms with the porosity of our skin, might help us to grapple with the partial and processual becoming of our bodies-in-relation.This detaches form from function, challenges prefigured/ predetermined conceptions and understandings of body parts, and opens up possibilities for thinking otherwise about the roles and functional boundaries being created and policed. — Chessa Adsit-Morris, "It Takes More Than Two to Tango: Queering Gender Texts in Environmental Education".
The Queer Tango movement views being different as being normal. Who they are dancing with or how they are dancing is not important. Through connecting cultures and kin, Queer Tango is twisting away from negative ties with sexism and racism.
History of the Queer Tango movement
There is one story which claims that tango as a dance was born in the brothels of Buenos Aires, another relates that tango was created by men dancing tango between men on street cornersat the beginning of the 20th century: In the first decade of the 20th century, tango became famous as a couple dance in Paris. There are also French and American postcards from the first decades of the 20th century which represent tango between women. This feminine replica of man-to-man-tango generated much less literary documentation, yet a more extensive iconography tinged with a voyeuristic accent of eroticism: This popularity of Tango in Europe, and especially in Paris, made it an interesting couple dance for the upper classes in Buenos Aires, and the Tango was re-imported from Europe for their benefit. The original way to dance it in same-sex couplesgot lost and was forbidden. Only male-female couples were allowed to dance in public milongas. The Queer tango movement which revives the origins of tango as a same-sex couple dance is very recent. It was founded in Germany, in Hamburg, where in 2001 the first gay-lesbian milonga was organized. In the same year the First International Queer Tango Argentina Festival was brought there to life. Since 2001 it takes place every year in order to bring together same sex couples in tango from all over the world. Born in Germany, the Queer Tango movement inspired other countries to create local queer tango scenes. Meanwhile, Queer Tango festivals are celebrated for example in Argentina, in Denmark, Sweden and in the United States In the bastion of traditional heteronormative tango, in Buenos Aires, the first Queer Milonga, La Marshall, home for the LGBT tango community, opened its doors in 2002.
