"Tango! Dance the World Around: Global Transformations of Latin American Culture"

Tango! engages with the history and aesthetics of a vital dance form in order to explore traditions of culture and politics in Latin America and across the world. Tango—the dance, the music, the symbol of passion and possession—is deeply embedded in histories of urban poverty, social marginalization, and masculine authority.

Tango!—the conference—will explore these local contexts of performance while, at the same time, posing larger questions of cultural transmission. Why has tango achieved such a remarkable success as a global metaphor? What gives it the capacity to infuse diverse national and regional contexts across the globe with the spirit of Latin American performance?

Tango! is cosponsored by the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies, the Humanities Center at Harvard, and the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, with the generous support of the Consulate General and Promotion Center of Argentina in New York.

Schedule

Friday, October 26, 2007
2:00 p.m.	Check-in begins
3:00 p.m.	Welcome
	Homi K. Bhabha, Harvard University
	Introduction
	Deborah Foster, Harvard University
	Lecture and demonstration
	“Wallflowers and Femmes Fatales: Dancing Gender and Politics at the Milongas”
	Marta Elena Savigliano, University of California at Los Angeles
4:30 p.m.	Introduction
	Mariano Siskind, Harvard University
	“In Search of Tango Music History”
	Pablo Aslan, bassist and composer
Saturday, October 27, 2007
8:30 a.m.	Check-in begins
9:30 a.m.	Welcome
	Diana Sorensen, Harvard University
	Introduction
	Homi K. Bhabha, Harvard University
	Keynote
	“Borges and Tango”
	Sylvia Molloy, New York University
10:45 a.m.	Break
11:00 a.m.	“Tango as a Cultural Form: Music, Dance, Film”
	Florencia Garramuño, Universidad de San Andrés
	Federico Miguel Monjeau, Universidad de Buenos Aires
	Julie Taylor, Rice University
	Moderated by Mariano Siskind, Harvard University
12:30 p.m.	Break
2:00 p.m.	“A Conversation with Yo-Yo Ma and Osvaldo Golijov”
	Yo-Yo Ma, cellist
	Osvaldo Golijov, composer
	Moderated by Homi K. Bhabha
3:30 p.m.	Break
3:45 p.m.	“Tango as Politics: Gender, Class, Urban Life”
	Alicia Borinsky, Boston University
	Juan Eugenio Corradi, New York University
	Matthew B. Karush, George Mason University
	Moderated by Merilee Grindle, Harvard University
	Closing Remarks
	Barbara J. Grosz, Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study
	A reception with music led by Pablo Aslan, bassist and composer, and dancing will follow.

Speakers

Please see the Tango Speakers page for the full biographies of the conference speakers.