From Tango History: A Passionate Dance Born in Argentine Brothels
From Tango History: A Passionate Dance Born in Argentine Brothels

Video: From Tango History: A Passionate Dance Born in Argentine Brothels

Video: From Tango History: A Passionate Dance Born in Argentine Brothels
Video: Reply of the Zaporozhian Cossacks to the Turkish Sultan - YouTube 2024, November
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Tango is a passionate dance native to Argentina
Tango is a passionate dance native to Argentina

Borges was convinced that "it is impossible to create a real tango without the twilight and nights of Buenos Aires." The Argentine prose writer admired this temperamental dance, which is rightfully considered one of the symbols of his homeland. The history of tango keeps many secrets. Few people know that the dance has "African" roots, for the first time it was performed in port dens and taverns by European emigrants, learning movements from local pimps, and it often happened that both partners in a pair turned out to be … men.

African tango variation
African tango variation

Tango is one of the most expressive dances, every movement in it is permeated with passion, and it is often compared either with a fight or with a love fight. The name "tango", according to researchers, is a variation of "tambo", the name of the African drum, the sounds of which accompanied ritual dances. The tangists intertwined the sounds of the Spanish habanera, the Andalusian fandango and the Creole milonga into a single musical pattern. The Italians endowed the dance with passion and melancholy, the Spaniards added flamenco rhythms, and the best performers of the female party were, of course, temperamental beauties from Eastern Europe.

Emigrants from Europe who came to Argentina
Emigrants from Europe who came to Argentina
Tango performed by male pairs
Tango performed by male pairs
Men dance
Men dance

However, tango is not always a mysterious interweaving of masculine and feminine. Cases when two men got up in a couple were not uncommon at the dawn of tango. Often, the gentlemen, waiting for their turn in the dating houses, trained in learning the movements, and only after that, confident in their skill, they decided to perform a dance with a seductive partner. Sometimes male dancers turned tango performance into a real competition for the favor of a beautiful lady, and, unfortunately, there are cases when these dance duels ended tragically: a knife blow could cut off the sound of the music.

Bar in La Boca, where tango is performed
Bar in La Boca, where tango is performed
Puppets depicting courtesan dancers flaunt from the windows of colorful Argentinean houses
Puppets depicting courtesan dancers flaunt from the windows of colorful Argentinean houses
Tango is a dance of passion
Tango is a dance of passion
Street dancers
Street dancers
Even tourists can feel like tango dancers
Even tourists can feel like tango dancers
Red and black: tango - the dance of love
Red and black: tango - the dance of love

At the beginning of the 20th century, tango reaches the Old World. He is danced in the aristocratic salons of England, Spain and Russia, and gradually the attitude towards him is changing even at home in Argentina, although in some places in the night cabaret you could still see real tango. In the last century, tango has experienced both years of oblivion and periods when it was carried away everywhere. Today, academic dance has changed in many ways, it has become more demonstrative, athletic, but at the same time, it has partially lost that tense nerve that was felt in the movements of emigrants, sailors and convicts. History is no less interesting flamenco - a passionate gypsy dance born in the caves of Andalusia

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