Intimacy. The embrace in the Argentine tango

The Argentine tango, a genre that originated from migrant music and dance traditions in the port districts of Buenos Aires and Montevideo in the late 19th century, has enjoyed a revival in the last two decades. The tango is listened to, learned, and danced around the world, at local milongas, marathons, and festivals gathering even as many as hundreds of dancers. This article presents the history of the tango and discusses its present popularity through the prism of intimacy that forms between two dancers connected in the close embrace that satisfies their deep emotional needs. The author also highlights the social and cultural dimension of the tango’s popularity driven by the currently common deficit of a non-sexual touch. Intimacy in the abrazo, the tango embrace, may appear when certain technical conditions are met by the dancers (relaxed muscles, open chest, proper floor work, breathing exercises). Referring to Richard Shusterman’s somaesthetics as the primary theoretical perspective, the author conducts a phenomenological analysis of the abrazo, trying to construct the ‘somaesthetics of the embrace’