[Tango-L] Origins

[Konstantin Zahariev]

Hi,

I did mention the apache, just today. However the apache may have
influenced not the tango dance, but the myths about tango.

And yes, there was no implicit claim from me that Valentino was a
_tango_ taxi dancer, I just mentioned him as an example of a taxi
dancer.

Lastly, that tango was exported to Paris (and not the other way
around) is, more or less, a non-controversial statement backed up by
documents. As to the interaction between Paris and Buenos Aires, there
is a very interesting systematic account of the comings and goings of
Latin Americans between 1880-1920 in a PhD dissertation by Ingrid Fey.

With best regards,

Konstantin
Victoria, Canada


On 7/18/07, tangosmith at cox.net <tangosmith at cox.net> wrote:
> 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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