Argentine Tango was introduced to Europe in the early 20th century, and later
to North America by wealthy young Argentines that traveled with their families
to study in London, Paris, Rome and Berlin. Those families had homes both in
Argentina and in the European cities.
They danced and taught A.T. to the European aristocracy . Their tango had
already been purified of certain steps and movements, as it was danced in
Buenos Aires by families of all social classes. It preserved the
characteristics that it still has today and that were never abandoned .
Asymmetrical foot work, the man does figures that are different from those
that he leads the lady to perform, improvisation, pauses and freedom to dance
at different speeds, intense feeling and connection with the music and the
partner.
Those characteristics made A.T. different from Ballroom dancing. Ballroom
dancing was done for fun rather than for feeling, it was symmetrical, both
partners do the same foot work, one the mirror image of the other except in
certain rare figures and turns. It is danced using a short number of figures
that are repeated in sequence rather than improvising chaining hundreds of
small links and uses the music following a certain steady rhythm.
Eventually A.T. was modified in Europe (probably in London) to make it more
like the other ballroom dances. This adaptation gave birth to the European
Tango also known as International Tango.
The European Tango was further modified in the USA to create the American Tango.
Finish Tango (the danace) seems to be a form of European tango as well.
Many musicians of different countries wrote beautiful tangos.
Tango with different proportions of both the Argentine and the European
characteristics became very popular in all the European and American big cities
and in many other areas of the world. Especially in Paris, London, Berlin,
Rome, Tokyo, Istanbul, and in Eastern Europe. There are hundreds of beautiful
German, Polish, Turkish and japanese tangos. During my trip to Ankara had the
opportunity to see pictures of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk dancing tango.
The second spread of tango was initiated in the late 1980 and early 90s. First
by the show Tango Argentino, and then by Argentine Tango instructors brought to
the USA, Europe, and Australia by different promoters .
Almost all the great and not so great tango dancers of that period were sooner
or later promoted by different organizers. Many Argentine tango dancers settled
abroad to teach tango.
This in time caused large numbers of Tango tourists to make frequent trips to
Buenos Aires to learn or improve their dance. This process continues even
today, with the addition of many foreign instructors that teach tango in their
own countries or traveling abroad.
Best regards, Sergio
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