Dance consumption is not comparable to the passive consumption of objects capitalist society offers , even if these were works of art or any other nice thing . In Tango you can also go watch , of course , but not as if you go see movie stars ’ lives , you watch a stage where you are watched back upon , you are included as a protagonist . The scene of a milonga is like that of a dream , images are very intense , you experience a strong feeling of intimacy with everyone , even with those you have never danced with . You see them walk , dance , move among the tables looking for someone to ask dancing ; you recognize some of their gestures : the one that walks with his head up front , the one that wanders the tables with an unlighted cigarette in his hand , like a fetish against female rejection .
All are engraved in your mind , those male bodies roaming milonga lands , those female ones , in repose , waiting . There is a much greater familiarity with people I ’ ve known for years , but I ’ ve never kept their images , the same way I keep the ones I see dancing night after night .
Watching , looking , watching oneself being looked at , seeing how you ’ re being watched , imagining secret intentions , suspicions , seeing how they look each other , how stories begin , and some others end , there is a fantasy world exposed to everyone ’ s sight . You close your eyes and join the dance .
Attraction , indifference , rejection . Why do you always dance with the same person , and some others never ask you to ? Why would you want to be asked by those ? Would there be a Tango-connection ? Milonga ’ s society is ruled by codes , its own laws , which concern dance , aesthetic , a blending of sexual-social-artistic that allows its own hierarchies and different territories .
This is not the capitalist economy , it is the economy of beauty and desire that makes us dance Tango and return to the milonga once and again .
Mercedes Olcese
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