Prof. Dumass, an eminent Argentinean Tangologist, while in France has inspired us with his knowledge and has shared his love for Tango with us.

-“I would like to bring the enlightment of our cherished Tango to the  European amateurs as well as my thanks for  perpetuating this dance that has contributed to the creation of a national conscience in Argentina and a considerable increase in demographic development. 

First of all, I would like to speak of the origins of the word “tango”, wihc is a controversial subject.  Some think that it derives from the word “tanga”, aboriginal denomination of a very thin feminine g-string.  The first male dancers caressing the back of their female partners back trying to near their hand as much as they could to the elastic on the g-string. This feat achieved, they would cry “tango” to signal their victory using this secret word among their group of friends.

Others attribute its origin to the French verb “tanguer”.  In a familiar register it means to oscillate in one’s beginnings or to be submitted to the ‘tanguage’ which is the oscillatory movement of a ship lengthwise. This version is mostly appreciated by the Freudians. 

Some researchers think that its origin may be African considering that tango music was inspired by the “Candombe” (ancestor of the Milonga in the black neighbourhoods of Montevideo and Buenos Aires).  It would be an onomatopoeia of the sound of a male when he takes the female with very clear porpose and asks her “Do you want to tam-tam-go-go?”

In any case, the Tango is sensual dance by excellence. It’s the exacerbation of the making of what is sublime in the ritual of seduction already known in other dances, including those by animals, especially birds.

It is why I am surprised by the way that Europeans dance, who ignore their partners and try to show off their address and valour to their opponents with acrobatic figures forgeting the very principal.

No, my dear fellows, it is not how it is done. I deplore the lack of knowledge of our language which would permit a better understanding of the Tango ‘Asi se baila el Tango’ (this means : "This is the way how Tango is danced)".  It is remarked that one should close one’s eyes to listen better, one aught to near one’s face to the other’s, feel their breath, etc.. one should know that tango is to be dance in “media luz” (dim lighting) because if it is the man who guides, it is the woman who is looked at and whose beauty is justified by the means of the dance by taking the privileged position that the Argentinean gentleman would give her at all times.

Moreover, the tango, as the great lawyer and dancer Ipissonyu Fhrom Latina says, is a bilateral contract; it is free with a determined duration (circa 4 minutes) that can be prolonged if affinities exist. And to evoke the also German tango dancer Fanny Fhrom Behind: -ladies may refuse a dance, but if they accept they will have to let themselves be guided to the frontiers of their femininity.

Furthermore, I take advantage of this occasion to attack a myth of absolute fallacy which says that the origin of tango was begun by men. To better understand one must situate oneself in that period of Buenos Aires and consider that men could only escape the watchful eye of their wives and go to places not so pleasant as our happy libertines would have found an excuse or trick to leave his home and frequent at their ease young girls permeable to their charms in the popular lower class dancing places of Buenos Aires without having to fear the jealousy of their legitimate spouses.
I would like to take part in the suffering that my friend and eldest son of his patriotism, the accordion player Hugo Daniel endured while watching you dance, and would like to show you that the tango, if it is indeed a dance for couples, is practised in communities called familiarly ‘milongas’ (tango balls) wherein there are musicians that, contrary to the wide spread belief, are not only a folkloric elements of the scene, but also ‘Maitres de musique’ who gives a tempo to follow.

As is pointed by the professor Fast Hands, the dancers must turn round the dance floor counter-clockwise and at the same time must take heed of other dancers and respect the following equation: the surface given to each couple is equal to the surface of the dance floor divided by the number of couples; the distance to be respected between the couples is equal to the square root of this surface multiplied by 2.

Before I take my leave, I would like to finish by paying homage to the professors Xenia and Ricardo for their efforts in regard of bringing back ‘Tango Franela’* to Europe, a unique and real expression of the origins of tango.

We thank the professor Dumass for the interview he has accepted to give us and have invited him to a well known place in the Marais neighbourhood of the French capital, but he declined our invitation and headed softly toward rue St.Denis in search of relief for having wasted his time.
*Tango Franela: it is the finest passage of Tango, just after the style of Tango of the XXI century, for it is the true Tango having found its origins.

The Tango Franela privileges the position ‘Chapando’* and the ‘Media vuelta con acostada’*.
The feeling is that of a communion made up of partners in timeless intertwining, this being the sought after goal, and no part of the body is left out and the use of the right hand used for ‘dorsal fingering’ is taken to the degree of artistic subtlety as the partners come to melt in the whirlpool of the dance as to create one unity of beating hearts in unison touching the present and the infinite.

*FRANELA: Literally: soft chiffon used to polish furniture and objects. In the jargon of Buenos Aires: In a cosy hug, with gests and reciprocal movements between two partners that tend to provoke excitement, a foreboding that preludes the act of procreation of the human species.

*CHAPANDO: Position consisting to expose a maximum corporal surface as to make friction between the bodies of the partner without loosing balance.

*MEDIA VUELTA CON ACOSTADA:

Position consisting in uplifting the partner’s body into a rotational movement leaving her in balance on one foot and laying her literally on the torso of the male dancer, the contact of the feminine chest falls upon it and causes a most likeable sensation.

France 5 €
Abroad 200$

Ricardo "Caito" Blanch  copyrignt 1998