Argentine tango

Argentine tango is a musical genre and accompanying social dance originating at the end of the 19th century in the suburbs of Buenos Aires.

It is generally thought that the dance developed in the late 19th century in working-class neighborhoods of Buenos Aires, Argentina and was practiced by Argentine dancers, musicians, and immigrant laborers.

[4] Argentines repeated stereotypes that were common in Europe in the colonial era: non-caucasian people were forced into ghetto cohabitation.

[8] Tango developed with expression of political struggles by black community and was loved by many immigrants who lived in shanty town and wished to change their socio-economic situation.

[11] At the beginning, Argentine tango was rejected by the middle and upper classes who were engaging in ballroom dances including the Viennese waltz.

Only in the decade between 1910 and 1920, Argentine tango started becoming fashionable in the major European capitals such as Paris, Berlin, Rome and Vienna.

In Rome, Vittorio Emanuele III of Savoy banned Argentine tango from the balls in Quirinal Palace.

[15][16][17] In conclusion, early tango was developed by black community and supported by immigrants who wished social mobility.

The four representative schools of the Argentine tango music are Di Sarli, d'Arienzo, Troilo and Pugliese, all four descendent from Italian immigrant families.

Ástor Piazzolla stretched the classical harmony and counterpoint and moved the tango from the dance floor to the concert stage.

List of tango bandleaders during the Golden Age of tango: In 1983, the dance show Tango Argentino, staged by Claudio Segovia and Hector Orezzolli, opened in Paris, France, starring dancers Juan Carlos Copes[20] and Maria Nieves,[21] Nélida y Nelson, Eduardo y Gloria, María y Carlos Rivarola,[22] Norma y Luis Pereyra,[23][24] Mayoral y Elsa Maria, Carlos y Inés Borges, Pablo Veron, Miguel Zotto and Milena Plebs,[25] and Virulazo and Elvira.

In 1986, Nora and Raul Dinzelbacher visited San Francisco, coming from La Paz, Entre Ríos and Buenos Aires aboard a cruise ship where they were dancing tango and chacarera professionally.

In 1987, the Garveys traveled to Buenos Aires to discover the traditional improvisational social dance style at a large milonga (Centro Akarense) filled with older dancers in Villa Urquiza.

[28] Upon returning home to Fairfax, California, the Garveys continued tango lessons and began organizing milongas around the San Francisco Bay Area.

[29] Montreal's first tango teachers, French-born Lily Palmer and her Argentine friend, Antonio Perea, offered classes in 1987.

[30] Nora and Raul Dinzelbacher taught a core group of students who would later become teachers themselves, including the Garveys, Polo Talnir and Jorge Allende.

In 1989, the Dinzelbachers were invited to Cincinnati by Richard Powers, to introduce and teach Argentine tango at a weeklong dance festival.

Carlos Gavito and his partner Marcela Duran invented a dramatically different tango embrace in which both dancers leaned forward against each other more than was traditionally accepted.

Juan Carlos Copes and Pablo Veron, both well-known teachers from Buenos Aires and actors in Argentine Tango inspired movies showed up to teach.

[35] Forever Tango returned to the United States late in 1994, landing in Beverly Hills, then San Francisco, where it ran for 92 weeks.

[39] Being fluent in both Spanish and English he was able to study with many Argentine tango masters, including Gustavo Naveira and Mingo Pugliese.

In the late 1980s, Trenner brought his newfound appreciation of traditional tango back to New York and conducted classes.

Two dancers of Argentine tango on the street in Buenos Aires
Sunday afternoon tango at Plaza Dorrego in the Buenos Aires neighborhood of San Telmo.