The Temptation To Tango

We Invite You

Shall we dance? salida photo The Temptation to Tango is an invitation to an intimate moment -- stories that belong to us, but yours for the taking, to inhale into your own life and whisper into the ear of another, transformed by your own voice. Our journey is within Argentine tango, but the people we encounter and the feelings that rise to the surface are universal: the desire to be needed, the need to be desired, the hunger to be compelled by something both beautiful and challenging, even if it's difficult, even if you have to leave it and find it again the next week, the next month. But you'll always know it's there to return to -- a fulfillment greater than pleasure, a connection deeper than the physical. Tango is as glorious and temporal as a double rainbow, as enriching and challenging as a life-long spouse.

Irene Thomas and Larry Sawyer authored The Temptation to Tango in the same way people tell others about their favorite places. Tango is just too be good to be kept a secret. It isn't a gold mine of finite riches which must be guarded, but an eternal spring that never runs dry, although the trail to it requires a good deal of maintenance. Through memoir, fiction, and essay the authors reach for both the novice and the experienced dancer; for the novice an introduction to tango's rare beauty, for the experienced a confirmation of tango's trials and rewards.

Praise from Tango Professionals

Here are what several tango professionals have said about The Temptation to Tango:

I really enjoyed the short stories and the format by which they were interjected into the whole book... Stories like the one about the Priest kept me on the edge of my seat (not what I expected from this type of book!)
  -- Christy Cote, Tango teacher and performer
For the experienced tango dancer, this is the kind of book that will make you want to invite the authors over for dinner and a long night of tango discussion and dance. For the uninitiated, after reading this book you'll be reaching for the phone to set up your first tango lesson.
  -- Clay Nelson, Portland Tango Festival founder, tango teacher
This is one of the most entertaining books I have read about tango. It makes me smile throughout and I find many stories very similar to the ones my students are telling me all the time. I think that they will identify with this book.
  -- Nora Dinzelbacher, Teacher and founder of Nora's Tango Week
Irene and Larry provide a balance of information and story telling, so that the reader can feel intimate with tango. Read this book to affirm that it is never too late to pursue, to examine, and to succumb to what we love!
  -- Christina Johnson, Founder of Exotic Tango Vacations.
Be forewarned: tango is not for the faint of heart. Nor is it a quick fix, or a passing fancy. Once in her arms, you will find everything you've done previously uninteresting. And that is the purpose of the book. As Irene and Larry so patiently explain, learning tango is a steep but amply rewarding climb. They guide you through the pitfalls and obstacles with gentle hands and deeply truthful insights.
  -- Johanna Siegmann, author of The Tao of Tango
Irene's essays on tango reminded me of why I was attracted to this mysterious Argentine fantasy in the first place; Larry's vignettes left me wanting more and reminded me of strangers I've known on the dance floor.
  -- Nancy Mendoza, tango instructor and performer

Testimonials from our Readers

Here are what our readers have said about The Temptation to Tango:

Well, did I ever enjoy your book! Like tango itself, I wanted at the same time to both savor it and devour it. Your vignettes are fascinating insights into the human condition, with tango as both catalyst and seducer. Loved them. I also thoroughly enjoyed Irene's detailed descriptions of the history, evolution, and nuances of tango. I think we have all felt its pain and the pleasure, the confidence and the insecurity. I felt like I was having a chat with friends at the Portland congress, wine in hand, of course.
Congratulations on a fine work. I'm making all my tanguero friends read it also.
-- Idora Silver, I. Silver Management Group

Table of Contents

Preface	1

Chapter One: The Lure	3
The Music	4
Brothels to Broadway... Tango History in Brief	6
Piazzolla and Tango Nuevo	9
Smoke and Fire. Passion and Lust	10
Tango's Mysteries as a Lure Factor	12
"Immaculate Tango," a story .	14
The Power of Exoticism and the Dark Side of Tango	24
"Just Ten Steps," a story	29
Tango and Those Other Dances	49

Chapter Two: The Reality	54
What You See When You Watch a Tango	54
Tango as a Language	56
Las Diferencias	56
Argentinos and Americanos	57
Men and Women	62
Dominance and Submission	63
Leading with confidence... and sensitivity	65
Following with sensitivity... and confidence	66
The Style Factor	67
"Dedication Required," a story	69

Chapter Three: The Challenge	77
Learning It: A Dancer's History	77
The Confidence Factor	79
Improvisation	81
Settings for learning tango	81
Dance Camp: Some Recollections	82
Solos	92
"By The Wall," a story	95
The Human Factor -- Intimacy Required	103
"Not an Easy Dance," a story	106

Chapter Four: The Rewards	110
"In a Half Light," a story	110
What You Get For Your Dedication	123
"The Tango Embrace," a story	127
Building a Tango Community	140
The U.S. Tango Trail	141
The Tango Toolkit	142
The Future of Tango	143
A Milonga to Remember	147

Appendix I: Tango Resources
Tango Camps
International Trips
US Cities Tango Contacts
Tango Cruises
Trips to Buenos Aires
Tango clothes and shoes
Tango movies
Recommended CDs

Appendix II: Buenos Aires... If You Go
Milongas of Buenos Aires
Dance Etiquette in Buenos Aires

References Cited

Author Biographies

So What's So Tempting?

