HISTORY OF TANGO DANCING
Contrary to popular belief the Tango began in the West Indies. It then found its way to Argentina where it was stylized by the Gauchos, or cowboys. In 1921 The Silent Screen star Rudolph Valentino brought this romantic dance to millions in “The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse:, creating an instant craze. More recently it has been featured in commercial and films including True lies, Scent of a woman and Take the Lead. The Ballroom competitions were looking to add a fourth or fifth dance to there competitions which included Foxtrot, Waltz, Viennese Waltz, and in one style of competition Quickstep. They took Argentine tango and established rules for judging and modified it slightly to move more consistently around the floor. This then is the birth of our modern tango.
TANGO DANCE STEPS
The dancers dance, tango is the dance least likely to be faked out on the floor. With its’ dramatic movements, stalking actions, sharp turns and dips tango makes everyone feel like a sophisticated dancer. Twisting movements, a close body to body hold, lunges, quick steps and dramatic pauses punctuate this dance. The lady may be challenging, draping over the man like a cape or playing hard to get all with the same steps. The man remains confident and strong throughout the dance as a perfect backdrop to the ladies changing moods.
WHAT WILL LEARNING TANGO DO MY DANCING?
Tango creates the best leaders and followers in dancing. This is because tango uses several different timings from the very beginning. The staccato movement and dramatic pauses also make feeling were your partner is at both essential and easy to learn. Of course tango is the perfect dance to teach those of us, who are a little timid to go for it, providing all tango dancers a dramatic yet classy. Tango also teaches you to dance to songs without a beat. Making it a must for dancers who enjoy slow ballads.
TANGO MUSIC
Tango music is normally written in 2/4 or 4/4 and is commonly counted in sets of 8 beats.
This means if you were tapping the rhythm you would start over after 8 taps, or 2 taps depending on how you hear the music. Tango music commonly sound like marches or have lots of strings and or accordion sounds with piano accents.
EXAMPLES OF TANGO MUSIC
La Cumparasita- Julio Iglesias
Poor Una Cabeze – from “Scent of a Woman”
Heernando’s Hideway – from “the Pajama Game”
El tango De Roxanne – instrumental from the movie Mullin Rouge
WHERE WOULD I USE IT?
Tango teaches you to dance to music were the man creates the rhythm. Live orchestras may know one or to tangos and all ballroom studios dance parties will include it. However the most use will be to those slow songs with no beat like unchain melody where the man uses his tango skills to improvise to more contemporary music. This would be used anywhere that they play slow songs.
