Tango history

It is difficult to say when exactly and why was tango born, yet, almost all the studies have shown that tango was born at the end of 19th Century in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

By that time, the music was played mainly with 3 instruments: flute, guitar and violin. The bandonéon, nowadays the most popular instrument, was not played until the beginning of 20th Century. First tangos are believed to be popular tunes and since their authors rarely could read or write music, we often cannot identify t he composers. It is also difficult if not impossible to find the origin of the word “tango”. Some say it’s because the Africans couldn’t pronounce the word “tambor” and said “tangó” instead; some say it was the word to describe some black festive parties.

Today, after some breaks and pauses, tango has become again one of the most popular dance all over the world. Buenos Aires, Berlin and London are full of tangoclubs, tangofans are meeting everywhere in the world to dance in milongas – special tango dance evenings.

The music has changed, too. Besides the traditional tangos, the new fashion is “tangonuevo”, improvisational and jazzy.

What is “milonga”?

The spanish word “milonga” has many different meanings:

*A dance, similar to tango, but has a different, faster rythm;

*Dance evening, where argentine tango, tango waltz and milonga are danced;

*In Argentina, there’s also a word that means “fake” or “illusion” (for example, La vida es una milonga = “Life is a fake”)

Milongas as dance evenings are organized all around the world, mostly in some bars, dancing halls or other rooms, where people come together especially to dance. Normally, they dance both tango, milonga and tango waltz, and if the room is quite little and crowded, it’s the gentelman that has to pay attention to lead the lady carefully, avoiding dangerous situations…