Tango

Tango

Tango is a musical genre and a dance, characteristic of the region of Río de la Plata and its zone of influence, mainly the cities of Buenos Aires in Argentina and Montevideo in Uruguay. Born at the end of the nineteenth century from the cultural fusion of the African American communities in Río de la Plata with gaucho, indigenous, Hispanic, African, Italian culture and the enormous ethnic diversity of the large wave of immigration arriving mainly from Europe, it turned into a global phenomenon at the start of the second decade of the twentieth century. Ever since then it has stayed one of the most powerful international musical genres in the world.

Tango revolutionized the popular dance introducing a sensual style performed in hugging pairs that promotes a profound emotional relationship between every person and their own body as well as the bodies around them. Referring to this relationship, Enrique Santos Discépolo, one of the time’s most prolific poets, defined tango as “a sad thought that is danced”.

In 2009, at the request of the cities of Buenos Aires and Montevideo, the Unesco declared it Intangible Cultural Heritage.