The Temptation to Tango is not only for the dancer but also for those who are drawn to listen and watch, unsure if tango dancing is for them. Whether you're in a long-term relationship or single, the tango journey offers many common experiences. The Temptation to Tango will take you on this journey through both fiction and memoir with deep insights along the way.

Every woman who dances tango looks and feels beautiful because she knows how to do something that lots of more beautiful women can't: she knows how to tango. It's a fact. Another fact is that men who might not have been attracted by other dances can often be lured into tango. Tango is simply too tempting to resist, they will tell you. For a particular kind of man, tango dancing might cancel out his residual shyness or otherwise sensible modesty. Tango offers an opportunity to be masterful and sexy within a limited number of possible moves, to be acceptably in charge, to develop his own style in an already highly stylized atmosphere, to touch the hem of glamour and sensuality while moving to fiery and passionate music.... all without making a commitment longer than for the length of a dance. And if a man is actively looking for something more than a temporary refuge in embrace, what better place to find a woman who wants to partner both ways, as lover and dancer? Tango knows no age limits on either end of the scale. So what's so tempting? How good can you stand it?

Essay Excerpts

From Chapter One: The Lure

A couple, strangers perhaps, walk into each other's arms at the first strains of the music. Subtly, almost imperceptively, they tenderly adjust their embrace for comfort and the purpose of lining up their bodies. Now intent upon the swelling surge of music, they open themselves to one another, almost breathing in unison, finding their connection as the music begins to move them. And move them it does. It might, in fact, be breaking their hearts. He shifts her weight to the intended foot, and she feels his intention to step out onto the free one. Connected almost as one person in their upper bodies, they step out together on a strong beat of the music, and by the next step, they have created a kind of microcosmic world of their own. Nothing but the music and the two of them matter now. It's not possible, for the next three minutes, to think about jobs or shopping lists, or the headache one of them might have entered the room with. It's nothing but the tango now, fully absorbing, fully satisfying. Once a dancer experiences a "tango moment," that elusive moment when everything in the dancer's embrace seems to be in perfect balance and harmony, he may never be the same. Craving a repeat of the experience the way an addict craves a fix, dancers may spend a significant part of their lives seeking out the next tango moment.

From "The Power of Exoticism and the Dark Side of Tango":

Even the sedate costume dramas of BBC's Masterpiece Theater have been marked by tango. Their 2002 production of "The Forsyte Saga" includes a speech from a character recently returned from Buenos Aires circa 1902, his hoarse whisper a mixture of confidentiality and shock: "There's this dance they do in Buenos Aires. It's exciting beyond words when you first see it... but it's a dreadful thing. Men and women clutching together, it's as if what isn't meant to be seen is being seen ... in the streets. There's evil in it." I was startled at the intensity of this character's disapproval, especially as it is presented as one of the reasons for which this gregarious gambler and ladies' man left Argentina to return to his family in England. But "Evil in it?" For the first time, listening to these words, I palpably felt the force of all those accounts I'd read about tango's shock value to polite society. By today's standards of course, hardly evil. Exotic, however, is another matter. Tango is often called exotic, its many commentators attributing tango's popularity in fact to the perception of it -- since it first was seen outside the barrios -- as exotic. But what does this word actually mean in the tango context? And why is exoticism such a draw? It helps to understand the power of tango as an exotic import when one considers the milieu of the pre-war Europe it was brought to. At the turn of the century, also known as la Belle Époque, ballroom and social dancing were in full swing as a pastime, both the rowdy folk versions of the working classes and the more sedate waltzes of the leisure classes, which had themselves evolved from rustic country waltzes and contra dances. In cities, social dancing was clearly becoming differentiated from the spectacle of dancing entertainment on the stage. Still, the more scandalizing stage dances primed the scene to some degree for equally scandalizing social dancing. Onto the Montmartre cabaret stages came the French can-can and Apache dancing, followed by imports such as belly dance, flamenco, and finally, tango. Onto the dance floors of dance halls and salons came the dances that Marta E. Savigliano, a noted dance scholar, calls "colonized exotics," the dances like tango and the African cake walk which drew forth moral disapproval in some quarters but were eventually expropriated and exploited by the elites, tamed and minced into a form just naughty enough to be nice. Irresistibly fascinating. Exotic. Exotic because they were foreign by virtue of class origin or ethnic origin, exotic because they impelled feelings of superiority mixed with curiosity and titillation. There would be, both in Europe and in Argentina, an evolution in tango from what Savigliano calls "away from ruffianism and toward romanticism," but for some period both extremes existed simultaneously. Learning to dance tango was akin to what was happening nearly at the same time in New York: whites going uptown to Harlem to listen to ragtime and early swing, and later to do the Lindy Hop and jitterbug.

