The pillars of tango

It can be said that the different styles of tango stem from three places and that tango’s movements acquired the personality of each environment. Style is the personality and spirit, style can take one thousands of different interpretations. These differences are part of tango’s richness and its controversy. But in terms of its development we have the three pillars of tango : tango was born in the outskirts, diffused via the theater, and stylized in dance salons....

The Outskirts - La Orilla

The very essence of tango comes from the orilla (suburbs) of Rio de la Plata. The leg and body movements inherited from black dancers of candombe combined with the arrogant attitude encouraged by mixed-culture orillas form the basis of what we know as tango today. One of the styles born in the orillas is Canyengue, an initial model for the tangos that followed. Be careful not to confuse the Canyengue with tango orillero - tango of the suburb’s old guard. Pure canyengue comes from tango danced by the blacks. In a way, all tangos danced in the suburbs before the 40’s had a canyengue tint. Another orilla style is the tango con corte ; Carmencita Calderón and El Pibe Palermo are some of it’s better known figures. The ultimate stage in the evolution of tango de las orillas occurred in neighborhood clubs. Each neighborhood had its own well defined style : Villa Urquiza, Deboto, Saavedra, Pompeya, Avellaneda. Such clubs also gave birth to tango fantasia, which remains a preferred style of stage dancers.

The Theater

Buenos Aires, 1880’s. Tango, a marginal and forbidden dance, arrives in the theater for the first time. It appears under the name ’milonga’ ; this presentation is key to greater acceptance. It is important not to confuse ’stage tango’, which exists practically since tango’s birth, with ’tango fantasy.’ Stage tango is the demonstration of the dance on stage, regardless of the style being shown. Representations of the Argentine tango on stage range from mythical Cachafaz to the famous company Tango Argentino and later include Tango por Dos along with today’s Forever Tango and Tango Pasion.

The Salon

In 1900, high society youth of Argentina are seduced by the tango, thereby giving tango access to European salons. From Paris, tango is diffused throughout the world. Tango’s presence and modification in salons made it acceptable by all of Argentine society. In the beginning of the century, the salons dance ’tango liso’ (elegance and measure).

As the middle classes fill the salons, the tango danced there develops ; the figures from the orilla (suburbs) became refined and tango entered a new phase. Tango del centro (of the center), danced in more confined spaces, plays with retention of movement and long pauses. The energetic large movements created in the spacious neighborhood clubs now adapted to the reduced space of the city center’s balls. The other form of ’tango salon’ is the tango milonguero, based on rhythmical and milonga-like movements. Both are close embrace dances which make up part of the many kinds of styles in Buenos Aires’ center.

Times change. The outskirts of yesterday have little to do with those of today. Nevertheless, one can hear, livelier than ever, the drums and cymbals of the murga, reviving the past of milongas and candombes. The salons changed, and how !!! The youth have renewed the atmosphere. From around the world, tango lovers come to dance. And the theater, as it has for 100 years, continues to present to the world this still marginal universe of tango.

Photos : Niels Stoltenborg