T A N G O  Silhouette   

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About Tango

Short History of Tango

Controversy surrounds the origins of the Tango.

However, most researchers agree that the earliest Tangos were danced in the streets, bars and brothels of Buenos Aires, around the 1800s.

African slaves in Argentina brought with them the rhythmic patterns of the candombe and later black Cubans brought the habanera. A new dance evolved based on the steps of the candombe, the habanea and together with the polka and the mazurka  became known as the Milonga.

Before long, this new dance had been taken up by the new European immigrants and the Tango as we know it was born. If you add kicks and flicks of the legs that resemble some of the footwork of African dance to the simple walks and turns of the European folk dance and a close embrace that may have originated in the brothels, you have the basic vocabulary of the Tango.

At the turn of the century, it was common for the sons of wealthy European immigrants to frequent the bars and brothels of the districts (barrios) of Buenos Aires. Here they learnt to dance. Their wealth enabled them to travel outside Argentina, and they took the Tango with them introducing this dance to polite society in Europe and America. After its initial scandalous reception in 1913 the first wave of tango fever swept the world.

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