Argentine Tango

**Argentine Tango** is a type of ballroom dance which is used in the dance competition Strictly Come Dancing.

## History

In the late 1800’s, millions of European immigrants arrived on the shores of the Rio de la Plata in South America, in the two port cities of Montevideo, Uruguay and Buenos Aires, Argentina. Most of them were Italian and Spanish and the vast majority were single young men looking to make their fortunes in America. They brought their music: the sweet sounds of the violin, the driving flamenco guitar, the strange mournful wail of the bandoneon, and their dances: the Waltz, the Mazurka, the Polka, and mixed them with the Argentine folk music and dance, with the Cuban habanera, with the African candombe rhythms from the freed slaves’ street parties. With very few women around, many of these young men found themselves looking for excitement in the bordello districts of the burgeoning port cities. The Tango dance arose in these seedy waterfront areas from this turbulent mix, becoming a “mating dance” between barmaids and their customers in shady nightclubs. Shunned by the upper and middle classes in Argentina, it nevertheless became a sleazy fixture of urban nightlife in Buenos Aires. Young men in neighbourhood gangs would practice the steps with each other in order to become skilled enough to win the attentions of a woman. A beginner would often dance the follower’s part for six months to a year before being shown how to lead.

As Argentina became very wealthy around the turn of the century, the sons of rich families would often look for adventure and excitement in the rougher parts of town, and learned the Tango as part of their escapades. Some of these young men of privilege would show off the Tango as a treat for their friends on their sojourns to Paris, then the cultural capital of the world. The Parisians were shocked and titillated by this raw, sensuous dance. This led to a “Tango Craze” that swept all of Europe, and reached America in the years just prior to World War I. New York newspapers in 1916 feature ads from over seven hundred Tango establishments. While the original Tango was disturbing to many arbiters of good taste, a heavily sanitised version of Tango found its way into the European and American dance academies, where it remains a fixture in Ballroom competitions today.

But in Argentina, the blessings of the Tango-mad people of Paris led to an acceptance of the original homegrown Tango in all classes of society. Tango musicians found themselves elevated from roughneck street performers to respected and adored composers. The Tango dance became the courtship ritual of the middle class. In the ’40’s, the “Golden Age” of Tango, every night found half a million people dancing from midnight until 3 or 4 in the morning. The best Tango orchestras would be booked for more than a year in advance. Each neighbourhood would feature its own variation of Tango, and intense rivalries often turned dance competitions into riots ended by the police. Elaborate unwritten codes of behaviour in the “milongas” or dance gatherings became as much a part of Tango as the dance itself.

Influenced by the rise of repressive military dictatorships in Argentina after World War II, Tango dancing slowly declined in the face of curfews and clampdowns on public gatherings. Tango music developed a rich new concert-hall tradition, more and more removed from the dance. The culture of late-night dancing went underground, and nearly all the regular milongas closed their doors.

## Style

There are several styles of Argentine Tango, some of which are described below, and different types of Tango danced at milongas or social dances (Note: Milonga is both a social dance and a type of Tango dancing). In addition, modern forms of Tango such as Tango Nuevo and Neo-Tango have also emerged and are fast becoming popular in dance cafes and halls around the world.

In Sally Potter's 1997 movie The Tango Lesson, Sally Porter, inspired by a Tango performance featuring Pablo Vernon, seeks to learn the Tango. Disenchanted with the Tango danced and taught in England, Porter travels from England to Buenos Aires to learn the dance. During her first lesson, Pablo Vernon starts the lesson by saying, "Lets walk."

Those simple words underscore the sentiment that lies at the heart of Tango. Even though the Argentine Tango has now evolved into a complex dance that incorporates an amazing variety of footwork, if you peel away the layers, at its heart, it is a street dance. Many of the dance scenes in the Tango Lesson, are scenes of Porter and Vernon dancing impromptu in the streets and even a shopping mall. You can find a video clip of a scene from the Tango Lesson below in the Video Gallery.

There are other styles of Tango, but the ones mentioned below are the most significant.