Malambo: just a dance? Articulations of meaning between music, memory and identity(s)

The malambo that is practiced in Argentina has been historically classified and categorized as a national folk dance. Both in the specific bibliography and in the discourses of the subjects involved in this field, its character as a dance has always been prevalent. However, when exploring the sonorous-corporal dimension of malambo practices, certain elements emerge—the ways in which rhythmic cells are used, methods of transmission and learning of zapateos or ways of interpreting certain “historical events” recovered in their choreographic accounts—that allow us to question the categories traditionally related to malambo. The aim of this article is to think about the sonorous-narrative dimension of the malambo and how some hegemonic representations of it were constructed over time, constantly emphasizing certain elements (such as its physical aspect) over others (such as the sound and the narrative aspects). Therefore, through the analysis of primary sources and the ethnographic record, we will explore the senses that the subjects construct from the material elements, body and sound, of this music-dance practice and the strategies they develop to transmit their vision of the world and, simultaneously, to carry out deep social critiques, as well as the capacity that the malambo has as a resource to articulate significant individual and collective memories.