Tango Dance
Before anything else, tango was a dance; it emerged towards the end of the 19th century in the arrabales of Buenos Aires, which was then in the middle of transforming itself into a great city.
The tango was born as a dance in the brothels, where one could find the prostitutes, the pimps, black men, gauchos, the immigrants (mostly Italian) and, more and more frequently, the niños bien, the young members of the upper classes, who ambled along the streets and finished their nights in the brothels.
The male dancer used to dictate to the musicians the intensity or the speed of the rhythm with a series of changing steps which they invented on the spot: el corte, la quebrada, la corrida, el ocho, la media luna… They were the real inventors of the dance.
During the first two decades of the 20th century the tango leaves behind the clandestine nature of its beginnings and obtains the seal of approval in Paris, which gives it great prestige. It also travelled to other Latinamerican countries (especially Colombia and Central America) and finall
y reached New York, where it was introduced by dancers of the upper classes. This was a plain sort of tango, with the dancers being decorously separated, and it achieved great repercussion in the salons, cabarets and later on in the neighbourhood clubs till it became ‘the most popular dance’, a position which lasted well into the the 50s. It was danced equally in the cabarets of great luxury and in the milongas, i.e. dance halls in neighbourhood and suburban clubs in Buenos Aires, Rosario (Argentina) and Montevideo (Uruguay).
y reached New York, where it was introduced by dancers of the upper classes. This was a plain sort of tango, with the dancers being decorously separated, and it achieved great repercussion in the salons, cabarets and later on in the neighbourhood clubs till it became ‘the most popular dance’, a position which lasted well into the the 50s. It was danced equally in the cabarets of great luxury and in the milongas, i.e. dance halls in neighbourhood and suburban clubs in Buenos Aires, Rosario (Argentina) and Montevideo (Uruguay).This international fame and the possibility of presenting the tango in shows gave rise to a different choreography, more daring and with steps taken from gymnastics and classical ballet, which were greatly despised by the dancers in the milongas.
The choreography of the tango, which is designed around the embrace of the couple, is extremely sensual and complex. The complexity of the steps is not the essential sentiment of the Tango or what one wants to represent during the dance. It attempts to express very sensual feelings, where the most important thing is not the different steps or configurations that the dancers make with their feet. A perfect technique, a perfect synchronization is worthless if the facial expression of the dancers does not transmit their feelings. Everything comes together and is united in dancing the tango, the looks, the arms, the hands, each movement of the body; everything goes to reinforce what the dancers are experiencing: a three minute romance between two people who maybe have just met or that probably have not got any relationship in real life.
Tango goes further than the dancers and touches the heart of the spectators watching the dancers thanks to the feelings that they invest in the dance and also to the quality of their choreography. Each musical section, each passage, each tango has different moments; one cannot dance a whole tango following a pattern of behaviour identical throughout. There are sad cadences, happy ones, sensual ones, there are euphoric ones, quiet endings or grandiose ones, music in crescendo or in diminuendo; all these feelings are what the dancers transmit to their feet and to their whole body.Nowadays one can separate the ‘stage tango’ from the ‘salon tango’. This last one is the one danced by non-professional dancers. There is an annual competition in Buenos Aires which tests these two categories and to which flock participants from all over the world.
The tango was almost forgotten during the 60s or rather people almost stopped dancing it, although some milongas survived. However, in the 80s it received a new impetus; many academies and schools were started and flourished and people from over the world started to travel looking for places to learn and dance the tango, especially to Buenos Aires, the capital of tango.
Basic steps in Argentine tango
The dance is constructed on three ba
sic components: the embrace, a slow walk and improvisation. But above all the tango must be danced as a body language through which the couple transmits their personal emotions. There is no other dance that connects two persons in such an intimate way, emotionally as well as physically; it is said that the tango is danced ‘listening to the body of the other person’.
sic components: the embrace, a slow walk and improvisation. But above all the tango must be danced as a body language through which the couple transmits their personal emotions. There is no other dance that connects two persons in such an intimate way, emotionally as well as physically; it is said that the tango is danced ‘listening to the body of the other person’.That is why the tight embrace of the couple looking towards the same side (the woman towards the right, the man towards the left) is so important, as well as walking putting the weight on the balls of the feet.
The couple must perform certain set figures, pauses and improvised moves, called ‘cortes, quebradas y firuletes’, without moving apart. It is this embrace which makes the combination of the dancers’ improvisations in one single choreography so complicated as well as being the key reason why the ‘tango argentino’ is one of the most celebrated dances and why ‘Bailar un tango argentino’ i.e. to dance an Argentine tango is synonymous with seduction the world over.