You can dance tango in several different ways you might not have known before! Here are eleven (11) Argentine tango styles you can try.
(1) Canyengue. It is also known as Argentine tango although it is actually only one of of the several traditional types of tango with all the foundational elements of 19th century Argentine tango styles. These elements are: the embrace, walking, figures, dancing codes, and the elemental type of music (whether it’s traditional tango, milonga/ syncopated beat, or Vals/waltz).
Canyengue is characterized by a close embrace and a slight “V” position, with dancers bending their knees, using short steps while dancing to the staccato music popular during the 1920s and 1930s when Canyengue began.
(2) Club-style Tango is danced with an upright posture, and the two dancers maintaining separate axes while embracing closely in an offset “V” position.
The partners slightly loosen their embrace during their turns, allowing the woman to rotate more freely and pivot without a lot of independent movement between her torso and her hips.
It is also identified as the Tango Estilo del Centro, attributing its popular use in central Buenos Aires. With the rhythmic sensibilities of Milonguero and possibly a variation of the Villa Urquiza style, some consider it as a mix of different styles rather than a separate style of its own.
(3) Fantasia or Show Tango. A version for stage performances popularized by Juan Carlos Copes in the 1950s, Fantasia is characterized by an open embrace and includes several elements taken from other dances like ballet.
This style is not recommended for beginners as it requires a lot of skill, with exaggerated movements and flourishes, including swinging legs in 3.5-inch heels, and lots of dance space. These dance elements make this style ideal for the stage, and not at the usual milonga (tango dance event).
(4) Liquid Tango. In this dance style, the couple shifts between open and close embrace to allow for the incorporation and combination of other different styles like the Club and Nuevo Tango styles.
It’s very similar to the Nuevo styles and there is no separate, distinctive group of liquid tango enthusiasts. So, like the Club style, it’s not considered a uniquely different style by itself.
The term “liquid” is used to describe the fluid-like motion of the dancers’ bodies and appendages. The use of the term is not exclusive to tango, “Liquid” is applied to any dance form characterized by gestural, interpretive and even pantomimic movements.
(5) Milonguero is a style that takes up very little floor space. It evolved as a response to Buenos Aires’ very crowded dance floors.
It is characterized by the apilado (Spanish term for “close embrace”), with both partners’ bodies close together from chest to waist and sharing the same axis. Both of them support each other for balance, leaning into each other. Close body contact is sustained and the embrace does not even loosen even when the partners execute ochos (turns by drawing the number 8 on the floor with the feet, usually done by the woman pivoting). In Milonguero, the woman does her ochos at an angle instead of pivoting.
This dance style works well with rhythmic music styles like those popularized by the Rodolfo Biagi, Juan D’Arienzo and Tanturi orchestras.
(6) Nuevo Milonguero. This approach is very similar to the Milonguero style with nuevo (new) movements like cadenas (loops) and volcadas (off-axis positions). It’s thought of as the show version of the original Milonguero for its use of exaggerated and showy elements that are not really useful in a crowded dance floor.
Like the liquid tango, it also does not have a separate, distinct group of enough followers for it to be considered a style in itself. It can be seen as an elaboration of Milonguero or a close embrace modification of Nuevo Tango.
(7) Nuevo Tango is a recent development in the dance, characterized by an open and flexible embrace, with the partners maintaining their own balance and positions and making novel shapes with their bodies, like doing volcadas.
Nuevo Tango dancers emphasize fluid movements and the dancers’ axes, not their connection. Figures like the cadenas, linear boleos (“whip” action of the follower when an ocho is quickly reversed in the middle), overturn ochos, single axis spin, and volcadas are best executed in a loose embrace.
(8) Orillero-style Tango began in the low-income neighborhoods of Buenos Aires and was not accepted in dance salons during tango’s Golden Age in 1935 to 1952. “Orillero” is a Spanish term that means “one who lives outside the village”.
This dance style is characterized by playful uninhibitedness of the dancers, who would sometimes collide with other dancers on the floor. The men are known for their quick foot moves and even jumps, dancing around the woman.
Danced with an upright body posture, the partners maintain their axes and embrace in a typical offset “V” that can be either close or open. The woman is free to move and pivot in her ochos without much independent movement between her torso and hips. When in close embrace, the couple slightly loosen their embrace to make room for the ochos.
(9) Salon Tango is also known as social tango. It is smoother and more elegant than other styles, characterized by a close embrace. The partners are slightly centered on the right side of each other, dancing slowly, in smooth, measured moves. The embrace loosens only during giros (follower walks around the leader and the leader does elegant movements in the middle), ochos, and other turns, so the woman has more freedom to express herself. The embrace then closes for poise and support.
The salon style emphasizes smoothness, precision, and elegant lines danced to the strongest beats popularized by Calo, Di Sarli, and Pugliese.
(10) Tango Escenario or Stage Tango is a style danced in stage shows. Evolved from the Orillero and Villa Urquiza styles, and incorporating Nuevo Tango elements, the couple dance in open embrace with exaggerated movements.
Designed for audience entertainment, Tango Escenario movements are rapid, large, and prominent to attract and engage audience attention. In some shows, drama elements like sexual tension in courtship and knife fights among competitors are emphasized. Movements from ballet, modern dance, and even acrobatics are incorporated to heighten the dramatic effect.
(11) Villa Urquiza. Named after a barrio near the northern border of Buenos Aires, this dance style was popular in barrio Villa Urquiza during the 1940s and 1950s. It is characterized by dancers performing a smooth, elegant, and precise walk with toe first when walking forward.
With upright posture, the couple are in a close embrace while walking, and they open embrace only for ochos and turns which can be elaborate. These include intricate footwork like arrastres (dragging the partner’s foot), boleos, dibujos (drawing a circle with the free leg), sacadas (giving the optical illusion of the initiator’s leg pushing the partner’s leg away from its place), the sandwich, and toe taps and touches.
Some Villa Urquiza elements are often borrowed and incorporated into the Fantasia style, as popularized by the exhibitions of Miguel Angel Zotto and Milena Plebs, and Osvaldo Zotto and Lorena Ermocida.
Tango is a dance that is personally expressive, impulsive, and highly improvisational. From the original traditional styles that began in Buenos Aires, Argentina and Montevideo, Uruguay, it has evolved into these multiple styles reflecting the diverse times, contexts, peoples, and cultures where tango is danced all over the world.