The origins of tango seem to have a bit of mystery. This radical dance was rumored to have first appeared in brothels in Argentina created by poor immigrants, which evolved to become a fashionable dance through the 20th century.
Only a few facts really exist about the origins of tango. According to history-of-tango.com, the first piece of music written and published in Argentina describing itself as a tango appeared in 1857. It was called “Toma maté, ché”. The word tango at that time probably referred to what is now known as tango Andaluz, Andalucian tango, a style of music from the area of Spain which is also the home of Flamenco, which was one of the most popular kinds of music in Buenos Aires in the middle of the Nineteenth Century.”
The origin of the word “tango” in Argentina faces some debate. A recent theory is that it came from the African community, who mixed the name of their god of the drum with the Spanish word for drum (tambor), and came up with the word – tango. However, the debate continues since there is no traditional African couple dance, and the couple hold is key to the dance of tango.
According to history-of-tango.com, “Couple dancing as we think of it certainly seems to have begun in Europe. Members of the African community in Buenos Aires certainly joined in and influenced the development of the dance and music, just as members all the other communities in Buenos Aires did. However, there does not seem to be any real evidence that the dance originated in the African community. Nor does there seem to be any remaining influence of African dance on it – so obvious even today in Salsa and Swing dance, for example.”
Historians believe the dance was established before the end of the 19th Century. Evidence shows that theaters offered tango singing performances throughout the second half of the 19th Century, which included a couple dancing tango on stage in Buenos Aires in the 1890s.
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