Social Tango is More Than Just a Dance
We dance and teach Argentine Tango for the social dance floor. There is a difference between “social” tango and “stage” tango. If you want to know why social tango is more than just a dance, read the article below by Veronica Toumanova.
10 Reasons to Dance Tango
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The Music
Enter a milonga and the world vanishes… you’re swept into another era, when orchestras played all night the powerful and sophisticated rhythms of tango all night long. The tango music is intriguing, beautiful, demanding,… and will take you further into your soul than you ever imagined!
The People
Welcome to a new community! Tango dancing is the opportunity to share wonderful danced moments with beautiful people… It is also a great place to meet new people who, after so many shared classes, tandas and milongas, become close friends!
The Connection
That’s our little secret, our uniqueness, our specialty. No other dance will bring you that feeling…. Connection is when the powerful yet delicate alchemy that exists between two dancers takes the dancing to another level. Whatever your level or your role in the dance, you’re transported into new heights. Like falling in love with your best friend while eating chocolate cookies, that type of thing. It is the tango hook that makes us crave more….
The Muscles
Feeling a bit on the floppy side lately? Tango will take care of that. Dancing all night at a milonga is the equivalent of a 5-hours mountain hike… with turns and beautiful music included. You’ll soon learn how to use your core muscles for balance and your legs for power and fluidity on the dance floor…
The Elegance
There’s a reason why us tango lovers spend so much time in classes! Tango is incredibly elegant and we’re all aiming for a beautiful posture, fluidity and ease, while performing crazy back ochos and giros. Translate that into the real world, and you can spot a tango dancer from far away. Muscle memory doesn’t work only in classes, and in our daily lives we’re straighted, more relaxed, and, dare I say, happier?
Soulful Nights
You can forget the awkward evenings in a noisy night club, unsure about what to do with yourself (yes, we’ve been there too). We have beautiful milongas all year round where you can come and dance, meet friends, sip some wine in a relaxed and happy setting. Think Glamour meets Soul, with a twist of Old Age.
The People Watching
I could have called this “the beauty”. Sometimes in milongas we just want to sit and watch. There’s nothing more beautiful than watching two people dancing together and looking absolutely connected. Add to that the fact that tango dancing has evolved to make dancers look amazingly good, and you get a sense of why people-watching becomes addictive….
Leaving the World Behind
In a world that never stops, tango offers the opportunity to take a moment to let go and be fully present, connected to someone. For the time of a tanda, we focus completely on the person we’re dancing with, the music, and our dancing. We leave the world behind, one song at a time. No need for meditation classes when you’re a dancer, you’ve got your tango…
The Best of Drugs
Watch out! Take a few tango classes, start going to milongas, feel the connection, and you’ll probably get addicted… but what a beautiful, healthy addiction dancing is!
The Travels
It started out as a small community of dancers in Buenos Aires at the turn of the 20th century, evolved, almost vanished in the 70s, then gradually came back… today tango is danced all over the world. Advantage one: wherever you go, you can now plan a tango night in your travels. Advantage two: the tango trips! The ones you take with tango friends to a new place with the main aim of dancing. Told you we lead a glamorous life….
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I Need a Partner?
No partner necessary! We ask students to rotate partners during the class. If you want to take a class with a partner and prefer to stay with each other, just let us know at the beginning of the class.
What Kind of Shoes Do I Wear?
You don’t need special shoes to START taking Tango classes – any shoes with a smooth sole (leather or suede preferably) that allow you to slide or pivot will work. Avoid backless shoes and soles that grip the floor. Make sure to bring the pair with you to change before the class to keep the dance floor clean.
There are shoes that are designed specifically for Argentine Tango but they are expensive and we recommend you wait until you know if Tango is your cup of tea before you invest in them. But as they say, good shoes take you to good places.
What Kind of Clothing Do I Wear?
Wear anything that is comfortable for you. Make sure it doesn’t restrict your movements.
There is a Tango Fashion (not a must have) in clothing, especially for women, but as with shoes we recommend taking your time to figure out whether you need it or even want it. It is important to honor who we are and what we value.
Where Do I Dance Tango?
Tango dancers go to PRACTICAs to practice their skills and go to tango dance parties called MILONGAs to dance socially. Check our calendar and our resources page for additional tango events in our community.
Do I Have to Go to Practicas and Milongas?
Any new skills require practice time. We recommend to practice at least 1 hour a week outside of class time or more if you want to progress faster.
Going to Milongas is why we learn to tango.
Origins and History of Tango
by Delta Leeper
The details of how Tango was born are lost to history. There are historical mentions of the word “tango” at assemblies of slaves who got together to dance as early as the 18th century. The music and dance we know today as Tango began to emerge in the late 19th century in Buenos Aires, Argentina and Montevideo, Uruguay. Both cities were teeming with young immigrants who had moved, mainly from Europe, to seek their fortunes. They joined the less affluent local populations, including descendants of indigenous people and former African slaves.
By day they worked hard in the fields, factories, slaughterhouses, and the vast port. By night they sought out places to unwind.
These young people (mostly men, as they outnumbered women 400 to 1, according to some sources) brought with them musical instruments from their home countries. Guitars, flutes and violins were played in early tango. Eventually German immigrants added the bandoneón, which became the signature instrument of tango, with the piano and double bass arriving some time later.
It is controversial as to whether Tango was born in the “conventillos,” tenements that housed hundreds of people in the suburbs of Buenos Aires, and/or in the brothels, establishments where patrons could drink, gamble, play music and forget their troubles and their loneliness. In any case, Tango music and dance reflect elements of all these activities: passion, aggression, chance, competition and improvisation, but also a deep longing for home, for love, and for personal connections. According to the poet Enrique Santos Discépolo, Tango is “a sad thought that is danced”.
Because of its emergence among the poor and disenfranchised, because of the scandalous closeness of the dancers’ bodies, and because of the culture’s inclusion of gay men, Tango was originally shunned by “respectable” people in Buenos Aires and banned by the Catholic church. During the 1920’s and 30’s, though, Tango began to spread around the world thanks to radio and talking pictures. Once the dance was enthusiastically embraced abroad and, in particular, in Paris, where many Argentinians of the upper classes looked for their cultural cues, Tango became more accepted throughout the more affluent levels of Buenos Aires society.
The Golden Age of Tango, the 1940’s up to the mid-50’s, coincides with the administration of Juan Perón and the rise of the Peronist movement, which advocates empowerment of the working classes and labor unions. The greatest tango orchestras flourished in this time, including those led by the four giants: DiSarli, D’Arienzo, Troilo and Pugliese. Ballrooms were filled with dancers moving to the music of live orchestras, and Tango was widely disseminated via radio, records and movies. Tango was danced at cafes, bars, festivals, union halls and even the large fútbol arenas.
In the late 1950’s Argentine folklore music and the meteoric rise of rock & roll displaced Tango as the music of young people. The fall of Juan Perón in 1955 resulted in the persecution of many Tango musicians who had been his followers, and many never worked again. Simultaneously, the new military government abandoned all cultural policies to protect popular artistic expressions, and large gatherings of people were seen as dangerous and subversive. The Tango dance all but disappeared, and the music moved toward more symphonic and fusion forms, meant for listening instead of dancing.
Tango’s popularity revived in 1983 with the return of democracy to Argentina and the success of the stage show “Tango Argentino” which began in Paris and toured the world for a decade. Slowly, Tango has regained its place of cultural importance in Argentina and its popularity has spread internationally. Today there are more that 200 “milongas” in Buenos Aires alone, and tango is danced by millions of people all around the world.