What is it about Tango that makes it so attractive to so many people throughout the world? Why is it cropping up so frequently in the media? And why is it so incredibly addictive? Well, to understand Tango we need to remember how it came about. Between 1875 and 1900, Argentina threw open its doors to immigrants fleeing poverty and depression in Europe. Those immigrants, mostly men, came to outnumber their hosts 40 to 1 and their lives were pretty grim. By day they sweated in the meat packing plants and the docklands and at night slept in packed all- male 'conventillos'. They were lonely and homesick. In social gatherings, men often outnumbered women by 100 to 1. Those who had brought musical instruments came together to form bands that played on street corners and in bawdyhouses. They drew from the music and dance traditions of their various homelands, creating a fresh new sound.
When you listen for the first time to Tango music, you become aware of two things. One is the tempo. It's often about 60 beats a minute, almost the same as a heartbeat. The other thing is that the characteristic sound comes from what seems to be an accordion. Actually, it's not; it's a Bandoneon, a large variety of concertina, taken to Argentina by the German immigrants. It has a plaintive, wailing sound, which because the notes are air-driven resembles the human voice in anguish. I am struggling to learn to play one at the moment and I can tell you it is about the hardest musical instrument in the world to master. This is partly because you can't look at both keyboards at once and also because you have over 30 buttons on each side and they create a different note when the bellows go out as when you squeeze them back. Just to make it all a complete nightmare there is no pattern of the buttons to tell you where the notes are, unlike a piano accordion which has a logical structure like a piano, low notes at one end progressing stepwise to the high notes. Oh, no, not the bandoneon! That would be too easy! Much of Tango music is sad, angry or even violent, reflecting the conditions some found themselves in those days. If you try to learn the bandoneon, you can tell why it lends itself to those same emotions.
No one really knows how the dance evolved but it seems clear that it came from traditions including the Fandango, the Milonga and the Candombe, an African dance. The dance is entirely improvised by the man whom we, in Europe at least, term the 'Leader' and his partner learns to read the body language signals to respond appropriately. We call her the 'Follower'. Originally, the cult of machismo meant that only men were allowed to invite a woman to dance but we have abandoned all that long ago apart from Argentina. One purpose of the dance was to allow surreptitious 'coupling' to take place under the watchful gaze of chaperones, for the culture of Argentina at that time was essentially old style Spanish and strict rules of courtship applied. Some of the moves we still use were designed to explore the possibility of future relationships. Need I say more? Some moves were clearly intended to provoke jealousy among onlookers. What fun!
Tango is a sensual dance but need not be sexual. It represents a conversation in body language between two people. As with speech, it ebbs and flows, with humour, sometimes assertiveness, even anger, teasing, flirting and passion. These emotions are driven by the music, the relationship, and the moment. No two Tangos are ever danced the same.
We teach people to dance fully improvised Tango, not sequences. We do not teach using the Basic 8 ( sometimes referred to as Paso Basico) because we believe that this is restricting to full self-expression and closes our minds to the simple logic of Tango.
We begin with the basic assumption that tango is a language for communication and we show you how to communicate with your partner clearly and simply. We do not attempt to teach stagey moves that only work with one partner and certainly would not work in a milonga of friends.
Teaching this way is harder for the teachers but it works well for learners. In any event, we all have a lot of fun. If you share my passion for tango, take this link to find out about my new book, launched on March 1st 2004, which might interest you...."A Passion for Tango" David Turner PS. You might also like to take this link to an article about the Harborough Tango scene on the BBC website, written by Jessica Rose, a BBC journalist who, when she worked in Leicester for the BBC used to atend our classes. BBC Website Article Page updated 11.5.07 Back to the Home Page