As tango began to return to prominence, slowly at first in the seventies and then faster from the eighties and beyond, the term tango nuevo started to be seen. The word ‘nuevo’ simply means ‘new’ in Spanish so tango nuevo just translates as ‘new tango’. But how did that fit in context? What part of tango is ‘new’ and was there a corresponding ‘tango viejo’ (or ‘old tango’) to go with it?

The term has proven to be very difficult to define as it has been used in different ways and in reference to different things by different people, and it has changed how it has been used over time. Is it a unique dance style? A musical genre? A way of teaching? A mindset? Seeing it used around the tango community it could mean all of those things and more, so what is the history of this term and what do we mean by it when we use it now?

Astor Piazzolla

Although the early years of tango music were characterised by the fusion of multiple styes and world influences, as it entered what would become the Golden Age it began a period of relative stability. The musical structure of most tango music followed well understood and established patterns, and the orquestas tipica all adopted a similar physical arrangement. Different composers and different musicians each had their own very recognisable styles so the bands sounded nothing like each other, and yet it was always clear that you were listening to tango music and the dancers came to know what to expect from their musicians.

Many composers stopped working on tango music in the 1950s when the opportunities for performance all disappeared, but a few of them did continue in some way. Osvaldo Pugliese, for example, continued to write and record traditionally styled music until long after tango had begun its revival, but Astor Piazzolla who was already known for a more experimental style of tango music went in a different direction. For many years he had been playing and recording music in the traditional Golden Age style, but had also been experimenting with blending tango music with classical music, adapting the structure and sound of tango to work with this musical fusion.

At around the time of the start of the upheaval in Argentina, Piazzolla left the country to go to Paris and to study music with the internationally respected Nadia Boulanger at the Paris Conservatoire for a couple of years. She helped him to develop his skills and reconnect with the classical style that he found so interesting, but at the same time she encouraged him to continue his musical experiments and to follow whatever path he felt was right. After briefly returning to Argentina and then spending a short period living and working in the United States, he moved back to Buenos Aires and formed the Quinteto Nuevo Tango to play in the new musical style that he had developed. This quintet included a violin, an electric guitar, a piano, a double bass, and Piazzolla himself on bandoneón. This was a significant departure from the structure of the traditional orquesta tipica that had been familiar for so long, and allowed him to incorporate aspects of many different musical genres.

The Quinteto Nuevo Tango or ‘New Tango Quintet’ performed works that blended tango, classical, and jazz styles into what quickly became known as Tango Nuevo music. Initially this new style was not received particularly well in Argentina, as they saw this change in the way tango music was composed and played as being too much of a departure from what they were used to. Audiences in the rest of the world however loved this new style, and its popularity elsewhere eventually led to the beginnings of its acceptance in Argentina as well.

Unlike many of the more traditional tango composers, Piazzolla’s popularity extended far beyond the tango world and he even became known and admired amongst people who otherwise knew nothing about tango. In 1974 he wrote a piece called “Libertango” that went on to be used in films, on television, and in many dance performances. It was even used by Grace Jones as the music for her hit “I’ve Seen That Face Before” which was released in 1981. His nuevo music may not initially have been accepted by the dancers in Argentina, but the rest of the world loved it.

New Tango

This was the first use of the term tango nuevo to describe something specific, in this case the music and the way it was structured and composed. But as tango began to re-emerge from its imposed hiatus the name began to be used in a different way. Many of the new generation of tango dancers who only began to learn in the seventies and eighties had a markedly different style of learning and dancing to the way things had been in the Golden Age. This new approach became known as tango nuevo to distinguish it from the earlier ways, although opinions varied as to what those differences actually were. Was it the embrace that was different, or did they use different steps? Was it all about how they learned, or was it just down to the music they would play as they danced?

Probably due to the influence of tango performances such as Tango Argentino and Forever Tango, the popularity of tango escenario – which is the Spanish term for stage or performance tango – began to grow. This is a style of dancing that emphasises the more dramatic moves of tango such as high leg wraps and dips, and orients the dance so that it creates the greatest visual impact when it is performed on a stage and viewed by an audience. This style also became known as tango nuevo for a while as classes where this was taught tried to market themselves as being something new or modern. This usage has fallen out of fashion in the UK in recent years, but you do occasionally still see announcements for something like a “nuevo / stage tango workshop” posted online, and you have to check to see if the music, the dance style, or something else is what they consider to be “nuevo”.

