El tango es un baile muy sensual
It is obvious that Argentine tango is a sensual dance, but what is sensual? Is it the same as sexy? Or sensitive?
According to the dictionary, sensual is relating to or affecting any of the senses or a sense organ; sensory. Sensuous: highly appreciative of the pleasures of sensation. Sensual is all that reports to a sense, all and everyone existing in human life. Sensuality, also sensualness, means all that reports to any forms of sense one that can recognize, say, “sense” it.
Sensualism relates to the search for beauty, amazing beauty, and the cruelty and pain that often accompanies that beauty. In tango, Borges refers to the beauty of the panther, the leopard or jaguar. Cruelty is a part of the beauty.
Sensuality refers to subtle, interior sensations. Such as, a tattooer who falls in love with a girl after just seeing her foot, as in Junichiro Tanizaki’s story, "Shisei" (Sisei, Si-Sei, The Tattooer, Tattoo, Irezumi). Much "sensuality" can be found in Japanese literature: Yukio Mishima, Yasunari Kawabata, Baku Akae.
Sexyness, sexiness, sex appeal or being sexy is about an exterior appearance. It can be related to self-perception, self-awareness, self consciousness, ego. A feeling of self-consciousness occurs when we realize that we are being watched or observed, the feeling that "everyone is looking" at us. When feeling self-conscious, one becomes aware of even the smallest of one's own actions, self-objectification. Much of human sexual attractiveness is governed by physical attractiveness which Ariadne von Schirach calls "Der Tanz um die Lust", wrapped up in desirability. Attractiveness involves the impact one's appearance has on the senses, especially in the beginning of a relationship: Visual perception (how the other looks). Audition (how the other's voice sounds). Olfaction (how the other smells, naturally or artificially; the wrong smell may be repulsive). Olfactory signals, or smell, can influence the perception of attractiveness. Physical attractiveness is the perception of the physical traits of an individual human person or a group, race, or type of people, as attractive or beautiful.
Sensitivity, sensitiveness, sensible, sensibility: mental responsiveness and awareness, refined sensitivity to pleasurable or painful impressions. Sensibility seems to have a particular literary sense, in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. It refers to a cluster of attributes, amongst which you can include the display of "elegant and graceful" emotions and tastes, exhibiting a careful attention to detail, etiquette. Hard to please, demanding.
Apologia Tanguera
'Triste, sensual, dormilón,
mezela de riza y lamento,
vuela de los instrumentos
y se mete en el corazón,
alli enciende la passion
que en el alma esta dormida.'
A. P. Maroni
Apologie van de tango
'Droevig, sensueel en slaperig komt,
een mengeling van lach en klacht
van de instrumenten aangevlogen
gaat het hart binnen,
en ontsteekt de passie
die in de ziel te slapen ligt.'
Sensual
Sensuality refers to subtle sensations. Such as, a tattooer who falls in love with a girl after just seeing her foot. Junichiro Tanizaki’s story, "Shisei" (Sisei, Si-Sei, The Tattooer, Tattoo, Irezumi) begins with the narrator illustrating the ancient art of tattooing. He vividly describes that Japanese men, who were performing in the Kabuki Theater, received tattoos in order to satisfy their upper class audiences and enhance their beauty. This story is about a young tattoo artist named Seikichi who trained as an ukiyoye painter in his youth but dropped in social status and became a renowned tattoo artist. For years, Seikichi perfected his tattoo artistry on many clients. To him they were his body canvases which came in all different shapes and sizes, but he yearned for something more, he wanted the perfect canvas to paint his masterpiece on. Then one day, while passing a restaurant, he caught a glimpse of a beautiful woman’s foot and fell madly in love with her. A few days later, the beautiful woman appeared at his door carrying a package from one of Seikichi’s friends. He gazed at her beauty, she had the facial features that he desired, and her body was the perfect canvas he wanted to paint his greatest masterpiece on and then, the story starts. Jun'ichirô Tanizaki wants his readers to understand Seikichi’s stream of consciousness and piece together the inner workings of an artist’s mind. By doing this, Tanizaki reveals to his readers how art affects an artist and how the love of art can lead to a man’s destruction.
