Dance Lessons with Robert
The Dance of Passion
Where to start? Although the history of the Tango goes back just over 100 years it is one of the most colorful and complicated of all dance histories. Many of the dances that we now-a-day consider to be conservative, acceptable ballroom dances, such as the Waltz or the Swing, were considered to be immoral or even anti religious. Not that many years past a person could be arrested and imprisoned for doing a Tango in a public place.
the Tango
Although it seems now to be the only possible hold for couple dancing, Tango is only the third dance in history done with the man and woman facing each other, with the man holding the woman's right hand in his left, and with his right arm around her. The first dance done in this hold was the Viennese Waltz, which was a craze across Europe in the 1830s. The second was the Polka, which became the fashion in the 1840s.
The first piece of music written and published in Argentina describing itself as a tango appeared in 1857. It was called "Toma maté, ché".
Ballroom tango, divided in recent decades into the "International" (Yogita) and "European" styles, has descended from the tango styles that developed when the tango first went abroad to Europe and North America. The dance was simplified, adapted to the preferences of conventional ballroom dancers, and incorporated into the repertoire used in International Ballroom dance competitions. English tango was first codified in October 1922, when it was proposed that it should only be danced to modern tunes, ideally at 30 bars per minute (i.e. 120 beats per minute – assuming a 4/4 measure).
Subsequently the English tango evolved mainly as a highly competitive dance, while the American tango evolved as an un-judged Social Dance with an emphasis on leading and following skills. This has led to some principal distinctions in basic technique and style. Nevertheless there are quite a few competitions held in the American style, and of course mutual borrowing of technique and dance patterns happens all the time.
Ballroom tangos use different music and styling from the tangos from the Rio de la Plata region (Uruquay and Argentina), with more staccato movements and the characteristic “head snaps." The head snaps are totally foreign to Argentine and Uruguayan tango, and were introduced in 1934 under the influence of a similar movement in the legs and feet of the tango from the Rio de la Plata, and the theatrical movements of the Pasodoble. This style became very popular in Germany and was soon introduced to England. The movements were very popular with spectators, but not with competition judges.
It is believed that the Tango began in the Brothels of Argentina. Brothels were not only a place to find the favors of a woman but also major places of entertainment for the working classes. With many potential clients and few working women, the consequence were queues in the brothels as men waited for the women to become available. Because the women could be extremely particular to whom they bestowed the favors upon they could demand that a man not only must be a good lover but also he had to have excellent social skills. If he did not he would spend allot of lonely time.
To assure a man would attracted the attention of a woman he had to practice his social skill but there weren't any available women to practice with so the men would practice with one another. It was most common to see to men in a close dance embrace practicing the latest Tango steps.
The History of Tango is so vast and so intriguing that it would literally take chapters to explain but I am always awed by how it weaves around the very fiber to both Spain and Argentina.
The Tango is a partner dance that originated in the 1890s along the Rio de la Plata, the natural border between Argentina and Uruguay, and soon spread to the rest of the world.
Early tango was known as Tango Criollo (Creole Tango). Today, there are many forms of tango extant. Popularly and among Tango dancing circles, the authentic Tango is considered to be the one closest to the form originally danced in Argentina, Chile, and Uruguay.
Tango is a dance that has influences from European and African culture. Dances from the Candombe Ceremonies of former slave peoples helped shape the modern day Tango. The dance originated in lower-class districts of Buenos Aires and Montevideo. The music derived from the fusion of various forms of music from Europe. The word "Tango" seems to have first been used in connection with the dance in the 1890s. Initially it was just one of the many dances, but it soon became popular throughout society, as theaters and street barrel organs spread it from the suburbs to the working-class slums, which were packed with hundreds of thousands of European immigrants, primarily Italian, Spanish and French.
In the early years of the 20th century, dancers and orchestras from Buenos Aires traveled to Europe, and the first European tango craze took place in Paris, soon followed by London, Berlin, and other capitals. Towards the end of 1913 it hit New York in the USA, and Finland.
In the USA around 1911 the word "Tango" was often applied to dances in a 2/4 or 4/4 rhythm such as the One-Step. The term was fashionable and did not indicate that tango steps would be used in the dance, although they might be. Tango music was sometimes played, but at a rather fast tempo. Instructors of the period would sometimes refer to this as a "North American Tango", versus the so-called "Argentine Tango". By 1914 more authentic tango styling’s were soon developed along with some variations like Albert Newman’s "Minuet" Tango.
Hipólito Yrigoyen
July 12, 1852 – July 3, 1933
21nd President of Argentina
October 12, 1928 – September 6, 1930
In Argentina, the onset in 1929 of the Great Depression and restrictions introduced after the overthrow of the Hipólito
Yrigoyen Government in 1930 caused tango to decline. Its fortunes were reversed as tango became widely fashionable and a matter of national pride under the government of Juan Perón (Juan Domingo Perón . Tango declined again in the 1950s as a result of economic depression and the banning of public gatherings by the military Dictatorship; male-only Tango practice—the custom at the time—was considered "public gathering". That, indirectly, boosted the popularity of Rock and Roll because, unlike Tango, it did not require such gatherings
Juan Domingo Perón
October 8, 1895 – July 1, 1974
29th & 40th President of Argentina
June 4, 1946 – September 21, 1955
October 12, 1973 – July 1, 1974
(7 May 1919 – 26 July 1952)
Second wife of Argentina President Juan Perón (1895–1974) and served as the First Lady of Argentina from 1946 until her death in 1952. She is usually referred to as Eva Perón or by the affectionate Spanish language diminutive Evita.
María Eva Duarte de Perón
