History Of Tango Dance

South America’s Rio De Plata saw many immigrants from Europe arrive on its shores. These immigrants were mainly Italians and Spanish and started living in Uruguay, Buenos Aires, Argentina. These people were looking to make fortunes in America and brought with them music and dance. There was a mix of culture from Cuba, Africa, Argentina, etc. Women were scarce in those areas, and men found life boring and monotonous. The dance of tango arose from the shady waterholes of these areas and was considered more like a mating dance between maids and customers in shady nightclubs. It was a taboo for upper and middle class in Argentina to learn this dance. But young men learned and honed their skills so that they could attract the women, within a year these young men could dance well from being a novice to become a leader.

As the South Americans, especially the Argentinians became rich, the sons of the rich would go out looking for adventure in the shady parts of the town and ended up learning the tango. These young men then started showing off their moves to their friends when they toured the world’s cultural capital, Paris. Paris quickly lapped this form of sensual dance, and its popularity soon spread all over Europe and later reached America too. The tango dancers were awarded expensive Diamond rings and diamond jewellery as appreciation for their art. There were ads placed in newspapers before 1st world war, but the American and European version is refined versions which are less sensuous than the original Argentinian form. Tango is now a prevalent and common dance form in ballrooms and is now more known as the ballroom dance.

The 1940’s is considered the best period for tango and is called the golden age as many people used to dance away every night. Orchestras were booked in advance, and each area had its version of this dance form performed with competitions held. The competition was keenly contested leading to rivalry among the performing groups. There were also many unwritten codes for behavior in the events and became an integral part of the dance. Due to the popularity in Paris for this form of dance, all classes of people started accepting it in Argentina, and the status of dancers rose from performers in nightclubs to established and recognized artists.
After the war of 1982, tango had a renaissance of sorts as more youngsters became dancers and began to reclaim the heritage of tango. There was widespread awareness brought out by the large tango touring parties that brought back this dance to the fore. Started off in faraway Buenos Aires, this exotic dance is again a big hit in Paris, London, etc. and has captivated its audience. The new gen dancers and artists found acceptance for this form, and there were a lot of shows. One such artist is Vincent Simone, http://www.dailyecho.co.uk/leisure/stage/15987773.Strictly__39_s_Vincent_Simone_and_Flavia_Cacace_reveal_new_show_Tango_Moderno_will_be_their_last/.Major cities in the world have communities who are dedicated to everything related to tango where they meet friends as well as strangers for a dance of few minutes that will be in their memory for long.

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