Junichiro Tanizaki's (1886–1965) writing is compelling: despite a straight-forward, precise writing style, his stories are extremely passionate, erotic, sensual, subversive, spiritual, diabolic, fragile. Tanizaki often writes of women, taking as his themes obsessive love, the destructive forces of sexuality, and the dual nature of woman as goddess and demon. Tanizaki sought to create works of beauty through style and mood, inspired in part by the Japanese past and also by certain Western writers such as Edgar Allan Poe, Charles Baudelaire, and Oscar Wilde. Elected to the Japanese Academy of Art in 1923 and decorated with the Order of Culture in 1949, Tanizaki occupied a position of eminence in the world of letters for many years. Much more of this "sensuality" can be found in Japanese literature: Yukio Mishima, Yasunari Kawabata , Baku Akae.
sensual :
1 of or relating to any of the senses or sense organs; bodily
2 strongly or unduly inclined to gratification of the senses
3 tending to arouse the bodily appetites, esp. the sexual appetite
4 of or relating to sensualism [ETYMOLOGY: 15th Century: from Late Latin sensualis, from Latin sensus sense. Compare French sensuel, Italian sensuale]
sensually
sensualness sensitive sensitize sensor sensory sensory deprivation sensualism sensuality sensuous sent sentencesenso
(n) (m) (istinto, coscienza) sense;
i 5 sensi, the 5 senses;
perdere/riprendere i sensi, to lose/regain consciousness;
~ d'orientamento, sense of direction;
avere ~ pratico, to be practical;
~ del dovere/dell'umorismo, sense of duty/humour;
avere un sesto ~, to have a sixth sense;
(della sensualità) i piaceri dei sensi, sensual pleasures, the pleasures of the senses;
(sensazione) feeling, sense, sensation;
un ~ di angoscia, a feeling {or} sense of anxiety;
provare un ~ di inquietudine, to feel anxious;
(ribrezzo) fare ~ (a qn), to disgust (sb), repel (sb);
(significato) meaning, sense;
nel ~ letterale/figurato, in the literal/figurative sense;
senza {or} privo di ~, meaningless;
in un certo ~ ha ragione lui, in a way {or} sense he's right;
nel ~ che..., in the sense that... che ~ ha?, where's the sense in that?;
(per me) non ha ~, it doesn't make (any) sense (to me);
nel vero ~ della parola, in the true sense of the word;
(direzione) direction;
in ~ opposto, in the opposite direction;
nel ~ della lunghezza, lengthwise, lengthways;
nel ~ della larghezza, widthwise;
io venivo in ~ contrario, I was coming from the opposite direction;
in ~ orario, clockwise;
in ~ antiorario, anticlockwise (Brit), counterclockwise (Am);
ho dato disposizioni in quel ~, I've given instructions to that end {or} effect;
(strada: Aut) a senso unico, one-way;
"senso vietato", "no entry";
(Dir) ai sensi di legge, in compliance with the law.
sensata sensazionale sensazione sensibile sensibilit sensibilizzare sensibilmente sensitivit sensitiva senso sensoriale sensuale sensualit sensualmente sentenziare sentenziosa sentiero sentimentale sentimentalmente.
Sensitivo, sibarita, refinado, epicúreo, muelle, regalado, agradable, mundano, placentero
atractivo, voluptuoso, erótico, lujurioso, concupiscente, lascivo, carnal, venéreo, libidinoso, impúdico, obsceno, licencioso, libidinoso, impúdico, obsceno, licencioso.
'sensual' también aparece en estas entradas: amatorio, austero, cachondo, carnal, concupiscente, genésico, insinuante, lascivo, libertino, libido, licencioso, rijoso, sensorial, sibarita, sicalíptico, venéreo, sensualizar, voluptuoso, érotique, sensuelle, sensuel, littérature, poésie.
