Federica Banfi

• History & Anthropology, Philosophy and Politics, Queen’s University Belfast
• Email: fbanfi01@qub.ac.uk

Movements in Argentine tango: a multilocal ethnography of improvisation and transnationalism: The focus of this research is Argentine tango. At the core of this project are creativity and improvisation. Tango is always improvised in its social setting, the milonga. Dancers unite in the dance in a creative enterprise, expressively interpreting the music, improvising movements from a repertoire through an unspoken bodily dialogue. The very nature of tango dancing invites us to question the relationship between improvisation and creativity, how one influence the other and vice versa. Being tango a couple dance with strict gendered roles, how do dancers express their creativity in each role? Without codified standards, how is the tension between tradition and innovation resolved? How do you keep tango traditional and innovative at the same time in each dance? Processes of authentication and authorization are at work in the social space of the milonga in Buenos Aires as older and experienced dancers comment the newcomers' performances. How do these processes shape creative practices? 

https://pure.qub.ac.uk/portal/en/persons/federica-banfi(34c227f1-a72d-4aa7-9674-5920baaa8a32).html

Supervisory Team: Dr Maruška Svašek, History and Anthropology (QUB), Dr Ioannis Tsioulakis, History and Anthropology (QUB).

Start Date: October 2016