tango

As a North American ballroom dance this is one that guys usually hate and women often like. For the guys it's a lot of work because you have to follow Line of Dance and lead strongly, while planning a variety of moves and steering around obstacles, in an unusual dance hold, all while very close to your partner. Nonetheless some very impressive looking turns make this a good looking dance.

A carbonated soft drink in the UK, well known for it's humorous adverts. riginally available in orange flavour, it is now available in apple, lemon, blackcurrant, cherry, tropical, diet varieties of the above, and perhaps others.

One of the advertising campaigns which made Tango popular was a short in which a large orange man clouted Tango-drinkers around the ears. This led to a spate of copycat incidents in playgrounds around the country, and a corresponding increase in perforated eardrums. The campaign was dropped, but anyone who was broadly adolescent in the UK during the early nineties will remember.

Tango waltz (or "vals" as some people spell it) is tango steps danced to waltz music (that good old "oom pah pah" rhythm), so it sort of looks the same as tango, but it has a more fluid feeling. Tango orchestras often play a few waltzes, and sometimes they're sentimental, but the ones I like best are by the D'Arienzo orchestra, and they're pretty snappy and even tough.

Tango proper is more or less derived from milonga (and through that from candombe), and canyengue. Tango music is often complex and lends itself to varied interpretations in the dance. You generally step on every other beat (by the way, the slow-slow-quick-quick-quick business is an invention by outsiders), but half the fun is changing the rhythm of your steps. The other half of the fun is stepping into your partner's space (sacada) which looks like you're kicking their foot out of the way. The third half of the fun is the close embrace; it looks like you're leaning on your partner, but actually each person is balanced and standing up separately. It's a lot of fun to do fancy turns or make your partner kick their foot up (voleo), but the main thing is intimacy: it's really good to be close to someone.

I'm not generally opposed to people borrowing stuff from other countries and changing it. Hey, it happens all the time, with fantastic results. My favorite example is Costa Rican swing, which (as far as I can tell) is sort of a cross between lindy hop and salsa, danced to cumbia music. But the sad fact is that Arthur Murray, et al, have totally mangled tango, by obliterating everything that's beautiful about it, and introducing ridiculous dross like head snaps, syllabification, and an emphasis on competition. I guess they're free to do as they want, but I wish they'd call that dance by a different name.

Tango is like making love. The first time you do it, you don't know exactly what to do or how to move. Usually you try to trust your partner, but then little by little you learn how to enjoy it and it becomes an addiction. You cannot stop, you must continue.

If dance is an art, which it is, then tango is on the Bohemian fringe of that art form. It is a way of life for those who accept it as more than just a social dance, or a few moves to be learned in a basic dance class. It is an attitude that comes from the heart. It is passion, where two people write a story in three minutes with only the music and the movements of their bodies.

Tango is a way of life. It is not merely a dance to be picked up by those who need to add another dance to their resume. While the steps can be learned, the attitude and technique are not so easily assimilated. On the other side, the range of tango movements allow tango dancers to learn other dances rather quickly, as they are less complex in comparison.

Tango is like acting. You not only have to dance, but to convey emotion and dialogue, to your partner, yourself and to those who may be watching. It is said that the earliest use of tango was to allow a man to take out "his woman" and show her off as the most beautiful woman in the city. The earliest attitude of tango is said to have been been born of that purpose. To be able to make such a boast, one had to have the most dramatic and impressive moves of anyone on the dance floor.

One of a series of nodes written mostly by Mrs. DeadGuy.

Tan"go (?), n.; pl. Tangos (#). [Sp., a certain dance.]

(a)

A difficult dance in two-four time characterized by graceful posturing, frequent pointing positions, and a great variety of steps, including the cross step and turning steps. The dance is of Spanish origin, and is believed to have been in its original form a part of the fandango.

(b)

Any of various popular forms derived from this.

© Webster 1913