More tangopages, illustrated:
Dance interpretations on Gallo Ciego
Walking the tango rhythm
Walking Seduction
Dance is a physical need
Tangowals tangovals Milena Plebs Ezequiel Farfaro and other clips
Online Tangolessen videoclips videolessen updated
Carlos Gavito and Maria Plazaola
Showclips Forever Tango - great milongueros
Selected YouTube TangoVideos:
1. TangoClass - instructional vídeos - TangoLessons
2. Milonga and Candombe dancing
3. Tangovals clips - Tango waltzing - Valse - Tangowals
4. Various Great Tangoclips Online fast internet access needed
5. Fast Links to Selected Tango Dance Vidio Updates
6. Musicality & Humor in Tangodance - videoclipsToday's cultural context
When the child looks at his reflection in front of a mirror (le stade du miroir), the reflected "startling spectacle" establishes the idea of subjectivity or ego. At the age of six months, the infant is introduced the idea of the difference between self / other. The emphasis here is on the process of identification with an outside image or entity that extends from a fragmented body-image to a form of its totality. This is the start of a lifelong process of identifying the self in terms of the Other. A perceptual relationship to another of the same species is necessary in the normal maturing process. Without the visual presence of others, the maturing process is delayed.
Today, there is no shortage of visual presence of others, it's an overwhelming cultural phenomenon. Faced with large social groupings (big cities), multiple influences (media, advertising, peer group and family pressures, social expectations), and fast moving technology (internet, email, mobile phones, iPods), things are caused to go more rapidly, speeded up or sexed up. Not only is the mirror on the wall at home but media representations, conversations with friends and other forms of social feedback interweave with one’s (dance) life, one’s (self) perception and today's emphasis is on the visual image. Are dancers too often working to achieve an image of what they think dancing is, rather than achieving an understanding and an experience of the dance? Is there a relation between the renewed popular interest in dancing and today's longing, yearning and desire to stay eternally young and beautiful? Anyway, things are looking sexier than ever.
Is dancing an esthetic experience, a contemporary lifestyle? One can say that significant interior feelings like joy, make an exterior appearance meaningful. From the interior feelings, the dance derives its sense of motion as a whole. To make dance a living, ongoing event, there must be this, rather magical internal trigger for action. It is like playing piano, it is not the same as typing notes, an inner soul has to touch the fingers. A musician is expressing himself through his instrument and connecting awareness to the whole body. He is not unpacking a digital audio format. Dancing on life music feels much different from a mp3 audio file which encodes music into a technological form. We interact through all our senses, the sensing body in movement has much more layers than a visual image in a modern, virtual environment.
Introspection captures the intention, not just the physical, outward expression. Action only deals with physical movement: the action line, the axis. Physical movement however, has a non-physical counterpart: its essence, its movement identity. Gesture involves not only physical movement, but a deeper concept of identity. One can only make tactile contact if an appearance has a deeper emotional substance, a lived-body is behind the appearance. Touching another person is a form of physical intimacy and plays an important role in dance. Bodiliness is the fact that when you move your body, incoming sensory information immediately changes. Bodiliness is one aspect of sensory stimulation which makes it different from other forms of stimulation, and contributes to giving it its peculiar quality. Because of bodiliness, corporeality, sensory information has an "intimate" quality: it's almost as though it were part of your own body.
Today's "timespirit" expresses a certain "language" to act like the others in society, a drive to uniformity. That certain "language" or "La forza del destino", can be related to self-objectification. It involves adopting a third-person perspective on the physical self and constantly assessing one’s own body in an effort to conform to the culture’s appearance ideal. Objectification, the act of representing an abstraction as a physical thing. Though portraying oneself solely as an object to be looked at is sometimes viewed as exercising control, presentation of the self in this way can be viewed as a form of self-objectification. That is, they internalized an observer’s standard of appearance and are engaged in activities designed to enhance their sexual attractiveness. One can say that a catwalk is not about interior feelings. Studies have demonstrated that girls and women self-objectify more than boys and men do. Objectification will not affect all individuals equally, but certain situations that accentuate a person's awareness of observers' perspectives on their bodies are likely to enhance self-objectification. One group that might be expected to be particularly high in self-objectification are dancers. Most of the dancer’s time is spent in the studio where the mirror is omnipresent. The dance room is incomplete without a mirror. The mirror is objective. The mirror does not lie and it is a constant reminder to the dancer of surveillance.
