TANGO COMES BACK

Greymouth Evening Star, 26 June 1922, Page 7

TANGO COMES BACK

-- NEW VERSION. After standing on the threshold for many months the tango has suddenly entered our ballrooms once more (states Air. Philip J. S. Richardson, editor of The Dancing Tinies). It is already figuring on the programmes of several Tegular London dances, and three or four competitions have been held which have aroused a considerable amount of interest in the dancing world. It is a shorn and chastened tango that we dance to-day, bearing very little resemblance to the Argentine exotic that we struggled with before the war. Even the music has lost some of its Spanish tang, but it is none the less fascinating and alluring, and it will afford a welcome relief from the eternal syncopa-

tion of the foxtrot and one-step. Before the war the tango was a show dance —a dance oE many figures and poses —a dance that even in the ballroom never entirely cast oil the influence of those stage exhibitors who, in its early days, displayed its intricacies at the Queen’s, the Palace, and the then London Opera. House. It was . utterly at variance with the, unaffected style of dancing ivhich is the only style to find favour to-day. To-day the tango, as danced in Paris and as reintroduced to London, has I discarded its puzzling figures and its apt-to-be-offensive movement of the i hips. It boasts but four distinct movements, and these are even simpler I than the four movements of the modern foxtrot. It is danced in the valse position, the only position in the ballroom that the modern dancer will condescend to use, and the dancers always progress round the roomThe only movements used in Paris to-day are the so-called Argentine walk, the Promenade, the demi-vuelta (or

turn), and the pas de la dentelle (oi lace step)- The steps are done in an effortless way with fairly stiff knees, and also without pauses. They are sc siniple that an average dancer should ’ be able to learn them in a couple oi lessons, and then after one or two prac- ! tices be able to amalgamate them successfully. They may be taken in anj ’ order, and although they are only fotu in number the good dancer will mis these four so cleverly that to the cas- ’ ual observer they appear to be unending. At some of the dance clubs when the tango has been played it has been encored four and five times.