Paper Tangos (Public Planet)

By Julie TaylorMichael WarnerDilip Parameshwar Gaonkar, et al.

Book Overview

Tango. A multidimensional expression of Argentine identity, one that speaks to that nation's sense of disorientation, loss, and terror. Yet the tango mesmerizes dancers and audiences alike throughout the world. In Paper Tangos, Julie Taylor-a classically trained dancer and anthropologist-examines the poetics of the tango while describing her own quest to dance this most dramatic of paired dances.
Taylor, born in the United States, has lived much of her adult life in Latin America. She has spent years studying the tango in Buenos Aires, dancing during and after the terror of military dictatorships. This book is at once an account of a life lived crossing the borders of two distinct and complex cultures and an exploration of the conflicting meanings of tango for women who love the poetry of its movement yet feel uneasy with the roles it bestows on the male and female dancers. Drawing parallels among the violences of the Argentine Junta, the play with power inherent in tango dancing, and her own experiences with violence both inside and outside the intriguing tango culture, Taylor weaves the line between engaging memoir and insightful cultural critique. Within the contexts of tango's creative birth and contemporary presentations, this book welcomes us directly into the tango subculture and reveals the ways that personal, political, and historical violence operate in our lives.
The book's experimental design includes photographs on every page, which form a flip-book sequence of a tango. Not simply a book for tango dancers and fans, Paper Tangos will reward students of Latin American studies, cultural studies, anthropology, feminist studies, dance studies, and the art of critical memoir.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0822321912
• ISBN13: 9780822321910
• Release Date: June 1998
• Publisher: Duke University Press
• Length: 160 Pages
• Weight: 0.48 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.3" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

Wonderful book

Paper Tango is such a lovely book. It speaks to the soul of Tango and of the Argentinean people. I love it.

Tango Fishing?

Did the reviewer and I read the same book, see the same flipbook inside? Thanks to him (and I'm sure he's a him), this book isn't out of print, which I think it soon will be, as the Argentine tango becomes more and more popular, for many of the reasons Taylor describes. It's a dance for the times, and the times require presence and balance, if there are to be any more times. I thought it was a lovely book, that I will reread, as complicated and as poetic as the tango I am only just beginning to learn. I'll bet he hasn't been trout-fishing either, a close relative -- two disciplines of mind and body that require deep attention and grace.