THE TANGO.

Press, Volume XLIX, Issue 14854, 20 December 1913, Page 3

THE TANGO.

LATEST LONDON CRAZE. (fkoji our own co_„KsroN--__-.) LONDON, November 7th. It is claimed that no dance has won. such popularity so suddenly and so completely as tho Tango, the latest danco to conquer London. Hostesses are giving tango parties, the restaurants aro introducing it as a daily attraction, and the tango sti£per is tho latest phase; indeed, tango teas and tango suppers have brought a new interest into restaurant and hotel life.

The dance is intricate, but very fascinating and alluring, with the result that teachers are in great demand. Mr

F. H. Payno, who was responsible for tho production of "The Miracle'7ls doing much to promote the dance this winter, but ho explains that he finds it difficult to obtain tango dancers.

"I searched Europe in vain," he said, "for an availablo couple with the necessary knowledge and skill. At last 1 found a South American named Marquis, who has danced tho real Argentine tango from childhood. He is of an old and wealthy American family, and was at first horrified at the idea of becoming a professional dancer. He and Miss Ulayton are now dancing at the Queen's Theatre teas and during supper in the Savoy Restaurant. They will dance at the big Palais de Danse at Earl's Court and my clun in the West End, which will be opened this winter. They are now training teachers for a school of Argentine and Brazilian dancing which I am about to establish. "Reviled for its reckless abandon, the Argentine tango is the very antithesis of certain really vulgar, not to say riotous, dances introduced not long ago from the United States. In dancing we have of late rapidly progressed— people have revolted from tho 'Bunny Hug' and tho 'Turkey Trot.' They were quickly displaced by the less insidious and certainly far more alluring ragtime, the 'one step' and 'two step.' "After these has come the most charming and graceful tango, the fascination of which depends entirely an "ts delicacy and dignity. It can only be understood in all its subtlety and danced in its perfection, by intelligent •eople. Jt is the 'chess' of dances. It •ias 200 recognised steps, and tho combination of these steps is as endless as the creative imagination of the dancer, darquis has reduced the steps for ballroom purposes to twenty-five, and these will doubtless become the accepted standard. Argentino children aro born, inspired with the tango. They naturally acquire tho art- as they grow, until a couple can continue with intervals to dance for hours on end with scarce a single repetition of any steps. Tho natives have danced it lor upwards of four hundred years. "Many of the steps are Spanish. The clicking of tho heels comes from the Spanish dance 'sapatiado.' Tho slow cross-over step is called 'audar gobro avos' or 'walking on eggs.' The "'halfcut!.step is known as the 'esmagar pirn crushing of pepper-corns.' What makes for the popularity of the tango is that the man has to De quiet and rather slow in his movements, leaving all the more exaggerated steps to his partner. This is really important, when ono considers that the average woman is a born dancer, while tho average man is generally a manufactured dancer.'*' Mr Payne said that the maxixo (pronounced masheesh), tho national dance of Brazil, will be seen a great deal this winter. It is not unlike the Boston, but infinitely more lively and intricate, and harder to learn than the tango. Thero is a "falling" step which is very difficult. In this, as in tho true Argentine tango, there is no vulgarity, no indelicacy. Both, if correctly danced, are as graceful and as harmless as a minuet or gavotte.* The maxixo is distinctive and haunting. It has astonishpowers of "absorpt-nn" ard ndnotability. Precisely as in the United States everything from Beethoven's "Moonlight Sonata" to Gouncd'.*; "Soldier's Chorus" may be turned into racrtime by mean-, of syncopation, so in Brazil every air and melody is grist to tho mill of maxixe music.