Tango Adentro Tengo Tango Delirium What is Tango - the dance? Mention Tango to the average person, and the images that come to mind are usually those of stage shows like "Tango Argentino" and "Forever Tango", with dramatic music and athletic dancers executing seemingly impossible steps. That is true for stage tango, and it is what draws people in to learn the dance, but tango has another side that is unknown to most. Tango is originally a social dance, just like swing, rock and roll, salsa and even disco. It is an excuse for people to get together and socialize. Social tango was an important driving force during the original Golden Age of tango, and it is the reason for the most recent revival of tango's popularity all over the world. Two surprising facts about tango. First, Tango is an improvised dance. Even though the steps look complicated, there is no pre-arranged choreography. With the music as inspiration, the leader, usually a man, will guide the follower, usually a woman, through a series of figures. This leading and following is done wordlessly through physical and, sometimes, visual contact with your partner. This leads to the second surprising fact about tango. As long as two partners know the basic techniques of Tango, any two strangers can dance together. The partners may not be able to communicate verbally because they have no common spoken language, but through the "language" of Tango, they will be able to communicate in a dance. Putting these two facts together, one can say that Tango is a language. Not a language in the traditional sense, but a non-verbal one that nonetheless permits a "conversation". Back to intro