Tango Dance and Music. A Choreomusical Exploration

This book investigates the music and dance of tango argentino, in particular the way it is currently practiced in Europe. Tango argentino is a music-dance practice that can be found all over the world, and dancers and musicians are connected in many ways, for instance through travelling or on social media, forming a translocal network. In this book, I study translocal tango argentino in its many facets: movement structures, sound structures, dancers and musicians, and the complex relations between all of these factors that shape tango. This approach is called choreomusical: I consider music and dance and their relations as an important influence on the way tango is practiced. My particular interest is to understand what tango danceability and tango musicality mean to active tango dancers and musicians. To explore tango music / musicality and dance / danceability, I use qualitative (ethnographic) and quantitative (computational) methods. This means that I employ ethnographic approaches like interviews and participatory observation, and work closely together with dancers and musicians to gain insights and knowledge. I also use computational methods that include statistical data evaluation from surveys, and optical motion capture to analyse tango movements and their relations to music. The book contains a brief historical overview of tango argentino practice in the 20 th century, bringing together the development of music and dance to better understand the background of the connections and also separations between tango music and dance. The first main part of the book focuses on the danceability aspect of tango music. The exploration is based on tango DJs, tango dance teachers, and tango musicians view of tango danceability as well as experimental approaches. The second part is dedicated to tango dance and its musicality. It investigates with quantitative and qualitative methods tango movement repertoire and principles, and how these relate to tango musical features. My research shows, that music and dance are tightly connected in tango argentino, and that there is a mutual influence shaping the practice overall historically, sociologically, and through the movement and music structures themselves. This important connection is mirrored in the terms tango musicality and tango danceability: On the one hand, tango dancers strive for musicality in their dancing, which to them means to be able to interpret the music and connect well through their improvised dancing; they want to embody the music. On the other hand, tango musicians who play tango for dance contexts strive to play their music in a danceable fashion, meaning the music should make dancers wanting to, and most of all enjoying to dance to it.