The Argentine Tango
The Argentine Tango
Born in the steamy tropics of South America, no dance conveys more elegant passion than the Argentine Tango. Much more sensual than the American version, the Argentine Tango is a celebration of life infused with rampant sexuality that received condemnation in Buenos Aires. Labeled "Dirty Dancing" in the United States, the Argentine Tango was considered simply "unacceptable" in polite society. The version introduced in New York in 1921 by none other than the great "Latin Lover" of the silver screen, Rudolph Valentino, was far more tame than the version practiced South of the Border.
Buenos Aires has often been called "The Paris of South America" because of its cosmopolitan nature. This is the land of Evita and the Peron legacy, after all. 100 years ago, the streets of Buenos Aires were filled with people who emigrated from Europe and their descendants, many of whom were homesick for their native countries. As the Europeans mixed with the native Indian populations, an influx of immigrants from Cuba and rhythmic music from Africa began to have an effect on the population that favored the polka and the waltz.
It is said that the Argentine Tango began when the gauchos (cowboys) would come to town seeking female companionship. Since their leather chaps were stiff from weeks on horseback and they walked with bent knees, the male stance was born. The women held themselves at a distance, keeping their heads back from the odor of a man who had long been out on the trail. Despite the imagery of this urban legend, it hardly seems likely that dancing with smelly male strangers could possibly give rise to such a dance of passion where bodies intertwine so freely. In fact, it is also said that the gauchos never danced the Tango.
The romantic gaucho imagery actually came from the 1926 movie, The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, starring Rudolph Valentino. Rudy played an Argentine cowboy with a whip in one hand and a carnation in his mouth, apparently because a carnation has no thorns compared to the traditional rose. The imagery created on the screen was so powerful that to this day, male Tango stars often embrace the gaucho garb. Of course, we can safely assume that Mr. Valentino had bathed.
Not surprisingly, the steamy passion that is the Argentine Tango actually bubbled up from the Underworld - the seedy low-rent districts where brothels abound. It is a dance of seduction and foreplay that was considered obscene by civil society and was roundly condemned. Of course, so was the Waltz when it made its debut. Despite the graphic nature of the dance and its lurid roots, it strikes a nerve in all men and women in their very essence. The War between the sexes is a never-ending battle for love, dominance and submission in all human beings, regardless of the polite face and romantic gestures that may be overlaid upon the surface. We all crave the presence of another in our lives to desire, and to be desired. As in real life, the Argentine Tango is a dance of coming together, parting ways, and rediscovering each other anew. Far more expressive and libidinous than its American cousin, the Argentine Tango consists of a freer, less structured style. The dance is driven by the hot Latin rhythm of the music and fueled by the chemistry between the two partners. It's very hard to make a mistake dancing the tango, because as Al Pacino's character explains in Scent of a Woman, "You just tango on." That movie, of course, contains another famous Tango scene.
With only a few moves, you can look like an expert on the dance floor. The trick is to alter the moves as the tempo alternates between slow and fast, elegant and dramatic. This is a dance with flair. Just like dancing through life. You move as one with your partner, somewhat rigid, in unison. Then you break away, only to spin back together. You part and dance freestyle, then reunite in an intertwining embrace, legs wrapped passionately around each other. You dip, you twirl, you sweep, you glide. You move in slow, syncopated cadence, then explode in a furious flurry. This is a dance of opposites: man and woman, slow and fast, reserved and unbridled. It is the combination of these opposites that makes the Tango so much fun to watch...and learn...and dance.
The Argentine Tango has come a long way from the seedy underbelly of Buenos Aires to the Times Square high society of modern day New York, but its appeal is as universal as the drama of love and romance it so wonderfully represents. It is a favorite in Latin dancehalls, but will steal the show on any dance floor.
