While North America turkey-trotted, the Argentine Tango was delighting and scandalising Paris. A dance of curious history, the Tango. Certain details of its execution justify the assignment of its remote origin to the Gipsies of Spain. Argentina is an attractive market for Spanish dancing; undoubtedly the original Tango, composed of Gipsy steps and movements, was shown in Argentina soon after its first exploitation in Spain, some forty years ago. To change it from a solo for a woman into a dance for couples needed only rearrangement, plus modification of movements that might not be considered respectable. The latter being a purely relative term, disagreements followed the dance’s appearance in Paris—Argentinian synonym for Paradise. It is to Paris that the prosperous Argentinos go for refreshment; and there they introduced their form of the Tango. Robert, a popular Parisian teacher of social dancing, arranged a version of it to conform to conservative standards, and its spread followed.
The Boston Waltz (the latter word is generally omitted), born in the period when Sousa’s marches and two-steps were omnipresent, existed as little more than a theory until, with the advent of the new dances, it was found to be in tune with the times. With the Tango and One-Step it has come into a family relationship, now borrowing from them for its own embellishment, again lending them a step for the good of their variety. Add to these the Brazilian Maxixe and the Hesitation Waltz, and we complete the list of dances which, at the moment of writing, animate social gatherings on both sides of the Atlantic; inspire restaurant-keepers to provide dancing floors, hotel managers to give thés dansants, with periodical competitions, and instruction if desired; the dances that are successfully demanding for themselves a new and unobjectionable species of dance-hall, and causing grave scientists to debate over them as symptoms—with profound allusions to the so-called “dancing mania” of an earlier century. The extent of the vogue needs neither record nor comment in this place. That which has not been duly noted in the periodical press is the fact that a fashion of rhythmic exercise is proving to be a well-spring of good spirits and a fountain of youth for millions of men and women. Every one benefits by it. None discontinue it. The only people not seeking new steps for their repertoire are those who have not yet found time to make a beginning, or who have been dismayed by the forbidding number of
