Tangos forever.

Forever Tango, the presentation that successfully played in Europe, Canada, and across the U.S. before it opened on Broadway this fall, is a current example of tango's enduring appeal. Tango, its forms preserved and its training nationalized, can now be formally studied in Buenos Aires as Argentina's indigenous dance.

"It is a misunderstanding," says Luis Bravo, director and creator of Forever Tango, "to think that the tango is only about passion and lust. It speaks more of cultural repression." Bravo moved to the U.S. after studying guitar and cello at the Municipal Conservatory of Music Manuel de Falla and the University of Buenos Aires. His current show features fourteen tangoists, a vocalist, and an eleven-piece orchestra, including strings, piano, keyboard, and bandoneons. As in American jazz, the dance and the music developed in tandem.

"The word tango describes rich cultural influences," Bravo explains, "as does the word flamenco. Tango is not a verb.... Fifty percent of the culture is lost when the lyrics are in a language that the audience does not understand."

During the last twenty-five years of the nineteenth century, hordes of immigrants began arriving In Argentina from Naples, Genoa, Marseilles, Hamburg, Belfast, and Istanbul. This mixture of cultures and races and the fact that Argentina was somewhat isolated from the rest of the world contributed to the pre- and postwar golden ages of tango. Tango songs of the time told of violent confrontations. The dance, with its stiff upper body, intricate legwork, and movement from the waist down, indicated the intensity of lust and power.

Tango's second wave of popularity arrived as an imported version from Europe after World War I, when tango became the craze of Parisian ballrooms. The men's traditional dress code of wide-brimmed black hat, white silk handkerchief around the neck, short coat, and tight trousers was revised to a black tuxedo, patent-leather shoes, spats, and silk top hat. Women now wore chic black satin dresses cut on the bias, slicked their bobbed hair, and applied heavy makeup.

Bravo sees the current tango revival as more a commercial than an authentic development, although he feels that in performance the styles must not look like museum pieces. He adds, "The influences from the 1950s to the present reflected in its dance and music should not be regarded superficially. Tango is in the blood of Argentineans; you can see it as they walk down the street."

The show's featured dancer, Miriam Larici, began her study of ballet and jazz in Buenos Aires, followed by study with a milonguero, a tango dancer or teacher. "We first learn to walk," she says, "following the lead of a partner. Basically, there are eight steps to master and eventually to combine into figures. You can work with your own partner or dance with anyone in the clubs. The teacher creates your choreography or you can create it yourself." A show's artistic director decides on the style or characterization best suited to his presentation; at the National Academy, teachers expose the students to sev-eral styles to develop their individuality. After six years of dance training, the dancer is ready to audition for work in clubs or traveling companies.

According to Patty Johnson, editor of Dancing USA, a bimonthly publication on ballroom dance, "American competition tango, popular since the 1940s, involves more arm movements and less fast legwork than the Argentine version. It also has less feeling."

Her publication can direct you to studios near you that teach tango; contact it by writing: Dancing USA, 10600 University Avenue NW, Minneapolis, MN 55448-6166; or by phoning [phone].

Here are some notable books devoted to tango. Tango: Translations of Poetry ($35.00), a 1994 collection of poems about immigrant influence, is available by writing Stewart, Tabori and Chang, 575 Broadway, New York, NY 10012; or by telephoning [phone]. The Golden Age of Tango ($89.90), a history of tango published in 1990 in association with the Academia Nacional de Tango and the National Secretariat of Culture, is available from Rizzoli Bookstore, 31 West 57 St., New York, NY 10019; [phone]. And Tango--The Dance, The Song, The Story ($29.95, in paperback), 1995, can be ordered from Thames and Hudson, 500 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10110; [phone].