Tango Effect: Argentina's most famous export has been making waves in Mexico for years, but there have never been this many die-hard aficionados. (Living in Mexico).They have never met before, yet the couple embrace at first sight, closer and more intimately than many lovers ever do in public. From somewhere at the back of the room tender tones of a violin mix with the dramatic and yet soft touch of the bandaneon, forming into "San Jose San Jose, city, United States San Jose (sănəzā`, săn hōzā`), city (1990 pop. 782,248), seat of Santa Clara co., W central Calif.; founded 1777, inc. 1850. de Flores Flores, town, Guatemala Flores (flōrəs), town (1990 est. pop. 2,200), capital of Petén department, N Guatemala. Flores was built on an island in the southern part of Lake Petén Itzá and on the site of the "--a beautiful and lyrical song that speaks of affection for the barrio bar·ri·o n. pl. bar·ri·os 1. An urban district or quarter in a Spanish-speaking country. 2. A chiefly Spanish-speaking community or neighborhood in a U.S. city. and the pain of lost love. The intimate embrace of these strangers on the dance floor lasts only about three minutes "Three Minutes" is the 46th episode of Lost. It is the twenty-second episode of the second season. The episode was directed by Stephen Williams, and written by Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz. It first aired on May 17, 2006 on ABC. . But this same magnetic touch draws couples and singles from all over the world by the thousands into salons to learn the steps of the tango. And Mexico City Mexico City Spanish Ciudad de México City (pop., 2000: city, 8,605,239; 2003 metro. area est., 18,660,000), capital of Mexico. Located at an elevation of 7,350 ft (2,240 m), it is officially coterminous with the Federal District, which occupies 571 sq mi is not behind the global trend. Tango is more popular than ever in this megalopolis megalopolis (mĕgəlŏp`lĭs) [Gr.,=great city], a group of densely populated metropolitan areas that combine to form an urban complex. and new venues for dancing it, taking classes and seeing live performances are popping up by the day. "I like tango because of the dance. There is magic in dancing with someone you don't know Don't know (DK, DKed) "Don't know the trade." A Street expression used whenever one party lacks knowledge of a trade or receives conflicting instructions from the other party. , yet in complete harmony, embracing each other. Tango is passion, in which you have so many different themes that touch people--it is sensual, the ideal of love between a man and a woman," explains Monica Blanco Blanco (meaning the color white in Spanish) is an adjective often used in Spanish surnames. Below is a list of famous people and places associated with the word. , an Argentine living in Mexico. She was among the first professionals to start teaching tango Argentino Tango Argentino may refer to one of the following.
From panty liners to car insurance, Mexican advertising campaigns have incorporated tango music Tango is a style of music that originated among European immigrant populations of Argentina and Uruguay. It is traditionally played by a sextet, known as the orquesta típica, which includes two violins, piano, doublebass, and two bandoneons. and images for years. But the real tango Argentino being practiced in salons with an almost religious respect for ethical codes Noun 1. ethical code - a system of principles governing morality and acceptable conduct ethic system of rules, system - a complex of methods or rules governing behavior; "they have to operate under a system they oppose"; "that language has a complex system , morality and discipline is quite a different movement altogether. Just 10 years ago classes were few and far between in Mexico; the only tango taught in dance schools was choreography and there were no milongas, or places to enjoy social tango dancing. Today, there are milongas for dancing all week long. On Fridays, tangueros dance the nights away in the Argentine Bar Arrabelero with live music, and a growing group of milongueros are also meeting Sunday afternoons in some of Mexico City's parks and plazas. New milongas are now being organized for Thursdays, as well as once a month on Saturdays. The mixed group of Mexican and Argentine tango
"None of my friends and family understand why tango dancing means so much to me. I cannot go a Friday night without dancing tango. My friends and family tell me I am crazy, but what a wonderful way to be crazy. They have no idea what they are missing," says Charlotte Bronsoiler, one of the Mexican tangueras always found at the Friday milongas in town. Tango's global popularity has piqued, fallen and risen again since it first surfaced in the lower-class suburbs of Buenos Aires Buenos Aires (bwā`nəs ī`rēz, âr`ēz, Span. bwā`nōs ī`rās), city and federal district (1991 pop. during the second half of the 19th century. Buenos Aires was a thriving port city and the destination of European immigrants trying their luck in the new world. These same immigrants took the first steps of tango as we know it today in the 1880s. Being initially branded as the dance of street fights and brothels BROTHELS, crim. law. Bawdy-houses, the common habitations of prostitutes; such places have always been deemed common nuisances in the United States, and the keepers of them may be fined and imprisoned. 