Tango y Cultura Popular ® English Edition TyCP Special | Page 20

Adorno: an approach
to its understanding
Many years ago, I was asked to write an article about Adorno,
for a web page that does not longer exist. That article was
written in Spanish and translated into several languages.
To speak of adornment - and as a basis for all that may come
up afterward - we must, first, delve into the origins of the
essence and existence of tango and dance.
It is necessary to make it clear that the word “dance” doesn’t
connote technique only. Quite the contrary, its broader and
general meaning refers to all forms of dance (in particular) and
the act of dancing. And it alludes to the most natural, primitive,
remote, visceral, and even animal senses of the human being.
And in this way, it is previous, historical, chronological, and
ontologically, to any technical conception.
If we understand dance as a deeply natural event, that is born
along with the human being - and here we speak about popular
dances, of which Tango is perhaps our most intrinsic example -,
everything superfluous is immediately discarded.
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