A expansão do tango na cidade de São Paulo: um fenômeno de tradução entre mídias e ambientes midiáticos

Abstract

The objective of this research is the analysis of the expansion of tango balls in São Paulo during the 1950s and 1960s, followed by a relative decline and then a vigorous return in 1990s. The analysis relates this phenomenon to the translation processes related to media, the media environments and cultural semiosphere. The research uses these basis to reflect about the survivability of tango in culture, since it has been broadcasted by brazilian radio stations in the 1950s and 1960s, migrated to dance balls in São Paulo, with performances by the most successful orchestras of the time and, after a two-decade decline, re-emerged in 1990s and persisted to boom through the 2000s. The main hypothesis sustains that tango has been creating strategies to remain in the city culture, relying in the ambience provided by the dancing balls. The overall goal of the research is to analyze the link between tango and media, emphasizing the media dissemination strategies that took place in tango dancing balls in São Paulo and demonstrating that these strategies are articulated to propagate tango music and dance. In order to show how the language of tango is being housed in the city´s dancing balls over time, this research employs concepts from the theory of communication such as the theory of cultural mestizaje developed by Amalio Pinheiro (2004, 2006, 2007), the theory of bodymedia by Helena Katz and Christine Greiner (2001, 2002, 2005), the semiotics of culture (LOTMAN, 1996) as well as other approaches regarding communication, culture and mediation (MARTIN-BARBERO, 2002, 2008)