Tango-Danceability of Music in European Perspective

The two elements music and dance of the complex artform tango argentino are increa- singly researched by academics from a variety of backgrounds and perspectives. To date, no studies have connected explorations in tango music and dance on an analytical level. However, in order to understand the way a genre is perceived and development, its basic elements have to be studied in great depth, and in relation to each other. This study will address these issues and investigate the interrelation of musical parameters and movement repertoires particular for tango argentino. In this study, tango argentino is considered to be a cosmopolitan phenomenon, organized as an international scene, and is examined under such premises in the European context and presence. Within the international, especially the European tango scene, tango-danceability of music is an intensely discussed topic. Some tango dancers consider types of music outside of the classical tango repertoire (non-tangos) more danceable than certain tango music, a circumstance which is reflected in the title of this proposal. Building on this emic (inside perspective) topic, the study develops it into the etic (outside perspective) research question: How do music and dance parameters as well as scene inherent sociocultural aspects shape the way tango danceability of music is perceived by European tango dancers? The project will supplement ethnomusicological and ethnochoreological participant observation strategies with qualitative and quantitative empirical methods. The additional inclusion of experimental and computer supported approaches creates a methodological innovation: In the first part of the study, concentrating on tango music analysis, new tango pieces will be composed, which based on preliminary in-depth analysis make use of several parameters that are known to make tango music indanceable, in order to prove theories about particular parameters that are essential for dancers` abilities to interpret music through tango dance. The second part of the study, focusing on dance, uses motion capture technology to define boundaries in tango movement repertoire and identify particular features that turn movement into tango movement. In the final consolidation of the study, results from both parts are combined to ascertain which elements in music and dance connect the two and shape the genre tango. Results will be evaluated taking sociocultural aspects into consideration, including sociological explanation strategies for opinion making and networking, taking into account the possibility that tango-danceability of music cannot be explained through the interrelation of parameters in music and movement, but is mostly socially constructed.

This project focused on the relations between tango music and tango dance. The research question was "what makes tango music danceable?". We looked at the topic from different perspectives: movement repertoire, music features, and socio-cultural (including political and economic) influences on the European tango argentino practice. All perspectives combined paint a thorough picture of the relations between sound, movement, and social structures in a translocal music-dance-genre like tango argentino. Answers to the research question are complex, yet as a general result we can say that both movement and sound features and their mutual relations are relevant for the judgement of 'danceability'. But even more important are social norms and shared experiences by tango argentino practitioners: key figures like tango dance teachers and tango music DJs cause trends, and ultimately shape the judgement of what is considered 'danceable' by tango argentino practitioners in both music and dance.