Liana Szekely

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Liana Szekely (June 12, 1875 – December 21, 1932)

Born in Romania, Szekely was very fond of dancing from an early age. Her parents were very poor. At the age of 16, her parents decided to move to Uruguay because of all the conflicts going on in their country. There, she experienced what every immigrant suffers. She knew nothing of the language and had hard time learning to communicate with the people. Around the time she lived there, the popular dance called Tango was being introduced in Argentina. This dance was created by people of lower class in Buenos Aires, Argentina. It quickly spread throughout South American countries. Szekely was one of the first who learned the now popular dance. She became an instructor in lower class Uruguay by the time she was 22 years old.

At the age of 33, she left Uruguay to go back to Europe to live in France. By this time, Argentine sailors were going to European ports because of the war and therefore are considered to be contributors to Tango's spread to Europe. It was the first dance with improvisation ever seen in Europe. People in Paris fell in love with the dance and quickly realized that they wanted to be able to learn it. Szekely was the first woman to actually dominate and teach the dance in Paris.

She not only taught socialites, but also people of low class. A few years later, she went back to Romania. One of Szekely's close family members remembers her once saying that dancing was her passion and that being able to share with others her passion so that they could live it too was a blessing. There is not much information known about Szekely. The little information found about her life is mostly about her contribution to spreading Tango dancing all over Europe.