Getting to the heart of the tango sounds like a simple task. The dance was born in the brothels of Buenos Aires and is currently experiencing resurgence in popularity. It seemed obvious: travel to the place where it began, talk to some historians about the dance's racy origins, interview some dancers/teachers on what you can still see in the dance that can be traced back to its somewhat sleazy beginnings and discuss what role the tango plays as a sexual aperatif. It was much harder than it seemed because tango purists consider the dance SENSUAL, not SEXUAL - big difference. Nearly everyone I interviewed - who actually agreed to talk about the sensuality and sexuality in tango - made it clear the dance was about some otherworldly experience, a connection between two people that was similar to lovemaking, but something that could not be explained with words. "You have to dance it to understand it" was the running theme in all the interviews. One of the dancers told me it was like taking the personalities of both dancers and creating a third one.

But I just couldn't figure out how you could be pressed up so tightly to someone and not have it spark something. It's especially hard to figure out when you watch a show like "Forever Tango," which really plays up the erotic elements in the dance. You walk out of a show like that thinking: "I'll take tango over porn videos any day." Talk about steamy!! What I finally figured out after all my research, phone calls and interviews with tango dancers/teachers/historians both in and out of Buenos Aires, was that there was a cultural divide between my North America sensibilities - basically no touch, no feel - and South American culture - where every hello and goodbye is punctuated by a hug or kiss or both. Heck, most macho Latinos kiss each other on the street, an action, which becomes non-existent once they cross into North America. At least, that's how it was for my husband, an Argentinean-born Canadian resident. He behaves differently in his homeland when he runs into friends, wrapping them in big bear hugs and kissing them boldly on the cheek. But if he runs into the same friend on a Toronto street, he might give him a simple nod of the head or perhaps a handshake, but nothing more. When I'm in South America, I also find myself assimilating into that culture, hugging and kissing complete strangers as a standard greeting, while back in Canada, I generally maintain that arm's length formality when I run into people I've known my whole life. Displays of affection seem to be reserved for immediate family members and lovers. Not to mention all those high school dances where slow songs became group gropes. If you danced a slow dance with a boy, in some sense, you were acknowledging your attraction for each other, which could pave the way for more intense physical contact. Perhaps that's why I had a hard time wrapping my head around the idea that dancing tango was more sensual, than sexual. And although I do have a deeper understanding of the dance, I guess I still feel that way. If I danced tango with a man I was attracted to, it might be sensual, but I think I would also find it sexually arousing. I guess I need to sign up for dance lessons and actually dance it before drawing a final conclusion.

Karen Murray
Associate Producer, SEXTV