Photography

Argentine tango is alive and well in New Zealand. And a new book of outstanding black-and-white photography reveals how far removed our popular style is from the tourist cliches and ballroom versions.

Here are no roses between the teeth, high kicks or elaborate lifts. El Abrazo/The Embrace: Argentine Tango Moments powerfully convinces that what matters between partners on the dancefloor is not flashy moves but a heart connection. They are dancing tango as they still do in the dancehalls of Buenos Aires.

The book’s 200 mainly close-up photographs of afficionados up and down the country – in Auckland, Wellington, Nelson, Hanmer, Christchurch and Dunedin – are of ordinary New Zealanders briefly escaping the everyday. They are embodying the music and moving as one.

Photographer Neville Waisbrod has been a tanguero (tango dancer) himself for more than 20 years. He has also taught widely. But, as he says in the book’s foreword, even in his early days he was “fascinated by the expressions on the faces of tango dancers.

“There was joy, bliss, vulnerability, and intensity to be seen there.”

This is why, a few years ago, he began dancing less and photographing more. “This book is the result of my nocturnal dance with my camera.”

The images are punctuated with quotations from tango dancers – mainly Argentinian – and others about the essential nature of the dance connection. In a divided world they offer moments of hope.