To make matters even more confusing the term later began to be used to describe any music that was not traditional Golden Age (or earlier) tango music. It is still common to see organisers advertising events with a certain “percentage of tango nuevo” or just “nuevo” music to be included in their playlist, but with no clue given as to what that might mean in practice. There is a big difference between electrotango, blues, jazz, and anything written by Astor Piazzolla, but the term tango nuevo can be used to refer to any or all of these genres and many more besides. Inviting people to your event by saying you are going to play tango nuevo music with this sort of definition would be like sending someone out to the shops to pick up a missing ingredient for your recipe, but instead of telling them what you needed you only specified “not sausages”. You could end up with anything!

In 2009, Gustavo Naveira, an Argentine dancer known for his detailed analysis of teaching tango, described tango nuevo as not being a specific style or type of music or approach to tango, but as everything that has happened to tango since the 1980s. This, he said, was its natural evolution, the way it is growing, developing, and enriching itself, and should not be considered as something separate or different but as a part of the whole that contributes to the completeness of tango.

With such significant differences in how it is defined the term Tango Nuevo is not particularly useful, and using it can result in confusion so it is probably best avoided wherever possible.

Electro Nuevo

A phrase that you will often hear alongside ‘tango nuevo’ is ‘electro-nuevo’, but they are not the same thing. Traditional tango music is performed using pianos, bandoneons, violins, and a bass, but an increasing number of bands are now using synthesisers and other non-traditional instruments when they play. This results in a genre of tango music called electro-nuevo where traditional tracks or versions of traditional tracks are performed but using a decidedly non-traditional arrangement.

Otros Aires, Narcotango, Tanghetto, The Gotan Project, Bajofondo and many others have developed this genre and have produced tracks that are either direct covers of old music or are modern reworkings of a traditional theme. Electro-nuevo is often seen as a halfway step between traditional tango tracks and modern music that was not written specifically for tango, so it can be a good way to introduce people to the idea of dancing to music that is not from the Golden Age.

Electro-nuevo is a specific term referring to a music genre and should never be used to refer to a style of dance, but like with all things it does occasionally get misused.

Rebels

At around the turn of the millennium a rebellious side to tango started to emerge. Younger tango dancers began performing routines to modern rock, blues, and indie tracks that had nothing to do with the traditional style of music. The routines were dramatic and drew more from tango escenario than they did from the usual social tango danced in clubs, and with use of the term ‘tango nuevo’ already nearing peak confusion a new way of describing this style was needed.

The word that emerged was neotango. Still meaning ‘new tango’ only this time with a Greek prefix instead of the Spanish “nuevo”, this new word gave an edgy feel to the style that suited it perfectly. Unlike tango nuevo it had inherited no alternative meanings and so it could be used to describe an approach to tango without causing any confusion.

Neotango was modern, and had no attachment to any particular genre of music. It would adopt moves and techniques from other dance styles and incorporate them into the dance whilst not breaking the core of what makes tango so unique. In many ways the neotango movement was paralleling the very early days of tango where moves and music from many different sources came together, with candombe, polka, folk dances, and all the other styles merging in the unofficial gatherings of the mid nineteenth century.

The tango establishment did not approve. Neotango was unashamedly ‘new’ and did nothing to try to hide its differences. Gone were the flowing dresses and sharp suits, and in their place were tight fitting lycra, hot-pants, jeans, and trainers. The music used may occasionally have been written to accompany their performances, but it was far more likely to be a popular track from the charts that had nothing to do with tango at all. The performers took their routines away from the stage and filmed their productions in warehouses, on streets, in bars, and in restaurants, and a new side to the dance began to emerge.

In many ways the rebelliousness of neotango mirrored the punk music scene of the 1970s. It was expressive, unpredictable, and pushed back against the established way of dancing. Neotango really was ‘new’, and yet just as punk music could never have happened if the people making up the bands had not been able to play instruments and sing, neotango could only have happened because the dancers had learned the earlier style and then adapted it into something more modern.

Evolution

The emergence of tango nuevo and neotango were seen by some as a rejection of the traditional style that came before, whilst others welcomed their openness and inclusivity. Dancers who preferred the old style of music and the old ways of running events accused the neotango movement of damaging or diluting tango by taking focus away from its origins. They said that the open hold favoured by neotango dancers was a “rejection of the traditions” of tango, and that without the traditional music the dance could “barely be considered tango at all”. But how true is this? Is neotango really something new, or does it draw more on the traditions and origin of tango than people realise?

