Tango

“(...) Those early tangos were openly lewd, with couples bringing their bodies together, entwining their legs and thrusting with their hips, like I said before. Remember that the first female tango dancers were camp followers and women from the brothels.”

(...)

Even when tango became popular and was danced at family gatherings, cortes were banned on grounds of indecency. (...) The “leg thrust,” as it was crudely termed. Once the tango became socially acceptable, it lost its character, Max concluded. It became slow, calculated, less lewd. This was the tame version that had traveled to Paris and become famous.

“It was transformed into that dull routine we see in dance halls, or into Valentino’s ridiculous caricature of it on screen.”

 

— “What We Become”, Arturo Pérez-Reverte

Done