Of central importance to Objectification Theory, is that objectification in our society influences people to internalise the views present in society and to begin viewing themselves in the same way. That is, girls and boys gradually learn to adopt an observer's perspective on their physical selves and to treat themselves as an object to be looked at and evaluated on the basis of appearance. Fredrickson and Roberts (1997) term this particular perspective "self-objectification," and describe it as a form of self-consciousness that is characterised by habitual and constant self-monitoring of one's outward appearance to a prescribed ideal image. The constant monitoring of appearance accompanying self-objectification has a number of negative behavioural and experiential consequences. Internalising an observer's objectifying perspective is incompatible with a creative, playful or attentive state of mind. Further, habitual self-monitoring of outward appearance results in a diminished awareness of internal body states. The attention is turned away from the experience as a living, inner experience. Selfobjectification diverts attention, with people monitoring their own bodies as a reaction to (or in anticipation of) the objectifying gaze of others (gaze anticipation). In a society in which the individual is relentlessly confronted with a massive cultural production of unattainable role models, we find ourselves increasingly under pressure to conform.
The omnipresence of desirable bodies with luxurious lingerie styling of the 1940's and the knowledge that we will never look like that, creates a paradoxical and artificial web of frustration and desire. This has created a completely new form of behavior which Ariadne von Schirach calls "Der Tanz um die Lust". Esthetic withdrawal, wrapped up in desirability. In the past, women were supposed to be pretty and men successful. Now, being young, attractive, verbal, intelligent and successful, seems today for all to be the only way to be. The pressure to satisfy and keep that goal, along with the insecurity and stress it brings, has doubled.
In "Mismatch, Why Our World No Longer Fits Our Bodies" , the authors Peter Gluckman and Mark Hanson raise questions about the growing mismatch of biological maturity and psychosocial maturity and its associated challenges to a society often slow to evolve its own morals and expectations. Due to improved nutrition, girls are now starting to menstruate as as young as 10 and 11, but may not become emotionally and intellectually mature for another decade, causing conflicts for teenagers, schools and parents. Over the past 50 years the average age at which girls exhibit the first signs of puberty has fallen to 8 years old. Meanwhile brain development - including how to say no - is stuck where it always has been, around 16. The problem is the same for boys: earlier puberty contrasted with static brain development. Developed bodies and surging hormones crossed with a world that treats them as children on one hand and constantly reminds them of their sexuality on the other, adds up to the kind of frustration you see every weekend at the city's shopping malls. Young people demand freedom. Parents cling to control. Puberty is getting earlier at the rate of a month's fall every two or three years. We now live with a complexity that was never required before, which is compounded by expectations and pressures that come from the impact of media. It's also possible that the structures of society mean it actually takes longer to mature as an adult. Society will get more complex, not less, so children will take a long time to accumulate the life-skills to be adults. The media will continue to drive messages to sell their products based on reminding kids of their sexuality and their sex maturation. We have created a modern, artificial world that is out of tune with our evolved bodies. Our bodies have not yet evolved to match the rapidly changing environment in the developed world.
Symbolizing Libertango
Europeans who go to Buenos Aires to dance a passionate tango in the milongas, may find the formal codes and behavior rules, such as the strict separation between men, women and couples, a bit outdated. Others will find it nostalgic, as if concealing mystic darkness, as in the old days of Catholicism.
