Tango dancers in Buenos Aires, Argentina

Tango is actually a word of African origin, meaning 'closed meeting place'; it was, if you like, a secret code word that, at the end of the 18th century, the slaves used to refer to a place where they would meet, usually in secret, to make music and dance. It has also been said that the word 'tan-go' imitates the beat on percussion instruments used to mark the timing of a dance called 'candombe'. This was a dance of complicated and improvised choreography that had a strongly marked rhythm. In the second half of the 19th century, the Argentinian government had encouraged immigration from the European lands to help nurture its ailing economy and as these Italians, Spanish, French and others flocked to Argentina, they brought their own folk dances with them. These, diffused with the 'milonga' created tango as it is today.

When tango became a dance for couples it was only danced in brothels; the women were generally prostitutes, the men pimps, showcasing their girls to possible clients. The men who frequented the seedier parts of the city competed for female attention by showing off their moves. It was also a somewhat erotic form of dance, requiring couples to dance in close embrace, with a concentration on moves from the waist down, and thus was considered bad taste by the upper classes of Argentinian society. But of course, to the youngsters of well-to-do families it was irresistible because it was forbidden - even so it wasn't until the late 19th century that they started going to the outlying suburbs of Buenos Aires, in defiance of their parents, to indulge in tango and the nightlife that surrounded it.

Image with Hungry Eye, London.