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Argentine tango

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File:Tango callejero.jpg
Tango in the streets of Buenos Aires.
Watch it.

Argentine Tango, a social dance and a musical genre, originated in Argentina. It is one of the origins of the modern ballroom tangos. See History of Tango and Tango music articles for its origins and development. This article describes the dance itself.

General

Argentine Tango consists of a variety of styles that developed in different regions and eras, and in response to the crowding of the venue and even the fashions in clothing. Even though they all developed in Argentina and Uruguay, they were also exposed to influences reimported from Europe and North America. Consequently there is a good deal of confusion and overlap between the styles as they are now danced - and fusions continue to evolve.

In sharp contrast to ballroom tango, Argentine Tango relies heavily on improvisation, and in theory, every tango is improvised. Although there are many steps and sequences of steps that a tango dancer learns, every dancer is free to modify them.

Argentine Tango is danced counterclockwise around the outside of the dance floor (the so-called "line of dance"); cutting across the middle of the floor is frowned on. It can be acceptable to stop briefly in the line of dance to perform stationary figures, as long as the other dancers are not unduly impeded. (There is a saying about this: "If you look down the line of dance and there is space for you -- you are probably keeping everyone else waiting behind you.") Dancers are expected to respect the other couples on the floor; colliding with, or stepping on the feet of another couple is to be strenuously avoided. There are two sides to this: on one hand it is bad etiquette towards the other dancers (and shows your "incompetence" from a strict honor based judgment) - but even more so the leader wants to protect his lady and give her a most memorable time while dancing with him, any collision would just disturb that.

Argentine Tango is danced in a relatively close embrace, with many dancers choosing to remain in chest-to-chest (and sometimes head-to-head) contact, whereas the feet are apart. The couple therefore looks like a "V" on the reverse. The walk is one of the most important elements, and dancers prefer to keep their feet in close contact with the floor at nearly all times, the ankles and knees brushing as one leg passes the other. A striking difference between Argentine tango and ballroom tango is that the follower remains upright on her axis, or may even lean toward the leader (and in a close embrace dances "chest-to-chest" with the leader). In ballroom tango this posture is unheard of. In fact, in ballroom tango the follower shyly pulls her upper body away from the leader whenever he draws her toward him. But ballroom tango dancers dance close, too, only in a different way. In ballroom tango, experienced followers are not shy about thrusting their hips and upper thighs toward the leader.

Another interesting difference is that in Argentine tango, the leader may freely step with his left foot when the follower steps with her left foot. In English, this is sometimes referred to as a "crossed" or "uneven" walk or a "crossed system." In ballroom tango this is unheard of and considered incorrect (unless the leader and follower are facing the same direction).

A third difference is that Argentine tango music is much more varied than ballroom tango music, allowing Argentine tango dancers to spend the whole night dancing only Argentine tango. There is a great variety of music. Canaro alone produced more than 4000 titles. Argentine Tango dancers usually enjoy two other related dances: Vals (waltz) and Milonga.

Tango dancers dance the Vals much like they do tango only with a waltz rhythm that has one beat per measure. This produces a rather relaxed, smooth flowing dancing style in contrast to Viennese Waltz where the dancers often take 3 steps per measure and turn almost constantly.

Milonga is a fast dance with steps similar to tango, but somewhat simplified because of the constant movement of the feet and lack of pauses as in Argentine tango. Although Milonga uses the same basic elements as Tango, it is much nearer to the African roots, especially in that it requires a greater relaxation of legs and body. Movement is normally faster, and pauses are not made; as the beat goes on, dancers continue setting their feet. It is rather a kind of rhythmic walking without complicated figures, with a much more "rustic" style than Tango.

Milonga is also the name given to tango dance parties. This double meaning of the word milonga can be confusing unless one knows the context in which the word "milonga" is used. People who dance at milongas are known as milongueros.

Unlike the social version of ballroom tango which has been standardized and thus been relatively fixed in style for many decades, Argentine tango is a constantly evolving dance (even on the social dance level) and musical form, with continual innovation in Argentina and in major tango centers elsewhere in the world.

These innovations may offend some traditionalists (there are quite many discussions about what still can be considered tango), but they make sure that it remains a relevant to contemporary culture and society. Some teachers trained in the ballroom style are now trying to standardize Argentine tango and even use ballroom terms like Gold, Silver, and Bronze when describing their course of study. This attempt at standardization is offensive to those who value the evolving nature of Argentine tango. So on one hand the traditionalists are offended that Argentine tango is evolving while others are offended that others are trying to standardize it.


