Home     About     Dances     Manuals     Search

Tango

(Argentine Tango, Social Tango, Vintage Tango)

Complete List of Demo Videos

Modern Argentine Tango

Modern Argentine Tango is the contemporary Argentine version of the dance, which has spread around the world since the 1983 stage show Tango Argentino revived global interest in Tango dancing and music. While similar in many ways to the early 20th century version, it is also different in many ways.

—————

Contemporary Social Tango

Social Tango is the contemporary North American form of the dance, which mixes elements from the original globalized form of Tango, which has continued to be danced here since the 1910s, with later North American innovations, like Fans. The most flexible form of Tango, Social Tango can also incorporate steps from any of the other types of Tango on this page.

—————

Early Buenos Aires Tango (c. 1916)

Early Buenos Aires Tango is our name for Tango as described in El Tango Argentino de Salon, written by Nicanor Lima in Buenos Aires, c. 1916. Lima's book is the earliest known Tango dance manual from Argentina. For a written reconstruction of the steps described by Lima, click here.

—————

Early Tango Around the World (1911-1915)

Early Tango is our name for Tango as described around the world during the Tangomania of the 1910s. For a written reconstruction of the steps described during the Tangomania, click here.

—————

Post-War Tango

These videos show various evolutions of Tango in the Northern Hemisphere after World War I.

About the Dance

The original Argentine Tango evolved from a variety of different dance and music traditions from South America, Africa, and Europe.

Argentine dancers introduced it to the rest of the world, and in the pre-war 1910s, it enjoyed widespread popularity in a dance craze known as the Tangomania.

For detailed descriptions of what the early Tango looked like in Argentina, and around the world, click on those respective phrases.

After World War I, multiple different versions of Tango developed.

In Argentina, Tango continued to evolve. Over 100 years later, it now looks like this, incorporating new steps and concepts that we don't see described in the early Argentine Tango manuals, like Ganchos.

In the United States, it also evolved from the version danced in the Tangomania, incorporating other new steps and concepts. For videos of some of these early innovations, including keeping the first foot free after each step, click here. Over 100 years later, this version of the dance looks like this. The same process occurred in other countries as well, resulting in many regional varieties of Tango (e.g., Finnish Tango).

In Britain, many Tango sequences were choreographed in the 1920s (click here for several examples), and the question arose, "if everyone is dancing the same steps, who is dancing them the best?" To answer this question, competitions were held in Tango and the other popular dances of the day. This laid the groundwork for what eventually evolved into International competition ballroom dancing.

Inspired by the success of British competition dancing, American competition dancing was established a bit later in the 20th century. Today, there are competitions in many different forms of Tango, but many different forms of Tango are still danced socially as well.

Tango Music

Here are some of our favorite Tango songs, arranged by tempo:

Teaching Videos

For full instruction on many of these Tango moves, as well as others, see our full Tango course at the University of Dance:

© 2016-2024 Nick Enge

If you or your community is interested in learning Tango, .

For more dance descriptions, see our three books on dancing:
The Book of Mixers: 100 Easy-Teach Dances for Getting Acquainted (2022) by Richard Powers and Nick & Melissa Enge,
Cross-Step Waltz: A Dancer's Guide (2019) by Richard Powers and Nick & Melissa Enge, and
Waltzing: A Manual for Dancing and Living (2013) by Richard Powers and Nick Enge.

For full-length teaching videos, visit: University of Dance.

For help crafting a life you love, visit: Project Quartz.

Home     About     Dances     Manuals     Search