Tango! The Dance, the Song, the Story

Born in the slums of Buenos Aires in the last decades of the nineteenth century, the tango--the most erotic, most passionate, most melancholy of dances--has remained spectacularly alive for more than a hundred years. Today it is the focus of a new cult, casting its spell throughout the Americas, Europe, the Pacific basin, and Japan. What is the secret of the tango's appeal? In Tango!, four experts from Europe, North America, and Latin America explore its fascinating history from the earliest beginnings to the present. Historian Simon Collier traces the tango's roots in Argentina and charts its rise from the brothels of Buenos Aires to become the quintessential expression of Argentine popular culture. The writer Artemis Cooper discusses the amazing tango craze of the 1910s in Europe and North America, while anthropologist Maria Susana Azzi looks at the tango's peak years in Argentina, the period from 1920 to 1950. Finally, Richard Martin, Curator at the Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, charts the international boom in the tango's popularity in recent times. He looks, too, at the relationship of woman to man and man to woman in the tango. To match the spectacle of the tango, the book is illustrated with more than 250 photographs and drawings in color and black and white. Special features are built around the brilliant color photography of Ken Haas, recognized worldwide for his fidelity to the spirit of the dance. And as an evocative reminder of the rhythms of the dance, some of the most celebrated tango songs are discussed and quoted.