Tango Dance Classes in Long Island, New York
Tango is passionate, with dramatic poses. Its story is of a love affair that is sometimes amorous, sometimes angry, but always intense! The basic timing is slow-slow-quick-quick-slow, spelling out its name: T-A-N-G-O. The Argentine Tango is the easiest of all the ballroom dances to begin dancing, and to begin dancing well. Why? Its basic rhythm is slow-slow, an easy walking pace. And its basic "step" is the walk.
History of the Tango -
Tango is a complete cultural phenomenon that includes dance, music, song and poetry in which attracts and absorbs more and more people worldwide.
Although the facts about tango and its personages are often discussed and subjected to scrutiny, it is generally accepted that tango was born in Buenos Aires toward the end of the XIX century. Nevertheless, some prefer to say, for conciliatory purposes, that it was born on the banks of the Rio de la Plata, in order to please the Uruguayans who claim co-paternity of the phenomenon.
It is impossible to pinpoint a precise date of birth for a manifestation of popular origin and, therefore, one of evolutionary birth such as tango. However, what is certain is that most experts agree that the decade of 1880 was a starting point for what was then no more than a particular way of dancing to music. The society into which tango was born listened and danced to havaneras, polkas, mazurkas and an occasional waltz, as far as the whites were concerned, while the blacks, 25% of the population of Buenos Aires in the XIX century, moved to the rhythms of the candombe, a type of dance in which couples refrained from intertwining and danced in a way that was determined more by the percussive beat than by the melody.
Musically speaking, Tango is related by genealogy to the Hispano-Cuban havanera and is thus progeny of the mercantile transactions between the Spanish speaking ports of La Havana (Cuba) and those of Buenos Aires (Argentina). Nevertheless, these origins explain little about its birth. Initially, tango was interpreted by modest groups consisting only of a violinist, a flutist, a guitarist, and at times without the latter- accompanied by an experienced blower who set the beat playing a comb converted into a wind instrument by way of a cigarette rolling paper. The mythical concertina was not incorporated into tango until a few decades later, in the year 1900, approximately. Little by little, this instrument substituted the flute.
At first, tango must have been a way of interpreting already existing melodies, upon which other newer ones were created, although initially there was no written music since most often than not the interpreters and creators did not know how to read or write sheet music. In fact, with the passage of time, some of the first recorded tangos were not signed by the authentic authors but rather by clever characters who did indeed know how to write down music and took advantage of the existing void of authorship of certain popular tangos to put their own names on them, thereby earning a few extra pesos.