Sharna Fabiano (USA) and Aja Fenn (USA) perform a tango with improvised role switching at the “Fishnet Fete” Tango Mercurio outreach fundraiser in Washington DC, 2011.

Queer Tango and the ephemeral abrazo
By Birthe Havmoeller, Aarhus, Denmark – June 2012

When I took up dancing Tango other dancers were asking me, ‘Why do you want to lead?’ Now a couple of years later, as they can see that I more or less know what I am doing on the dance floor this kind of questions are less frequent. The ‘why?’ puzzled me a bit. What kind of answers were they expecting from me – the ambitious, the straight, or the queer one? I was just dancing the way that comes most natural to me, but as it happened hardly any of the other tango dancers were dancing both roles (= leader / follower) at my local tango balls, and I found myself invading one of the modern dance culture’s heterosexual strongholds…

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Ozhan Araz (Turkey) & Serkan Gokcesu (Turkey) performing three Queer Tangos in Brasov @ “Transylvania Tango Fest”, organized by Studio Tango Nada Mas Brasov, 2009.

Mariano Docampo (Buenos Aires) and Helen La Vikinga (Buenos Aires) perform at the Queer Tango Festival in Buenos Aires, 2011.