Tango and pole dance?
How would you picture the combination of argentine tango and pole dance? It is hard to imagine, isn’t it? Tango, after all, is a couple dance where dancers tend to focus more inside and on their partner, whereas pole dance is more of a one person show, well, most of the time at least. Anyway, one thing is for sure, pole dance as a performance is more similar to stage tango.
When tango conquered Paris and then the whole world at the beginning of the 20th century, it became such a craze that anything related to this dance turned into an overnight success. So, a hundred years later in the 21st century why not mingle tango with pole dance?
Flora Gattina, the burlesque showgirl
Let the videos speak instead of the words, take a look at this tango-pole dance video recorded at an “encuentro” in Amsterdam in the Netherlands.
What makes this show even more interesting is the fact that it was performed at an encuentro. An encuentro is a kind of tango marathon where the participants pay much more attention to traditional tango values. Most of the times there are no performances at all, or just a few. There are no tango workshops. The use of cabeceo is of utmost importance. The dancers prefer using more simple milonguero figures while dancing. All that given the organisers took the risk of including this performance into their event. Well done! In my opinion the dancer in the video is SUPERB. When in Holland, make sure you visit Flora’s dance studio. She is not only a pole dancer but also a trained dancer and a yoga teacher.
Vertical tango
The combination of tango and pole dance appeared in the world of circus as well. Watch out because this is already a duo!
Men’s solo dance
Men can do pole dance to tango music even on their own, without a female partner. Look at this practice video where the dancer manages to include some tango elements as well. :) Check out those flying ganchos and boleos!
Modern vs. classical tango music
Seeing these videos we can conclude that pole dancers are inspired much more by modern tango music than classical tunes. This is not only a coincidence. Could you imagine someone doing the split on a pole head downwards two meters above the ground to the tunes of Carlos di Sarli? I don’t think so. However, I find this mixture really fascinating, so if you find some more videos of this kind, send them to me, please, or feel free to post them here on facebook.
– special thanks to Bernadett for the video, and to Kati for the translation.