Tango dancers usually meet at Milongas, held in Buenos Aires and many other major cities world wide.

Tango canyengue

"Tango canyengue" refers to a style of Tango danced until the 1920s. Reportedly, the long tight fashion in dresses of that era restricted the follower's movements. Consequently, the style involves short steps. The dancers tend to move with knees slightly bent, the partners slightly offset, and in a closed embrace. The style tends to be danced to a 2/4 time signature. As the cayengue style was mostly not danced in ballrooms, but in taverns and on the street, the typical soft feet movements with close contact to the ground were not possible, leading to a more "hopping" style.

Tango liso

Liso style tango developed in small and crowded dance halls, where there was only space to take a few paces before having to circle around each other, waiting for a space to open. The style is danced with an upright posture, usually with each dancer slightly offset to the right of their partner. If a close embrace is used, it is relaxed to allow the follower to perform turns. The dance involves just the simpler steps-- decorative moves such as boleos, ganchos, and sentadas are absent from the style.

Tango orillero

Tango orillero is thought to have developed away from the town centers, in the outskirts and suburbs where there was more freedom due to more available space on the dance floor. The style is danced in an upright position and uses various embellishments including rapid foot moves, kicks, and even some acrobatics, though this is a more recent development.

'Vintage' tango

In modern usage, the words "Salon" and "Milonguero" are often both applied loosely to older styles of Tango.

Salon Tango

Salon Tango developed in the less crowded dance halls, allowing space for boleos, sacadas, and turns with complex footwork to be performed. The woman does many embellishments or firuletes. The style is generally danced in a relatively close embrace. The walk is one of the most important elements, and dancers prefer to keep their feet in close contact with the floor at nearly all times. The most famous practitioners of "tango salon" are Geraldine Rojas & Javier Rodriguez and Julio Balmaceda & Corina de la Rosa.[citation needed] Salon Tango is also known as the style of 'Villa Urquiza', a northern barrio of Buenos Aires.

Tango milonguero (tango apilado/confiteria style)

This style developed in the 1940s and 50s in closely packed dance halls and "confiterias", so it is danced in close embrace, chest-to chest, with the partners leaning - or appearing to lean - slightly towards each other to allow space for the feet to move. There are not many embellishments or firuletes or complicated figures for the lack of space in the original milonguero style but now also those figures are danced, which only at first glance seem impossible in close embrace. Actually, a lot of complicated figures are possible even in milonguero.

Although the rhythmic, close-embrace style of dancing has existed for decades, the term "Milonguero Style" only surfaced in the mid- '90s. Many of the older dancers who are exponents of this style of Tango prefer not to use the label.

Tango Nuevo

Tango Nuevo is a dancing and teaching style. Tango nuevo as a teaching style emphasizes a structural analysis of the dance in which previously unexplored combinations of steps and new figures can be found. It is a result of the work of the "Tango Investigation Group" (later transformed into the "Cosmotango" organization) pioneered by Gustavo Naveira and Fabian Salas in the 1990's in Buenos Aires. By taking tango down to the physics of the movements in a systematic way, they have created a method of analyzing the complete set of possibilities of tango movements, defined by two bodies and four legs moving in walks or circles. This investigation provided a view of a structure to the dance that was expressed in a systematic way.

In walks, their explorations pioneered what were once called "alterations" and are now called "changes of direction". In turns, they focus on being very aware of where the axis of the turn is (in the follower/in the leader/in between them). This tends to produce a flowing style, with the partners rotating around each other on a constantly shifting axis, or else incorporating novel changes of direction.

Many of the recent popular elements in tango vocabulary, such as single-axis turns, owe their debut on the tango scene to the popularity of Gustavo's and Fabian's approach.

From this teaching style, a new and unique style of dancing has developed, called by many a "tango nuevo" style. The most famous practitioners of "tango nuevo" are Gustavo Naveira, Fabian Salas, Chicho Frumboli, and Pablo Veron. Interestingly enough, all four of these dancers have highly individual styles that cannot be confused with each other's, yet can be easily recognized as "tango nuevo".

Tango Nuevo is often misunderstood and mislabeled as "Show Tango" because a large percentage of today's stage dancers have adopted "tango nuevo" elements in their choreographies.

Show tango

Show tango, also called Fantasia, is a more theatrical and exaggerated form of Argentine tango developed to suit the stage. It includes many embellishments, acrobatics, and solo moves. Unlike other forms of tango, stage tango is not improvised and is rather choreographed and practised to a predetermined piece of music.

See also

Tango steps

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