It Takes Two to Tango

Gay tango festival puts new spin on Argentine dance

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BUENOS AIRES (Reuters Life!) – Two men locked in a tight embrace step in time to the mournful chords of a tango. Gustavo Aciar follows his partner's lead, but halfway through the melancholy song, he takes charge.

The nostalgic music and passionate moves are the same as those found in most Buenos Aires tango clubs, called milongas, but a gay tango festival is giving a new twist to a dance that traditionally maintains strict gender roles.

"Tango has to adapt, just like a language," Aciar, 45, an opera pianist from the Argentine capital, told Reuters. "And gay tango is enriching the language of tango."

The event is an offshoot of the bigger International Queer Tango Festival, which was launched in 2007 to increase interest in the dance among the gay community in the country, which became the first nation in Latin America to allow gay marriage this month....



....."What the books don't say is that while some men did it for the practice, others did it because they loved it," said Augusto Balizano, 40, one of the festival's organizers.

"And why shouldn't I dance tango with the object of my desire?"