Tango – Flashcards

Mid 1800s

The word may be straightforwardly African in origin meaning "close place" or "reserved ground".

The dance developed in the slums of urban areas.

Around the 1880s 1. Tango was born in the dirt streets of the slums. 2. Practiced in brothels 3. Stylization of the knife-fighters 4. Performed by black people in secret societies 5. Inspired by the Cuban Habenara (both the music and the dance) which is African influenced. 6. Molonga (played by gauchos that were mostly black on the pompas). This is the musical aspect mostly, but some footwork was related. 7. Resembled the arrogant waling of the compadrito 8. Inspired by the dances of the NeoAfrican nations called the candombes. (organized by slaves)

Dances that were made by free black individuals that were once slaves and brought to urban areas.

Men immigrated first to get money and set-up jobs to bring their families to them.

African, Spanish, Italian, British, Polish, Russian, and native-born Argentines intermixed and each borrowed dance and music from each other.

It is generally accepted that tango is borrowed from many nations: Slave rhythms "candombe" with the music of the Pampas called "Milonga". Then combining rhythms and foot patterns of indigenous people and Spanish music from colonists. The Uruguayan rhythmic form and candombe, was then added with the salon dances.

Milonga is a word from Quimbunda and means "the words of the Payadores" then to "a gathering where one can dance".

Music, dance, or a gathering.

It was an early rural dance form that mutated into the tango around 1880. Overall it is the popular music of the pampas and the Rio del plata.

African-Argentine fathers of the compadres. Moved to Buenas Aires and brought their own African music. Were like cowboys.

Went to the city. Son of the gauchos. Worked in Butcher shops. Had work in the ports. Had urban jobs (Ex: blacksmith)

Didn't have work. Part of gangs. Quite violent. Gathered together in the streets. Overall situations influence by poverty. Influenced the development of tango the most.

Did not have to pay prostitutes. Not a lot of women. To practice, improvise and innovate, creating new moves and new steps that allowed rapid development of the dance. Allowed them to perfect, impress, and surprise women. A way to develop skills and compete.

Prostitutes danced with men prelude to commercial sex.

Women have been defined as submissive and less than men since prostitutes were not seen as equals.

Prostitutes would choose who they would dance with.

The tango is a masculine dance even without prostitutes (misogynistic).

The bandoneon is a large and fiendishly complicated concertina that is like an accordion and is a crucial instrument in tango.

It was originally developed in Germany for churches that could not afford organs.

1. Sex and obscenities 2. Sense of loss and longing (as the tango developed "who are we" over several decades).

No

Lyrics also reflected the renewed poverty and social divisions in the country. Lyrics would involve the politics of the day.

Due to the ties that it had to sinful places such as dance halls, cities, bars, cafes, low-class casinos and brothels.

The sons of the elite would "slum" and when they traveled back to Europe, they taught the dance.

The waltz developed around the same time.

There was a purified version of the tango that was brought back to Argentina. The tango gained popularity in Paris, London, and Berlin and other big cities as the young wealthy and nobility took a liking to the controversial dance that then spread through globalization (movies and tango singers traveling the globe).

Top down-> Elites Bottom up-> suffrage 1912