Story Excerpt

From "Immaculate Tango":

Father Gregorio removed his priestly vestments and sat down in front of the mirror. How much smaller he always looked to himself without his robe. He ran his hand through his black hair, now half gray and saw vertical lines in his cheeks that he didn't remember. Did she think he was handsome, he wondered? It will be easier if that isn't the case. He thought it remarkable that it had taken this long to be found out. Not that he hadn't been exceedingly careful. When first learning to tango, he had switched from group classes to private lessons early on to minimize his chances of being recognized. Yet it was during the group classes at a small number of tango conventions, located far from California, which had provided some of the highlights of his life. In the relaxed nature of a class where partners rotate, there isn't the drama of searching out and asking a partner, only women willing to be held and moved. At least the Catholic Church approved of dancing; had he been a Protestant Minister of the many Christian sects that he knew of, dancing wouldn't be tolerated at all. At least then the opportunity for discovery by a devout parishioner would be reduced to something similar to a first hand experience of the Second Coming. He smiled at himself in the mirror realizing that if he were a minister of almost any other religion, he would be married as well. Perhaps then he could have sex, but not tango. Strangely, this seemed less natural to him than his own predicament. For it wasn't the fulfillment of sexual desire that he missed the most from his solitary calling. What he ached for was an intimate bonding of another kind, a visceral connection with a female body that happened deeper through the hands and chest than even a sexual embrace -- or so he assumed. The one sexual relationship he had had before the priesthood had left him feeling drained and off balance with his partner. From the inferences during counseling sessions, he knew that sex was less than satisfying for one or both partners a good deal of the time. But what he felt holding women close in a tango was something purer, even holy and it suffocated his heart to think of giving it up. What would the Church think, if they knew? Would they suspect that his relations with women weren't confined to the dance floor? How could he ever explain himself to the congregation or other priests? Maybe it wouldn't be as bad as he feared. No, it would be. Priests don't dance with women for hours at every opportunity, especially the most intimate and passionate dance of all. If the wrong person knew, he would have to choose, assuming the diocese didn't choose for him. Up until now, he had always thought that he would choose the Church and priesthood -- there seemed no question.
Since the day of his exposure in the confessional, he let the week slip by without attempting to attend a milonga. The next week, too, he didn't dance, not wanting to confront his fears. The following week was his Sunday off in the rotation, the easiest week for him to attend the bigger weekend dances. He resolved to dance again, realizing now that his greatest fear was facing the woman who knew him, though her identity was still a mystery. He had considered flying to Los Angeles, it was quick and cheap enough. It wouldn't be a pattern he could sustain though. No, better to go to a Bay Area dance and trust his confidante. The once a month all night milonga was this Saturday in Berkeley; he might as well take advantage of it.

About the Authors

Authors' photo Irene D. Thomas, Ph.D. made a career in academia and educational publishing and later found a midlife hobby in ballroom dancing. Like many others before them, though, once she and her husband discovered Argentine tango, they hardly looked back. Today they introduce others to the joys of tango and whenever possible follow the tango trail around the country. This book grew out a passion to tell the story of what happens to Americans when they take on this fascinating and provocative dance form -- and the culture that goes with it. Her essays about tango, mostly drawing upon her own experience, provide a contextual background for her friend Larry Sawyer's tango stories. Together they may have created a new genre, combining fiction and non-fiction in an original format.

Irene lives with her husband, Frank Howard, on the Mendocino coast of California.

Larry Sawyer pursued a working life of Land-Use Planning and the rather dry writing of Environmental Impact Reports before letting it go in favor of romance and adventure on the Mendocino coast. After learning all of the commonly found partner dances in the U.S., he and his wife found Argentine tango in the late nineties. Soon after, all dance classes they took were tango. Travel within the States or abroad now includes a search for tango in the local area. Obsession with fulfillment is a wonderful thing, especially if all you lose along the way is your foxtrot. His stories represents a return to an earlier passion for writing fiction.

Larry also lives with his wife, Harriet, in Albion on the Mendocino coast.

Contact us

Irene Thomas: irene@thetemptationtotango.com
Larry Sawyer: larry@thetemptationtotango.com

How to Purchase

To order from the authors: send $18 plus $3 shipping and handling.

Remit by check or money order to:

Larry Sawyer
P. O. Box 220
Albion, CA 95410