Tango is a vibrant and playful dance between two people, and is considered really passionate, because of the close connection through partners.
Let’s find out more about this fascinating dance, that a lot of people from around the world choose to learn dancing.
- Tango is a partner dance.
- It is a social dance that originated in the 1880s along the Río de la Plata.
- Río de la Plata is the natural border between Argentina and Uruguay.
- It was born in the impoverished port areas of these countries, in neighborhoods which had predominantly African descendants.
- The tango is the result of a combination of Rioplatense Candombe celebrations, Spanish-Cuban Habanera, and Argentinean Milonga.
- The tango was frequently practiced in the brothels and bars of ports, where business owners employed bands to entertain their patrons with music.
- The tango then spread to the rest of the world.
- Many variations of this dance currently exist around the world.
- On August 31, 2009, UNESCO approved a joint proposal by Argentina and Uruguay to include the tango in the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage Lists.
- International Tango Day is on December 11th.
- It celebrates the birthday of Carlos Gardel.
- Carlos Gardel is the most famous and loved Tango singer of all times, and that of Julio De Caro, one of the influential musicians and orchestra leaders.
- The idea of celebrating the day came from Ben Molar.
- Ben Molar was a poet and friend of de Caro, who realized that both Gardel & de Caro shared the same birthday.
- In 1965 he made a proposal to the Secretary of Culture of the Municipality of the City of Buenos Aires.
- It took 11 years before the idea became a reality and 11 December is now recognized as the International Day of Tango.
- There are several theories regarding the origin of the word tango.
- Despite the cariety of the theories none of which has been proven.
- An African culture is often credited as the creator of this word.
- In particular, it is theorized that the word derives from the Yoruba word shangó, which refers to Shango, the God of Thunder in traditional Yoruba religion.
- Also, this theory suggests that the word “shangó” was morphed through the dilution of the Nigerian language once it reached South America via slave trade.
- According to an alternative theory, tango is derived from the Spanish word for “drum”, tambor.
- This word was then mispronounced by Buenos Aires’ lower-class inhabitants to become tambo, ultimately resulting in the common tango
- . It is also sometimes theorized that the word is derived from the Portuguese word tanger, which means “to play a musical instrument”
- . Another Portuguese word, tangomão, a combination of the verb tanger (“to touch”) with the noun mão (“hand”) meaning “to play a musical instrument with one’s hands”, has been suggested as the etymon of tango.
- Tango is a dance that has influences from African, Native American and European culture.
- Dances from the candombe ceremonies of former African slave peoples helped shape the modern day tango.
- The dance originated in lower-class districts of Buenos Aires and Montevideo.
- The music derived from the fusion of various forms of music from Europe.
- One of the most popular types of tango is the Argentine tango.
- Actually, argentine tango is the root of all types of tango.
- It contains all the elements of the tango danced by European and African immigrants in 19th century Buenos Aires, including a flexible embrace, dramatic postures, and a ton a sensuality.
- In 2014, Hawaiian dance teachers Brett and Jennifer Griswold danced the Argentine Tango for an unbelievable 38 hours, 30 minutes.
- Even more incredibly, this record-breaking performance was actually the Griswolds’ second attempt of the day due to… camera problems!
- Their first try for a Tango marathon lasted for two hours, and then they had to start again from scratch in order to break the record.
- The world record for the most Tango spins in a minute is 37.
- This achievement was made by the American self-help guru and entrepreneur Tim Ferriss with his dance partner Alicia Monti, live on TV in 2006.
- ango dominated Finland’s pop charts for decades. It’s quite a distance from Southern America.
- Tango was first imported to Finland in the 1910s.
- Though based on Argentine Tango, Finnish Tango is a genre in its own right, with a distinctive style and traits that have earned their own heritage.
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