2. , the upper classes of Argentina rejected it. But after a series of tangos Tangos is a flamenco cante closely related in form and feeling to the Rumba. It is often performed as a finale to a Tientos. Its compass and llamada are the same as that of the Farruca and share the Farruca's lively nature. were brought to Europe around 1905 and embraced first by the fashionable set in Paris, and then by the Russian Czar and other European royalty, the Argentine elite gave in to the intriguing tunes and tones of the tango. In Mexico, tango started gaining popularity at about the same time the first tango boom took place in Paris. "Tango started in Mexico at the same time it won popularity in Europe. Mexicans have always payed a lot of attention to tango," says the Argentine folklore dancer Luis "Malambo" Rodriguez, who recently opened a new Argentine restaurant on La Fragua street in Mexico City's Tabacalera neighborhood. Rodriguez has brought in musicians and singers from Buenos Aires for weekend shows. From the 1930s to the 1950s, Mexico was a second home to some of the hottest tango singers This is a list of notable tango singers, that is, notable singers who are accomplished in the tango genre. Many tango musicians have been both instrumentalists and singers, but this does not exclude from this list. and musicians from Argentina, and several of the greatest singers of all time. Libertad Lamarque Libertad Lamarque (born November 24 1908 in Rosario—died December 12 2000 in Mexico City) was an iconic Argentine actress who became famous in Latin America while working in Mexican cinema. Career She started acting professionally at only seven years old. and Hugo del Carril spent years living and performing in Mexico. "But the real tango boom in Mexico started with the 1974 opening of the Argentine restaurant and dance bar "Corrientes 3-4-8 in Coyoacan," says Rodriguez. He first came to Mexico in 1976, accompanied by Hugo del Carril on one of his final tours of Latin America Latin America, the Spanish-speaking, Portuguese-speaking, and French-speaking countries (except Canada) of North America, South America, Central America, and the West Indies. . "When I came to Mexico, people weren't accustomed to seeing a lot of tango," he continues. "But starting in the '80s, a series of big international tango shows like "Tango Argentino" and later "Tango por 2" and "Forever Tango" started touring the world, and interest for dancing tango started to grow." Indeed it did, and when the Broadway show "Forever Tango" first came to Mexico in mid-1998, the public received it with such enthusiasm that the initial performance run of two weeks was extended to six months, and many die-hard tango fans went back and saw it five or six times. Cuauhtemoc Sifuentes, a 53-year-old architect, first became interested in tango after going to a couple of shows in Mexico City five years ago, and decided that seeing it was just not enough. "I just liked it so much, was so fascinated with it, that I wanted to learn to dance it. Then, when I started taking classes I realized that it is very difficult to learn the steps and how to combine them. But I really enjoy it; tango allows me to express exactly what I feel, because the music makes you feel like you are dancing a poem," says Sifuentes. It is comments such as Sifuentes' that has tango "trapping" people into spending hours and hours learning the steps and refining detail and technique. Roberto Macias, a 23-year-old dance teacher, finally signed up for a tango lesson after years of teaching salsa and merengue merengue Couple dance from the Dominican Republic or Haiti, danced throughout Latin America. Originally a folk dance, it has become a ballroom dance, where it is danced with a limping step, the weight always on the same foot. Varieties include the jaleo and juangomero. . And he immediately fell in love. "Dancing tango has its very own special edge to it, the steps can be complicated, or look complicated, yet it has this natural touch to it because you can only do a move in line with the body. Tango is just completely different from any other dance here in Mexico." The word tango may be synonymous around the world with Argentina, but there are some local tango aficionados who claim that tango may have been born locally. Such is the theory of Jesus Martinez of the Mexican Tango Academy: "At the beginning of the last century there was a very strong tango presence in Mexico that persisted through the 1920s. It is very possible that people started to dance the tango, or primitive milongas (which was the dance that evolved into the tango, hence the name milongueros for tango dancers) in Mexico before they started in Buenos Aires. "When the 'habanera' movement--which, as its name indicates, came from Havana, Cuba--started its movement down to South America South America, fourth largest continent (1991 est. pop. 299,150,000), c.6,880,000 sq mi (17,819,000 sq km), the southern of the two continents of the Western Hemisphere. , where its rhythm and style were picked up and integrated into the tango, it first passed through Mexico, and people here may have started