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The Tango and the New Dances

for Ballroom and Home © 1914

by Monsieur Maurice

The Tango is the national dance of the Argentine. To my mind it is one of the most beautiful dances ever devised. As it is danced in its native land and as I have tried to reproduce it, it is as different from the so-called Tango usually seen on the stage and in public and private ball-rooms as night is from day.

When it was first introduced into this country the Tango aroused a storm of protest. It was said that it was the most suggestive and immoral dance ever presented in public, and in the way it was danced it probably was. Properly danced, however, the Tango is no more suggestive nor immoral from any viewpoint than the most dainty old fashioned waltz.

Indeed, if the dancer wished to dance in a suggestive manner, the old fashioned waltz presents just as available a medium as the modern tango. To condemn the dance for the fault of the dancer is manifestly unfair, and yet that is precisely what has been done in the case of the Tango.

Through its own beauty, however, the tango is destined to survive all the unjust criticism which has been leveled against it, and when it comes to be properly understood, as I hope it soon will be, it will, I venture to predict, be as much respected as the waltz, which our grandmothers used to dance with so much grace.

No dance offers a wider scope to the dancer than the Tango; there are at least twenty authentic figures which may properly find a place in the dance although there are but eight generally used in its native land. These eight figures, which I shall describe in detail, give all the opportunity for variety which the most energetic dancer might demand, and it is just as well to confine one's attention to them instead of trying to master the almost endless variety of steps which have been grafted into the dance.

With these basic eight figures at one's command one could dance the tango all night providing one's endurance lasted without the slightest idea of monotony, for there is no established order in which the figures follow each other. It is this freedom of arrangement, added to the liberal number of figures which go to make up the dance, that accounts principally for its fascination and popularity. Eight different couples might dance to the same music and each of them be doing a different figure at any given moment. Of what other dance might this be said?

Before I take up in detail the eight different figures in the tango let me correct a few popular misapprehensions concerning the dance.

In the first place. It is neither proper nor pleasing to play the tango as fast as it is commonly played by orchestras in public or private ball rooms. As it is commonly danced I can hardly blame the orchestra or the dancers themselves for that matter for wanting to get it over as quickly as possible, for the tango cannot be danced properly to the galloping music usually heard.

Then again the suggestive action of Tango dancers which have aroused so much discussion would be quite out of the question if Tango dancers would remember that in no figure of the dance is it necessary for the gentleman to get into closer proximity to his partner than three or four inches. Hugging may be a perfectly permissible undertaking, but it forms no part of the tango when danced properly.

On the other hand, it is never permissible to break away from your partner in the tango. With very few exceptions, the graceful relative positions assumed at the beginning of the dance are maintained all through it.

The shoulders should never be moved in the tango. Although many dancers seem to have the idea that the shoulder movements characteristic of the turkey-trot are an essential part of every modern dance, they are certainly entirely out of place in the tango and mar its beauty.

Another general misapprehension is as to the position of the arms. Many tango dancers dance with the gentleman's left arm and the lady's right arm outstretched. This is wrong. Both the gentleman's arm and the lady's arm should be bent at the elbow, the lady's more so than her partner's. The gentleman's arm is bent horizontally and the lady's perpendicularly. That is to say, the lady's right forearm is practically upright.

The gentleman's right arm should rest on the lady's back and with the palms and fingers pressed on the lady's back he should indicate just how he intends to map out the dance, for, as I have pointed out, the tango dancer is his own master with respect to the order in which the various figures are to follow each other.

It is for this reason that it is almost impossible for a gentleman to dance the tango with a lady with whom he has never rehearsed it, unless, of course, both are familiar with the names of the various figures and the gentleman announces in due time to his partner just which figure he intends to execute.

While, as I have explained, there is no set or standard order in which the various figures ought to be danced, the order I follow in instructing my pupils is as follows: First, The Walk; Two, the Corte, which is the principal step of the tango and is sometimes referred to as the "Five"; Three, the single three; Four, the Fan, or eight crossing; Five, the Scissors or Double Crossing; Six, the half-moon, or Media Luna; Seven, the Passo, or passing; and Eight, the Evantaille.

The novice might well adhere to this order until he has grown quite proficient. Indeed, if the tango is ever standardized, which I hope it won't be, because that would deprive it of much of its beauty and possibilities, the order I have given above would perhaps be the best that might be devised, as it gives a maximum of variety and the transition from one figure into another is most simple.

I shall now describe the eight figures in detail giving the steps as made by the gentleman, the lady's steps are of course just the reverse to her partner's.

... read the complete book at the Library of Congress