[Tango-L] 11 year old girl's view of Tango

[Norman Tiber]

>

A friend of mine, Billy Burke, teachers International Folk Dancing at  
a charter  middle school in LA. His group is well know and called  
“Billy’s Kids.”

During the semester he has them do various projects, including  
researching a dance that interests them. One 11 year old girl chose  
the Tango and Billy sent this to me. Her report was hand written and  
this is a typed copy (spelling and grammar not corrected). I think  
it’s worth sharing:

“THE TANGO

	The Tango is an amazing dance that is danced with passion. To me It  
looks very, very difficult.  The songs that is played while dancing  
sound very latin sounding.  The outfits are very shinny and  
beautiful.  To me the dance tells a story about people

	What I have learned is amazing.  The Tango has originated from Spain  
or Moraco.  Spanish Settlers showed it to the new world.  I was  
amazed when I heard that in the early 19th century only women danced  
this dance.  I never even new that you need to wear a uniform.  The  
women had to wear full skirts in Buenos Aires.  Men had to wear  
gauchos with high boots and spurs.  The tango was later called a bad  
dance because it is very, very flirty.  The Tango has been seen in  
many adult movies.  The Tango began in Argentina.  Gauchos would go  
to dance clubs after a long day of hard work and ask the local girls  
to dance.  Because the Gauchos didn't smell and weren't clean the  
girls would dance stifly and with their head held back.  The woman  
would put her right hand on the mans left hip close to this pocket  
where she would get her payment for dancing with him.  The danced in  
a curving fashion because the dance floor was very small and they  
danced around round tables.  The dance became popular in New York  
around 1910.  Rudolf Valentino made the Tango a hit in 1921.  As time  
went by the Tango was finally considered respectable n Argentina.   
There are many different styles of Tango.  The Americanized version  
is a combonation of the best parts of each.  Tango music is like a  
story it contains a beginning, middle and end.

	The Tango is so cool.  The history behind it is amazing.  I was  
right when I said thee was a story behind it.  I was amazed about the  
stories that invented it.  I wish I could dance the tango because of  
its dancing.  To me this is a dance that has change the world  
forever.  I once heard that this was danced by cowboys and that they  
created it so I looked up Gauchos and found that they were cowboys.   
I am so happy that I researched this danced because it is so  
fastinating and cool”