Buenos Aires Tourist Guide: The City Of Tango - Travel & Discover

The elusive yet magical spirit of Argentina can be breathed all over Buenos Aires, in its streets, parks, and public squares. But no aspect of that spirit is more typical than the tango. No visitor to Buenos Aires should leave without taking in a tango show. The national dance is perhaps the best expression of the Argentine spirit, and none is more widespread. Tango is practiced in dance halls, parks, open plazas, and ballrooms. It is a dance of intimate separation and common rhythm, combining an elegant reserve with an exuberant passion. Both the music and the dance of tango were influenced by African candombe, Cuban havarera, Andalusian tango, as well as the txotis and the cuple, added to regional music and popular lyrics. Nevertheless, most experts agree that Buenos Aires witnessed the origins of both the music and the dance during the 1880s. In those years, there was a proliferation of brothels in Buenos Aires, mostly filled with immigrant women from Spain, France, Italy, Germany, and Poland, whose clientele were also immigrants that had left their families and homes in search of a better life. Tango is said to have been born in Buenos Aires, on the banks of the Riachuelo River, especially in the brothels and impoverished slums of southern Buenos Aires. The social class in which it was developed was a mixture of regional people and immigrants made up of sailors, craftsmen, and working-class people. They were mostly lonely men who had left their families in their home countries and frequented clubs or dance ballrooms for amusement. Many tango lyrics were inspired by these groups of men, known as the guapos, malevos, and compadritos. Some of the meeting places of these characters include the Café Sabatino, the Almacén de la Milonga, and the Viejo Bailatín de Palomar. This part of society identified with the tango lyrics, because they spoke of the hard or bad life. One of the most definitive characteristics of the tango is its choreography. The dance is one of the most important expressions of the tango, creating a visual beauty that illustrates the spirit of the music. A foot moves to every musical note, meaning that if a foot moves in one note, in the following note the other one should too, similar to walking. The famous virolette refers to the steps that the dancing pair makes as a skillful display to seduce and beautify the dance. And it is the detail that transforms the tango into a showy spectacle. The tango has a wide range of choreographic options, making it intriguing and of singular visual beauty. In the choreographed dance, the dancers present a specific rehearsed show, while the improvised dance is not a result of rehearsals, but of creativity and expertise. The tango cannot be danced individually, but is inextricably related to the couple. The woman seduces and the man leads. He protects and supports her, while she elaborates and outlines the dance, breaking balance and resting on his chest. In the 1990s, tango music and dance witnessed an enormous international revival, and many new artists surfaced in Buenos Aires. Tango music and dance is not a historical relic, but a living art that changes with the times, as each generation updates and reinterprets it in a novel and unique way. Tango music is set to 2-4 or 4-4 time, and is traditionally played by a sextet, known as orquesta tipica, which includes two violins, piano, double bass, and two bandoneons, a sort of accordion. Tango music may be purely instrumental, or may include a vocalist. By the 1940s, singers became an integral part of tango, and vocalists such as Carlos Gardel and Francisco Fiorentino, the archetypical orchestra singers. Initially, the tango was played in brothels with a violin, flute, and guitar, and if a guitar was not available, it was replaced by a comb, turned into a wind instrument alongside a cigarette paper, and an expert blower that marked the rhythm. The mythical instrument, the bandoneon, did not become a part of the tango until a couple of decades later, around the turn of the century, when it gradually replaced the flute.