dancing tango a little bit before it actually started in Buenos Aires," says Martinez. Despite his claims, historical evidence to prove this is either poorly documented or does not exist. Many myths and theories disagree over how and from where tango really originated. Music historians agree that the music is inspired by a combination of habanera Habanera Carmen’s “love is a wild bird” provokes hearers. [Fr. Opera: Bizet, Carmen, Westerman, 189–190] See : Flirtatiousness , Andalusian tango and milonga, and most theories agree that the beat of the tango was borrowed from the traditional African music African music, the music of the indigenous peoples of Africa. Sub-Saharan African music has as its distinguishing feature a rhythmic complexity common to no other region. played on drums or tambourines by Caribbean immigrants in Argentina. "Tango really is an international product, and not something that only belongs to Argentina. Today, tango is an international dance and on the Internet you can find hundreds and hundreds of pages about tango," says the internationally acclaimed Argentine tango teacher and dancer Fabian Salas, who spoke to BUSINESS MEXICO during a recent visit here. For Mexicans there is another tango-related twist, as Argentine-born Coco Potenza--recognized as perhaps the best bandaneon-player in Mexico--argues: There are strong similarities between tango and mariachi mariachi Traditional Mexican street ensemble. The performer, the musical style, and the musical ensemble are called mariachi. Mariachi music emerged in the late 1700s or early 1800s. and ranchera The ranchera is a genre of the traditional music of Mexico. Although closely associated with the mariachi groups which evolved in Jalisco in the post-revolutionary period, rancheras are also played today by norteño (or Conjunto) or banda (or Duranguense) groups. music. "Tango has always been recognized in Mexico and the people not only like it, but really appreciate it. What of course happens here is that Mexicans see tango as a brother to ranchera music: both are dramatic, passionate, sad, with some humor humor, according to ancient theory, any of four bodily fluids that determined man's health and temperament. Hippocrates postulated that an imbalance among the humors (blood, phlegm, black bile, and yellow bile) resulted in pain and disease, and that good health was , and both deal with the same themes of love and losing love," says Coco Potenza. Whatever the reason, tango has never been more popular among Mexicans to watch, and learn to dance. "The movement in Mexico has been a reflection of the global tango boom, but the real boom right now is in tango dancing," says Martinez. Professional tango dancer Monica Blanco agrees. "The tango movement we see in Mexico today started about 10 to 12 years ago, but back then it was only taught in the terms of choreography ... there were no milongas for social dancing. But tango is by nature an improvised im·pro·vise v. im·pro·vised, im·pro·vis·ing, im·pro·vis·es v.tr. 1. To invent, compose, or perform with little or no preparation. 2. dance," explains Blanco. "Now there are a lot of places to take classes--you see a very good level of tango in Mexico today. There is a great appreciation among people here for tango," she says. But she also cautions that while the big tango shows have increased tango's popularity--especially with the younger generation--too much commercialization can also be negative. "It's very important that we don't forget to preserve traditions when we teach tango, and that we remember it's not only about fancy steps, but also has a culture and tradition behind it," she says. For tangueros like Sandra Garcia, a 21-year-old mathematics student, understanding the music, lyrics and culture is essential for frilly frill n. 1. A ruffled, gathered, or pleated border or projection, such as a fabric edge used to trim clothing or a curled paper strip for decorating the end of the bone of a piece of meat. 2. enjoying the dance. "It's a dance that expresses so much, not just passion, but courage and pain. I love everything about tango, the words to the songs and all that is said in a few lines, and I like that I can express any kind of feeling I have in the dance," said Garcia. Maja Wallengren is a global commodities reporter based in Mexico City who has a burning passion for everything related to tango. RELATED ARTICLE: Tango Right Now in Mexico City: the Hottest Shows in Town La Biela "Tango Passion" (Thurs.-Fri.-Sat.) Musica y canta con Coco y Freddy Potenza Baile con Sandra y Roberto Sonora #123, Col. Condesa Mexico City Tel.: (5)286-2112, (5)286-0116 La Parilla Argentina "A Todo Tango" (Thurs.-Fri.-Sat.) Musica en vivo y canta con Gabriel Fernandez y Marcelo Sobredo Baile con Alejandro y Abril La Fragua #4, Col. Tabacalera Mexico City Tel.: (5)566-5542, (5)566-5593 El Bar Arrabalero Milonga--social dance (Fridays) Musica en vivo con Domingo Scapola Calle Dinamarca, cross-street Marsella, Col. Juarez Mexico City Tel.: (5)592-7303 La Lena Argentina "Show de Tango Argentino" (Fri.-Sat.) Musica en vivo con Osvaldo Potenza Baile con Diego y Karina Montevideo #433, Col. Lindavista Mexico City Tel.: (5)754-3518 |
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