Why Argentine Tango?

"The Tango is the ultimate communication between two people. It begins with an embrace, an initial sharing of affection, yet stresses individual balance... The mastering of one's individual balance is what allows two bodies to dance as one, along with a technique that is clean and uncluttered, a form that is pure, a line that is classical and an elegance that is sublime." - Miguel Angel Pla

What is Argentine tango:

The Argentine Tango is more than a mere dance style. Tango and the 'golden age' music associated with it is part of their history and culture. This unique dance has an abrazo (hug) type embrace and is improvised. The focus is placed more on the dance partner and not the choreography or steps. 

The Argentine tango originated in the streets of Buenos Aires, Argentina, and Montevideo, Uruguay, in the late 19th century. The roots of this dance lie in African candombe, Cuban habanera as well as waltzes and polkas. Argentineans in Buenos Aires used tango as a way to represent an ordinary man, his problems, his city and his memories. The dance was picked up in Europe in the twentieth century, when dancers and orchestras would travel abroad. It is the only dance that is actually danced to Argentine Tango music. That in itself makes the dance unique.

The reason why we dance tango is to get the feeling of connection. No other dance allows such a close and deep connection.

Styles of Argentine Tango: 

If you ask someone in Argentina about styles of tango they may say- tango is tango. The confusion around styles seems to be have come when people see stage or ballroom tango performances and think it is social Argentine Tango.

Social Argentine tango is danced at a milonga (an organized dance event for Argentine tango). There are basically 3 styles : Closed embrace (often referred to as milonguero) where the embrace is never broken, Salon (closed with some opening of the embrace), and occasionally nuevo (open). 

On crowded dance floors the majority of dancers will dance closed embrace or salon tango. These are the styles you would need to learn to dance at milongas all over the world. 

Nuevo tango is a catchall word for open & off axis, leveraged movements often taken from other dance styles. It is danced to traditional or alternative music. Generally the codigos are still respected- line of dance, safety, etc. If nuevo style tango is taught, the instructors need to also teach the milonga codigos.

Ballroom tango came from tango liso (smooth tango) -a style that evolved in Paris as tango spread throughout Europe. It is the tango that a ballroom studio will promote. Because milongas have codigos (codes or rules to facilitate dancing in close quarters) it is likely these students will have difficulty dancing at milongas unless the ballroom instructor has included codigos and milonga etiquette in their instruction. 

Stage tango (Encenario/fantasia) is performance tango. This includes the dramatic, dips, jumps and kicks. This style would not be appropriate to be danced at a social milonga.

“Tango is tango and has always been transforming itself since its origins … Tango was made by all of us dancers of all generations who contributed something, and this has been happening for more than 100 years!” Pablo Veron