A passion of Argentina: the Tango!

Two weeks ago, we went to a tango show. But before I’m going to tell how it was, I first want to share a little of the history of this passionate Argentinean dance!

The history is a little complex, but here is a short version:  The tango originated, just before the 20^th century, in the poor neighborhoods of Buenos Aires, where the working class and a lot of immigrants lived. Because of the poor situation and the immigrants who were missing their homes, they invented the tango. First, only men danced the tango with each other. Later, the tango moved to bordellos where men and women began to dance with each other.

Because of the link with bordellos and prostitutes, the upper class looked down at the tango. Later, in the 1920’s the dance moved to New York and Paris where it became very popular among the elite. The tango transformed to a more elegant dance, and it became also more and more popular among the high society of Argentina. Later, the tango became a very popular all over the world.

The lyrics of the tango are mostly sad, reflecting the poor life of the working class, and immigrants who were missing their homes. The most famous tango singer and songwriter is Garlos Gardel. “The king of tango” grew up in the Abasto neighborhood, which is now well known as the tango neighborhood. He began his singing career in private parties, and ended up with selling 100.000 copies of his tango song “Mi noche triste”. After this he began his tour through South America, Paris, Madrid, Barcelona and New York.  Sadly, he died in an airplane crash in the height of his career. In his short live, he made 770 songs, from which 514 are tango songs. Another very famous song he wrote, is “Mi Buenos Aires Querido”.

Before the dinner and the show, we started with a tango class. Because everybody was a beginner, we started with learning the first steps of the tango, and in the end everybody learned two different little tango dances. After this we had dinner, and while we were having our desert, the show started. On the balcony was a live band, and a guy on an accordion began to play. After a while, more and more dancers joined the show, and in the middle of the show it was possible to practice your tango steps for a moment with one of the dancers. The show was a real spectacle, the dancers were very fast and talented and all of us really enjoyed the show and the live music!

 

Information:

There are a lot of tango shows in Buenos Aires, some more touristic, some less. I think this tango show was pretty touristic, but not in a bad way, the show was a real spectacle. Student from our school get a discount of 15 %. The tango school is located in San Christóbal, at Avenida Belgrano 2608 and starts with the tango class regularly at 19.30. Their website: www.complejotango.com.ar.