New Book

Tango

A History of Obsession

by

Virginia Gift

I am thrilled to announce that my friend’s book has been published as of April 22, 2009.  She has been working on it since her obsession with tango began.  She kept finding more interesting things to include which never seemed to end to get the book published. 

Virginia is a retired school teacher who travels between her Paris apartment and her adobe house in Mexico.  Our friendship developed during her frequent visits to Buenos Aires to do research for the book.

* * * * *

Delving into five hundred years of political, social, cultural and
religious mores, the author offers a chronology as intricate as the
dance itself. Readers are invited into a world as remarkable as it is
compelling. The Tango originated in the slums of Buenos Aires as a
partnered dance between two men and evolved into the world’s most
elegant and physically demanding social dance. Originally relegated
to the lower classes, it eventually earned its place as a respected and
thoroughly enjoyed art form, embraced by millions of dancers and
spectators on concert stages around the world.

From Argentina’s early colonial period of the 16th century through
civil and world wars, the rise and fall of dictatorships and democracies,
to its years of near-disappearance and then resurrection, the history of
tango has been captured in this meticulously researched book, which
reminds the reader again and again that the passions and needs of a
culture desperate to connect can be fulfilled through dance.

Readers are quickly pulled in and swept away by its magic. (That tiny
Finland attracts more than 130,000 paying spectators to its annual
tango festival says so much about our fascination with this dance.)
Unlike the familiar ballroom tango, with its precisely prescribed movements, the Argentine Tango is about creativity and improvisation,
about two dancers speaking to one another through their bodies, and
the way those bodies move together. The flair and intensity that run
through this dance is palpable in Gift’s book.

“This book is a serious, dedicated, and precise analysis that encompasses
the culture of tango. Read this book to know the enduring history of
tango.” —Rodolfo Dinzel, Tango teacher and performer.

“Tango: A History of Obsession” is an informative, interesting and
provocative discourse proving that the Tango could never be simply
an obsession.” —Gustavo Naveira, Tango teacher and performer.

USA orders from these sources: 

DC Team 2 with BookSurge Publishing
DCTeam2@booksurge.com
Local: (843) 789-5134
Toll Free: 1-866-308-6235 Ext. 5134

or www.amazon.com  for $20.99 plus $3.99 shipping

European orders:

Amazon.com in the United Kingdom and Germany