Savigliano, Marta E. Tango and the Political Economy of Passion. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1995.
In Tango and the Political Economy of Passion, Marta Savigliano traces the global circulation of tango – from its ‘origins’ in Río de la Plata to Paris, England and the United States, then back to Argentina and finally to Japan. As tango is imported and exported as a cultural commodity around the world, Savigliano draws attention to the power dynamics embedded within its continuous movement between colonized and colonizers, between Western and Other, between men and women, between different races, different classes and different bodies. Savigliano draws from previous scholarship and historical accounts of tango as well as tango lyrics and choreographies in order to examine issues of identity. She argues that through tango, multiple identities – national, racial, class, gender and sexual – are contested and reconfigured.
Tango is central to Savigliano’s larger project of decolonization. According to Savigliano, “decolonization is depicted as a process of ‘unlearning’ the exotic positions allocated to Third World women within recently developed intellectual practices” (7). She approaches this decolonization process through the tango. She explains, “tango is not an example; it is the main ingredient in this exercise of decolonization. It is an inviting metaphor that asks theories to dance, corporalized in the specificity of sweaty, sensual, fully efforted bodies” (4). For Savigliano, tango is a tool, strategy, method, theory, identity, commodity as well as dance, music, lifestyle, movement. Savigliano’s work shows how fertile dance scholarship can be – how through a close analysis of a dance form, such as the tango, a wide range of social, economic, political and cultural issues can be examined.
Savigliano’s project is interdisciplinary. In addition to dance studies, she engages feminist, postcolonial, postmodern, poststructuralist, Marxist and neo-Marxist scholarship. While she utilizes these multiple methodologies and theories, she also recognizes this Western scholarship as a form of colonization which she simultaneously challenges in her efforts towards decolonization. Savigliano also employs performative writing as a strategy that could potentially disrupt traditional academic discourse. She weaves stories and personal narratives throughout her text. She also stages scenes with various characters and includes stage directions. An integral character that reappears throughout her work is the Choreocritic. The choreocritic allows another voice for Savigliano to emerge – a voice which moves between academic discourse and choreographic analysis, description and narrative. These narrative and performative interludes can be effective tools for dance scholarship.
I am particularly interested in Savigliano’s methodologies and strategies. I am inspired by how she keeps dance central to her project and is able to delve into complicated issues through dance. Savigliano’s project is inherently political. Her position to her work is clear. In her conclusion she argues, “political positioning is embedded in the role of the intellectual because intellectuals represent, by their own choices or by the uses that others make of them, dominant or subaltern sectors and projects” (235). This challenges me to think about how academics must continually navigate political terrain throughout their research and writing. Ultimately, I continue to find inspiration in the work of dance scholars such as Savigliano.
