They say that Buenos Aires is a city of tango. After seeing a tango show this past weekend, I believe it.
The dancers, the orchestra, perfect to the last detail. Immaculate in dress and in execution. To watch the partners on the stage retell the history of tango in Buenos Aires through interpretative dance and music was quite a spectacle. The music came in peaks and valleys, thundering crescendos accompanying frenzied footwork that could induce motion sickness. At other times, the music was scarcely audible as the tango dancer or singer became the enthralling principal figure of the drama.
The show concluded with awe inspiring performances from the new modernism era of tango. What that means exactly, I admit I still don’t really know. I do know that they say that Buenos Aires is a city of tango and that the music defines the city.
I’ll confess, normally, I despise such sweeping claims and generally dismiss them as both intellectually presumptuous and drastically oversimplified. But, this one has a bit of logic to it so I’ll work with it. Having lived in the city for 4 months and some spare change, I’ll go to bat for this pithy little statement. Buenos Aires is a city of tango. I’ll even make it simple too; I’ll break it down into a series of points.
Buenos Aires is a city of tango. One. It’s a sensual, all-up-in-your-grill personal experience. Like the perspiring, gyrating, flailing dancers of the tango, Buenos Aires is an organized chaos. Bodies, throngs of them, swarm down the avenues of the city at any given moment in time. Whether it’s a teenager coming home at 7 am from a night of raging on a Friday night, or a family coming home from the theater at 1 am on a Sunday night, Buenos Aires is always in motion.
Two. Personal space is nonexistent. You get buffeted by the waves of people in constant motion. In the streets, on the subte, in a colectivo, you will find that you are one amongst the crowd. Just another ant in the farm of millions, pressed up against the others, often unwillingly. Just as the dancer’s feet seem to be pulled toward each other by some unknown force, so gravitate the citizens of Buenos Aires toward each other.
Back to the sensuality. The characteristic warmth which seems to characterize porteño relationships is not lost between strangers. Rarely does one complain when smothered up against a complete stranger on public transportation. It’s just okay. Perhaps it’s this same warmth that leads couples to passionately attack each other in public. I feel that I don’t need to reiterate this point. PDA is sensual. PDA, part of the argentine culture, is certainly not unlike the tango, a dance which gives the vibe that it should culminate in the bedroom as the partners find themselves inches from each others’ faces, poised to “make a move.” But no one does; it’s like 8th grade, maybe a younger grade, but not if you were still awkward then like me. The tango is about temptation.
Three. Temptation. Buenos Aires is a city of temptation. For the sweet- lovers, there are ice cream shops and alfajores – think of two cookies held together with a caramel like sauce, all covered in chocolate – galore. You won’t find a place that doesn’t offer some type of highly fattening, yet generally irresistible type of sweet. For the partiers, Buenos Aires doesn’t sleep. There is never a quiet night in Buenos Aires if you are looking for some noise. You just need to look in the right places. I won’t even delve into the seedier elements of temptation which include telos, and lovely little prostitution parks.
Okay. I lied. I’ll elaborate a little. Obviously I wanted to talk a little more about the telos. Telos, which stem from Latin American Pig-Latin called vesre – from revés, are hotel rooms that you can rent for a turno (yes, a turn) which is usually anywhere from 30 minutes to 2 hours. What are these grand, generally opulent and obnoxious hotels used for? Fornication. And lots of it.
Discretion is the name of the game with telos as they come with private parking and the “concierge” will lightly tap on your door to let you know your turno is coming to a close. Best be efficient. These sex hotels even have themes. From Roman emperor themed to jungle themed to my personal favorite, “O’Telo.” Nothing like a good Shakespeare pun to get you in the mood. And to answer the inevitable question that you will have as you sit here reading this blog, wondering how tango led me to go on a little telo tirade, have I ever used a telo? No. Sorry to spoil the fun. I did give a presentation on them, though. Only in Argentina…
Sorry, I got carried away. Back to the point. Buenos Aires is very much a city of tango. There is a certain rhythmical quality to the style of life here. People march through the streets, sidestep each other, bump into each other, kiss each other, and move with a certain frenetic quality. This selfsame quality is evident in the dance of Tango that I witnessed last weekend. It is distinctly Latin American and even more so, distinctly porteño. This quality of dance and of life is sensual sometimes, perverse rarely, frantic frequently, and entertaining always.
