Tango and enactivism: first steps in exploring the dynamics and experience of interaction.
Integrative psychological & behavioral science September 1, 2014 Peer reviewed DOI: 10.1007/s12124-014-9267-1 via PubMed
Summary
Tango dancing offers a unique window into the study of human interaction. This theoretical paper argues that approaching tango through the lens of enactivism—focusing on participatory sense-making, mutual incorporation, and consensually coordinated action—clarifies how the dance can contribute to cultural psychology. It suggests tango can facilitate the study of interaction dynamics, intersubjectivity, and culture as joint activity.
Study at a glance
| Design | theoretical or philosophical paper |
|---|---|
| Key finding | Tango dancing, analyzed through an enactive framework, can illuminate the dynamics of interaction, intersubjectivity, and culture as joint activity. |
Abstract
Tango dancing is not just ethnographically interesting, but might actually provide a way to study interaction as such. An orientation to this improvisational dance as an embodied practice and experience is given. Enactivism is proposed as an adequate framework for further study. It is argued that approaching tango in terms of participatory sense-making, mutual incorporation and consensually coordinated action helps in clarifying its possible contributions to (cultural) psychology. Possible contributions such as facilitating the study of the dynamics of interaction, of intersubjectivity and of culture as joint activity.