Tango communities across the world are beleaguered by authenticity debates. Different communities define 'appropriate' or 'real' tango through a variety of means, usually determined by the specific characteristic of the community and how tango has evolved within it. Often, the authenticists claim that close embrace dancing emphasizing intimacy is the only way to move around the floor as it focuses partners in the embrace as well as the emotional character that makes tango a unique and special dance. According these tango police, those who move between open and close embrace, actualise dynamics in their dance, boleo above the knee, and enganche are corrupting the close connection of tango, not to mention hogging the floor at milongas, showing off, and otherwise committing gross crimes against the 'real' meaning of tango.
These authenticity debates are repeated globally and function to divide and marginalise particular dancing cohorts. Instead of enriching the calibre of the dancing they serve to limit and frame what is acceptable on the dance floor. This ethic can only demoralise and deconstruct the potential for community development within a tango culture.
Tango is an evolutionary dance. It is a dance of the street, mobilised by the disempowered, the poor and the disenfranchised. Composers and dancers made tango what it is today by breaking rules. Tango has always moved, changed and altered. Tango is filled with myths, legends, folk tales and popular memories. This is part of what makes it such an innovative dance, that it allows dancers the space to work, encode and connect to the steps, the music and the embrace in ways that are conventional and unconventional, challenging and rebellious. Understanding these creative histories enriches the way in which we dance tango today, whether we label ourselves milonguero, salon, nuevo or any number of other arbitrary categorisations we impose on ourselves and others. These categories do not serve the creative ethics of dancing communities. Instead they function to stifle innovation and limit the extent to which the energy and commitment of dancers can be harnessed.
Pablo Inza once said 'there is one Tango and it is very generous. It gives to everybody regardless of which way you approach it.' (http://tinyurl.com/68fvfe5) We need to be generous with each other as dancers and cultivate tango communities that support diverse, dynamic, and dangerous tango. Move beyond mythic notions of the authentic. Hail the past, respect tradition, and allow tango communities to breath, grow, challenge and change.
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