Tango has a history going back over a hundred years and as such may be considered to be one of the older social dances from the region, but compared to some of the ballroom dances it is a relative newcomer. The Viennese Waltz can trace its origins back to the mid sixteenth century where it already featured the fast triple-beat music and lots of spins in close hold, but the music it was danced to bore little resemblance to a modern orchestral sound. This was the time of the Renaissance, long before the invention of the modern orchestra and music was played by quintets and consorts on precursor versions of some of the instruments we know today. There were no pianos at that time, so harpsichords and clavichords featured instead. Harps, early violins, and lutes provided the string sounds, and even the recorder that we best know today from primary school music lessons made a regular appearance.

These were the instruments playing in the society dance halls in Austria when the Viennese Waltz first began to appear. Modern recreations of that music using the original instruments seem to us to lack depth and sound slightly alien now that we are used to the more full-bodied sound of a contemporary orchestra, and so it tends to be only in period re-enactments that we hear that sort of music played any more. Current dancers prefer a more modern sound, and not only orchestral music but popular tracks from the charts are often played at ballroom events and classes. And yet no-one is suggesting that modern ballroom is “not really ballroom” because we are no longer playing sixteenth century music to dance to. In fact the ballroom world with its strict regulation and codified steps would probably be the first to take action if the modernisation of the music had adversely affected the dance at all. So we have to assume that the modern Viennese Waltz is still considered to be the real Viennese Waltz and that the music makes no difference to the essence of the dance.

If this can be true for ballroom then why can it not be true for tango? The music of tango and the style of the dance evolved together so they will always be linked at some fundamental level that is hard to define. But it is entirely possible to listen to tango music and to enjoy it without dancing, so it should be possible to dance tango without using tango music and for it still to be called tango. The first half century of tango’s history was a process of almost constant evolution with new music and new styles appearing all the time. Even when it began to settle down during the Golden Age there was a wide variety of music being played by the bands. The dramatic and heavier style of Pugliese was very different to the lighter and more melodic arrangements favoured by Canaro, and yet they were both still tango. The similarity of instruments between all the bands was not because there was a rule stating that tango music must be played in this way, but because that was the format of the majority of small popular groups at the time. This was demonstrated when Astor Piazzolla began to incorporate orchestral and jazz techniques into his music and would no doubt have gone much further had tango been allowed to continue unchecked.

Neotango

The emergence of neotango in the early 2000s may have been a shock to the establishment, but it should not have been seen as an attack on traditionalism or in any way detracting from what came before. Neotango could not have existed without the history of tango, and it was the evolutionary and inclusive nature of the early years that inspired dancers to experiment and to see what could come next.

There will always be exceptions, but no neotango dancer that I have ever met has suggested that traditional tango should be disbanded to make way for the modern. All versions of tango should be able to coexist and to draw on each other for inspiration. There are some aspects of tango traditionalism that should be updated to work better with modern society, but the dance itself and the music are an important part of the history of both Argentina and tango, and should therefore continue to be recognised and performed.

Another accusation often made against neotango is that its willingness to include aspects of other dances as steps or techniques into the performances is diluting tango away from its core. This is a hard argument to take seriously as during the early years of tango the dance did little else other than absorb influences from other styles. Tango would not be tango if it had not included aspects of other dances, with probably the most obvious example of this being the adoption of the European Waltz and its eventual morphing into Tango Vals as we know it today.

Film clips of early tango performances from around 1920 and 1930 are hard to find, but the small amount of footage that is accessible shows at least two very distinct styles of tango in use at the time. There is the restrained and tidy social dance with a close hold and little variation in frame, but there is also evidence that a more dramatic style was already being performed. Some clips show dancers in open hold performing lifts and dips, high leg wraps, switching to reverse hold with the leader behind the follower, and much more. All of these moves would be considered “too modern” by many tango traditionalists, and yet according to the recordings they date from more than a decade before the start of the Golden Age!

Neotango dancers are no more experimental than the performers of the early twentieth century, but it is arguable that we do have more options open to us than that first generation. Television, film, and more recently the internet have enabled us to watch and learn from performances not only originating elsewhere in the world but also from an earlier time, and this allows us to draw on a huge range of tango resources that we can feed into our dancing.

Neotango is not a threat to traditional tango, nor a rejection of that which came before, and it is not a new style of dance. It is simply the latest step in the evolution of tango and can be embraced and welcomed without diluting or diminishing any part of tango’s history.