[Tango-L] Origins

[tangosmith@cox.net]

In virtually all discussions of the origins of tango, I am surprised at the
lack of mention of the apache (a-pa-shay).  The apache appeared as a
vernacular street dance in Paris  in all likelihood in the mid- to
late-1800's, possibly even pre-dating the appearance of tango in Buenos
Aires.  The story of the apache was that it also supposedly started as a
dance between pimps and prostitutes among "immigrants," though from rural
France and not another country.  Furthermore, a dance with an embrace that
is unmistakably like tango appears in a Renoir painting of Paris from 1876.
And Rudolph Valentino, mentioned earlier, started as a taxi dancer of the
apache, not the tango.
Paris and Buenos Aires had close ties early. The presumption that the early
influence of tango was unidirectional from Buenos Aires to Paris may not be
appropriate.  It may in fact be difficult to say which influenced which the
most with regard to the development and evolution of tango, among many
other sources.
WB Smith
  



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