Tango and the Dancing Body in Istanbul explores the expansion of social Argentine tango dancing among Muslim actors in Turkey, pioneered in Istanbul despite the conservative rule of the Justice and Development Party (JDP) and Tayyip Erdoğan.
In this book, Melin Levent Yuna questions why a dance that appears to publicly represent an erotic relationship finds space to expand and increase dramatically in the number of contemporary Turkish Muslim tango dancers, particularly during a conservative rule. Even during the 2020 Covid-19 pandemic, tango dance classes, gatherings, and messages flourished on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and Zoom. Urban Turkey and its tango dance performances provide one symbol and example of how neoliberal capitalism could go hand in hand with conservatism by becoming a bridge between Europe and the Middle East. This study largely focuses on the dancers’ perspective while presenting the policies of Erdoğan. It presents the social characteristics of the tango dancers, the meanings they attach to their bodies and their dance as well as what this dance reflects about them – besides the policies of the Justice and Development Party. The book approaches the tango dance and its dancing body in terms of layers of meaning systems in a neoliberal and conservative context.
This study will be of great interest to students and scholars in dance, anthropology, cultural studies, and performance studies.
Preface
Introduction
I Concepts and tools: Contemporary self, identity, class, and more
A Reintroduction
II Leisure, consumption, and class – One mode of being an upper-middle class
III Becoming the conteporary tango dancer: Bailemos el Tango
IV One mode of being an upper – middle class in Istanbul – Bodies, self, and the attached meanings, Part I
V Bodies, self, and the attached meanings, Part II
VI Bodies, self, and the attached meanings, Part III
Conclusion
Index
Biography
Melin Levent Yuna is a sociologist and a cultural anthropologist at Acıbadem University, teaching various classes on these areas. In addition to her MA in sociology and PhD in cultural anthropology, she is a tango dancer herself, and has had a deep interest in Argentine tango dancing for many years.
