Argentine Tango (Tango Argentino) Argentine Tango consists of a variety of styles that developed in different regions and eras, and in response to the crowding of the venue and even the fashions in clothing. Even though they all developed in Argentina and Uraguay, they were also exposed to influences reimported from Europe and North America. Consequently there is a good deal of confusion and overlap between the styles as they are now danced - and fusions continue to evolve. For a free lesson on Argentine tango along with some video clips online, you may want to see:

         http://www.ilovemusic.com/argentine_tango.htm

Many moves are danced with chest-to-chest and head-to-head contact, with smooth "stalking" steps and dramatic flicks of the leg. In sharp contrast to ballroom tango and most other social dances, Argentine tango relies heavily on improvistion, and in theory, every tango is improvised. Although there are many steps and sequences of steps that a tango dancer learns, every dancer is free to change them without the criticism that "this is not Argentine tango."

Argentine Tango is generally danced anti-clockwise around the edges of the room, and it is acceptable to stop briefly in the line of dance to perform stationary figures. It is even OK to dance against the line of dance briefly, but only if there is plenty of room to do so.

A striking difference between Argentine tango and ballroom tango is that the follower leans toward the leader and in a close embrace dances "chest-to-chest" with the leader. In ballroom tango this style is unheard of, in fact, in ballroom tango the follower shyly pulls her upper body away from the leader whenever he draws her toward him.

Another interesting difference is that in Argentine tango, the leader may freely step with his left foot when the follower steps with her left foot. This is called "crossed feet." In ballroom tango this is unheard of and consider incorrect (unless the leader and follower are facing the same direction).

A third difference is that Argentine tango music is much more varied than ballroom tango music, allowing Argentine tango dancers to spend the whole night dancing only Argentine tango. For an example of this, watch these two videos:

   http://www.ilovemusic.com/romantic-bandeon.wmv
   http://www.ilovemusic.com/exciting-bandeon.wmv

The videos show a bandoneon player. Notice how the first one is slow, sweet, and romantic. The second video shows the bandoneon getting excited as he plays the music to an exciting conclusion. Yet, these selection are both from the same Argentine tango piece.

You can dance Argentine tango all over the world. Most major cities of the world have Argentine tango dance parties. For starters, here are some websites you can explore to find out where to dance Argentine tango:

USA

California

 San Francisco -- http://www.sftango.com
 Sacramento Tango
    http://www.ilovemusic.com/Argnetine_tango.htm
    http://www.argentine-tango.com
    http://www.sacramentotango.org
                
 Berkeley -- http://www.stellatango.com
  
Argentina
 http://www.todotango.com
 http://www.letstango.com.ar/ 
Japan

 http://laue.ethz.ch/cm/htm/japan.html
The Netherlands

 http://www.torito.nl/agenda/