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CHAPTER 18 Adornments and Variations.

Excerpt....."I think we do well to remember that, when tango began, adornments were the province of male dancers, who used them to show off, both to prospective women partners and to the men about them with whom they were in fierce competition. Perhaps it is an indication of the seriousness of the problem of successful mating in Buenos Aires at the end of the 19th century that we see the behaviour of men resembling that of animals and birds, which display instinctually to attract the female. For a woman to adorn in those early days was considered very vulgar. Tango has evolved, as has the relative power of the sexes. In the same way that it is quite acceptable for women to ask men to dance, in Europe at least, it has become more common for women to dance as they wish and to feel more powerful in the relationship.

Sometimes I dance with a woman who is an accomplished leader as well as being a great follower. She enhances our joint pleasure by adornments, hesitations and tensions, but – more than that – she occasionally ‘back-leads’. By this I mean that, without any change in our embrace, or her role as a follower in most respects, she senses where I am and makes a move that dictates the way I dance. She has learned to read where my balance is, where I am vulnerable – perhaps even a little predictable – and changes her response so as to give me a little jolt out of my complacency. Dancing with Dr Sam is a true voyage of discovery and immense fun. She and I can have an intellectual, funny and rewarding tango ‘conversation’ just as we might sit and chat over a glass of wine. This sort of relationship may well have been possible even from the very beginnings of tango between some couples, but, when we hear that in present-day Buenos Aires women still have to wait to be asked to dance, I suspect that it was always rare. This is another reason why I feel that the evolution of tango and its modern, international influences are very much in its interest when we think of its survival."

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