ABSTRACT
Francisco possesses an embodied authenticity instilled through instruction, tango intangible heritage manifest only in close hold. Mary, like the other dancers on the tango break, is drawn to the dance-group's dance-instruction because of its deemed authenticity. Frederico and his wife are based in Italy and drive around Europe on their very own tango tours. Like the others, they are addicted to the dance. Virginie is from Toulouse and on her first dance holiday with her husband. She is athletic and competitive, a rival student with her dance/life partner. A large proportion of the dance students were late middle-aged, retired and enjoying comfortable living. The tango represented for them a passionate hobby that took them places and allowed them to meet, intimately, other people. It was social dancing. In the French manor house, the tango tourists can imagine themselves in safe and dangerous fashions as, variously, high society socialites, sophisticated, elegant and cultured, and risque, bawdy, street savvy cosmopolitans.
