| Actually,
it didn't. In the earliest days of the dance, when the Cuban seamen
who sailed the commercial routes between the Caribbean and the Rio de la
Plata brought 'tango' to the bars, brothels and barrios (districts)
of Argentina's vibrant capital Buenos Aires, it was danced alone, only
by men, in a show of strength, superiority and confidence.
In 21st century
Argentina the tango is not only a passion, it is a way of life,
a national identity which transcends class and age - and a toutist attraction.
No more relegated to the seedy suburbs, it as much a part of the cosmopolitan
capital as smart restaurants and Gucci shoes. Over the years tango,
and its style has waxed and waned under successive governments, almost
as a barometer with which to measure the prosperity or austerity of the
economy; sometimes disappearing underground it's cadence rebellious, despairing,
disillusioned, other times enjoying an explosive renaissance, the choreography
passionate, ebullient, alive.
In the 1870s,
when tango arrived in Latin America, the men, and only the men,
dance improvised steps that told a story, often melancholic, other times
confrontational, always dramatic, drawing their movements and footwork
from the kicks and flicks of the gauchos, the Argentinian horsemen
who roamed the vast pampas (grasslands) of the interior. This created
a form of dance called 'milonga', now considered the earliest ancestor
to the original tango.
Today 'milonga'
is
enjoying a revival almost unsurpassed in its history. 'Milonga'
is invariably danced in big, smokey dance halls once again in the barrios
where lovers of the tango culture meet to eat, drink, learn and
dance the tango. Saturday night sees droves of teenagers arriving
dressed in the ubiquitous jeans and t-shirts; fathers arrive in crisp suits,
mothers in skin tight, black dresses and inordinately high-heeled shoes;
grandmothers in skirts and twin-sets. Tango transcends street
fashion, class and age. Women dance with women, men with men, children
with adults. They dance till the early hours.
 Tango
is actually a word of African origin, meaning 'closed meeting place'; it
was, if you like, a secret code word that, at the end of the 18th century,
the slaves used to refer to a place where they would meet, usually in secret,
to make music and dance. It has also been said that the word 'tan-go'
imitates the beat on percussion instruments used to mark the timing of
a dance called 'candombe'. This was a dance of complicated
and improvised choreography that had a strongly marked rhythm. In
the second half of the 19th century, the Argentinian government had encouraged
immigration from the European lands to help nurture its ailing economy
and as these Italians, Spanish, French and others flocked to Argentina,
they brought their own folk dances with them. These, diffused with
the 'milonga' created tango as it is today.
When tango
became a dance for couples it was only danced in brothels; the women were
generally prostitutes, the men pimps, showcasing their girls to possible
clients. The men who frequented the seedier parts of the city competed
for female attention by showing off their moves. It was also a somewhat
erotic form of dance, requiring couples to dance in close embrace, with
a concentration on moves from the waist down, and thus was considered bad
taste by the upper classes of Argentinian society. But of course,
to the youngsters of well-to-do families it was irresistible because it
was forbidden - even so it wasn't until the late 19th century that they
started going to the outlying suburbs of Buenos Aires, in defiance of their
parents, to indulge in tango and the nightlife that surrounded it.
 By
the 1920s, young Argentinians were pouring over to Europe to study, taking
their tango with them. The dance took Paris by storm.
The uninhibited Parisiens adopted the dance and transformed it into an
overpowering craze; suddenly, everything was tango. Tango
parties were staged in grand hotels, couturiers designed figure hugging
dresses with deep splits up the sides to facilitate movement, orange-strong,
vibrant, passionate, became the tango colour. There were many
who criticized the dance as being too wild and sensuous, but no one wanted
to miss out on the new fashion - soon Germany, Italy, England, had all
joined the tango frenzy. On its trip to Europe though, the
essence of the dance had changed; the intimacy and sensuality of Argentinian
tango
had become diluted with other folk dances and so a more choreographed form,
adopted by the ballroom dancing culture, emerged. When tango
returned
to Argentina, its new legitimacy ensured that even the aristocratic classes
embraced it.
During the
military junta years following the death of Eva Peron, tango went
into hibernation for nearly three decades before emerging once again in
the 1980s, since when tango has gained strength not only as a formidable
and classic dance form but also a way of life. As tango progressed
to the stage as a form to be watched by audiences, the style perceptibly
changed, with highly trained professional dancers executing intricately
choreographed dances with athletic grace. This became known as 'tango
for export' because the older 'milongueros' know the original
dance to be one of improvisation - steps and turns being taken from endless
permutations based on a basic inventory of complicated moves.
The structure
of tango has as much to do with the music, which was also largely
improvised and played originally on a violin and a clarinet. Again,
with the influence of European immigrants the tango duet was replaced
by a trio playing a flute, a violin and a guitar and in the late 19th century,
an instrument called a bandoneon (an type of concertina) created
by a German called Heinrich Band, altered the dynamics of the trio which
thenceforward was composed of the bandoneon, the piano and a violin. -
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