by Marina Harss. Published in The New York Times, September 24, 2015.
For many people, including me, the word tango conjures the image of a pantherlike milonguero, hair slicked back, in a breathless embrace with a lithe, rapt partner, skirt slit to her thigh, trembling at his every touch. It is the image promoted by big tango shows; the dance becomes a metaphor for Passion with a capital P, rigorously heterosexual and male-dominated, wrapped up in a dynamic of tormented female desire and irresistible male seduction. (Forget that in the early days, men often danced with other men.)
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More recently, tango has also moved away from its focus on men leading women around the dance floor. There are other options. Men are dancing with men, women with women; women are leading and men are learning to follow. Often, these roles shift mid-dance.

This liberating and democratizing evolution is largely the product of the Queer Tango movement…

Read the full article: ‘Queer Tango Brings Its Liberated Style to New York’ by Marina Harss at The New York Times’ website.