La Tango

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Have you seen two professional dancers dance the Tango? I have never been present when this erotic and sensual routine was danced. But I hope to correct this missing bit in my life experiences by going to Buenos Aires where Tango was born.

There is a great deal of misunderstanding about Tango. It began in the brothels of an infant Buenos Aires. And it was not danced by the prostitutes as is generally believed. Buenos Aires had a shortage of women and the prostitutes were too busy earning a living.

It was the queues of men waiting for service that sparked Tango. The brothel madams had to keep the men entertained and in the premises to make certain they spent their money on her girls. So in order to keep the men there the madams hired musicians to keep the waiting clientele entertained. It was the men who most very likely practised their dancing with each other and out of this practice, Tango was born.

Because Argentina had a very successful immigration programme, the immigrant men outnumbered the women. And as is a man’s want, the men needed to enjoy a woman’s companionship from time to time. But there were only two options available to the single menfolk - through dance or by visiting a brothel.

If a man wanted a woman to dance with him, he had to know how to dance and be good at it. The women dancer and her female friends would not want to dance with a man if he did not give her a good dancing experience and you can imagine the fierce competition among the men for female companionship in Buenos Aires. So in order to be good, you had to practice.

At the time in Buenos Aires, there were no records or any means of recording and playing back the recorded music. All music was live music and because there were not a lot of bands in Buenos Aires at the time, the menfolk would take any opportunity to practice dancing whenever and wherever live music was played. Even on street corners to the organ grinders music! To get the girl on the dance floor, they rehearsed repeatedly. They had to.

Accomodation was also at an optimum with over-crowded tenements full to the eaves with occupants. Among these residents there were in each building occupants who could play a musical instrument. And they did in order to break the tedium and stresses of living in the conditions thay had to accept. Add to this the multicultural occupantcy mix, the many musical flavours eventually blended into Tango.

Tango came to Europe through Argentine sailors who docked at Marseille in 1908/9. It spread to Paris like wildfire. and was the ‘in thing’ around the world by 1914. Tango was also the first dance involving a couple that allowed them to improvise steps as the music progressed. Before this, all dance sequence was set out and adhered to.

Tango was born by men practising with each other to best please the woman they were dancing with.

La Tango

Read more about it here: Clichés about Tango Origins of the Dance by Christine Denniston