A history of social dance is a history of morality and as 83% of the Argentinians are Catholics, it reflects some Catholic morality. A Catholic morality with its restrictions and rebellions, such as between the Catholic Church and the Liberation Theology. Admit, for a single Catholic woman it isn’t always easy to make the step to tango dancing, tango with it's, nearly sacramental, intimacy and passion. But, quite true, dance portrays the beauty of the person as made in the image of God. Regarding Tango and the Theology of the Body, click here: Katrina J. Zeno
Buenos Aires is often called the Paris of South America, mainly because of its architectural image. Regarding the man-woman relation however, it is much different from the Parisian mind. The Argentine Catholic church has focused its advocacy in three areas: ferm opposition to nearly all forms of modern contraception, to sex education, and to abortion. At the heart of this opposition lie views about women’s role in the family, and about maternity and reproduction as key parts of women’s identity. Increasingly, especially at the present difficult economic situation in Argentina, Catholic church officials have sought to justify their faith-based opposition to contraception and abortion in less doctrinal and more “pragmatic” terms, such as “scientific” proof that condoms prevent neither pregnancy nor sexually transmitted infections or nationalist concerns with population size and growth. Historically, a central part of the identity of the political elite in Argentina has been that of a frontier nation to be colonized and populated by Caucasian immigrants from Europe. The most famous expression of this identity is the phrase to rule is to populate attributed to Juan Bautista Alberdi, a central figure in Argentina’s political history known as the “father of the Argentine constitution.” Over the years, the refrain to rule is to populate has been used by various political actors to justify the limitations on women’s reproductive autonomy and rights, by reference to women’s essential role as childbearers and as such tools for population growth. Across the South American region, many governments and legislators have historically declared their opposition to modern birth control methods, usually with reference to Catholic church doctrine. However, in Argentina the government went so far as to prohibit the sale of all contraceptives for several decades in the late twentieth century, an extreme display of opposition to birth control even by regional standards. This pro-natalist approach has historically set Argentina apart from the rest of South America, so much so that Argentina in 1996 was the only country in the region to provide no public support of any kind for access to contraception.
Only in 2002 did the Argentine congress enact meaningful reform, overcoming vocal opposition from the Catholic church as well as several conservative legislators to pass the National Law on Sexual Health and Responsible Procreation. This law placed reproductive and sexual health on the national political agenda for the first time in Argentina’s history. Argentina’s health minister indicated publicly that he thought women’s health and lives probably would improve if abortion were decriminalized. In response, President Nestor Kirchner (elected in 2003) was quick to emphasize that the government’s position continued to be a “clear rejection of the legalization of abortion.” However, Kirchner also defended his government’s health minister against subsequent attacks from the Catholic church, including by asking the Vatican to retire a bishop who had suggested the health minister should be thrown into the sea with a stone around his neck for his comments.
President Néstor Kirchner, while professing belief in the Catholic faith, has often had a troubled relationship with the hierarchy of the Church. Kirchner belongs to the center-left of Peronism and has placed emphasis on certain progressive views that do not go well with some conservative Catholics. The Argentine national government passed laws and began a program to the effect of providing assistance on sex education to all citizens, including the provision of free oral contraceptives and condoms. The Church opposes artificial contraception and has placed conditions on its acceptance of sex education in schools. At the beginning of 2005, the minister of Health made public his support for the legalization of abortion, and Kirchner's silence on the matter angered the Church. In October 2005 conflict erupted again as the Argentine Chamber of Deputies took steps to pass a Sex Education Law that would encompass the whole school system (public and private, including confessional schools), forcing educational establishments to teach students about gender roles and contraception, among other topics. The Archbishop of La Plata accused the state of "promoting sexual corruption" and "inciting fornication, lust and promiscuity". On the issue of the 1970's, - the Vatican Embassy here kept a secret list of thousands of people who "disappeared" during Argentina's dirty wars of the late 1970s - Kirchner called attention on the many bishops "who weren't there while children were disappearing" and who "gave [the sacrament of] confession to torturers" of the Dirty War. Members of the opposition later qualified Kirchner as "Liberation Theology", "unjust" and "intolerant". At the present time, old milonga codes are changing, and more.
