27/09/2026
THE ELEGANCE IN TANGO
Another topic that I have been thinking about lately is the elegance in tango.
Not exactly about the quality of movements in the dance more about what we WEAR when we go to milonga.
As in Buenos Aires as in Europe exist 2 kind of milongas. Let’s divide them in formal, with dress code and in informal, much more “relaxed” with casual clothes. Without including the wearing style which is very subjective of course, in many cases might depend upon the time of the event (afternoon or evening), sometimes it depends upon the area where the location is, in others there’s any link between those factors.
1-But why do we associate tango with ELEGANCE?
2-How much is important to you being elegant in the milonga?
3-Do you choose a milonga depending the type of environment the organizer offers you or simply or you just don’t mind to adapt your clothes to the milonga you are going to attend?
While concerning the question 2 and 3 I would love to read your thoughts,
answering to the first one I would try to explain it from an historical perspective.
Tango was born poor.
It emerged in the “SUBURBIOS” of Buenos Aires and Montevideo around the second half of the 19th century, particularly in the port area of the Argentine capital, from the encounter between European immigrants and workers coming from very different social and cultural backgrounds.
For this reason, in its early years, tango did not have the elegant image we associate with it today. On the contrary, it was considered by rich classes to be vulgar and even dangerous. It developed in the streets, in cafés, CONVENTILLOS and other popular places.
At the beginning of the 20th century, tango became increasingly popular, eventually crossing the Atlantic and arriving in Paris.
What in Buenos Aires had been considered a vulgar dance from the lower class neighborhoods was danced in theatres and aristocratic circles in the French capital, radically changing its image.
In Buenos Aires as well, over the years, tango gradually moved from the more popular classes into the upper classes, reaching the reacher neighborhoods of the capital.
Tango, however, never lost its popular origins. It carried within itself both souls: the popular and marginal one, and the more elegant and socially respectable one.
Today, we see and experience tango in all its different shades: different cultures, different fashions, and countless choices of clothing and shoes, for every taste.
And yet, despite all of this, it has never lost, it must never lose, its essence as a popular dance.
A dance born in marginal places, which crossed social classes, oceans, and cultures, and eventually became a dance that is now performed all over the world.
Gianpio
