History of Tango

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History of Tango as a distinctive dance and the corresponding musical style of tango began in Buenos Aires, Argentina, with roots traced into the cultures of several peoples that came together in these melting pots of ethnicities.

The word "tango" has no clear etymology. It may derive from a place-name used in African languages, or from the Latin verb tangere, meaning 'to touch'. However, it is more commonly thought that etymology of tango is from Niger-Congo origin, where tamgu means 'to dance'. The name was widely used among Black communities in Spanish America to refer to a place where people gathered to dance. Later the name was applied to various Black dance forms, leading up to the development of what is now known as tango.

The dance originated in Buenos Aires during the late 19th century. The music derived from the fusion of music from Europe, the South American Milonga, and African rhythms. The word Tango seems to have first been used in connection with the dance in the 1890s. Initially it was just one of the many dances, but it soon became popular throughout society, as theatres and street barrel organs spread it from the suburbs to the working-class slums, which were packed with hundreds of thousands of European immigrants.

The dance was soon found on the street, in bars, dance halls, and in the upper class venues such as the Teatro Opera, which started organizing balls that included tangos in 1902.

In the early years of the twentieth century, dancers and orchestras from Buenos Aires travelled to Europe, and the first European tango craze took place in Paris, soon followed by London, Berlin, and other capitals. Towards the end of 1913 it hit New York in the USA, and Finland. These exported versions of Tango were modified to have less body contact ("Ballroom Tango"); however, the dance was still thought shocking by many, as had earlier been the case with dances such as the Waltz. In 1922 guidelines were first set for the "English" (international) style of ballroom tango, but it lost popularity in Europe to new dances including the Foxtrot and Samba, and as dancing as a whole declined due to the growth of cinema.

In Argentina, the onset in 1929 of the Great Depression, and restrictions introduced after the overthrow of the Hipólito Yrigoyen government in 1930 caused Tango to decline. Its fortunes were reversed as tango again became widely fashionable and a matter of national pride under the government of Juan Perón. Tango declined again in the 1950s with economic depression and as the military dictatorships banned public gatherings, followed by the popularity of Rock and Roll. The dance lived on in smaller venues until its revival in the 1980s following the opening in Paris of the show Tango Argentino and the Broadway musical Forever Tango.