Finnish Tango.

Last Wednesday we went to the Kaupunkitanssit with Nic to learn some Finnish Tango. The weather was perfect and we were definitely the only ones to find our way there. It was nice to see so many enthusiastic people enjoying the sunshine and joy of dancing.

But first some background information about the dance. Tango being originally from Argentina, Finns have developed their own, Finnish version of Tango dance as well as Tango music. Tango was introduced to public for the first time in 1913 by Toivo Niskanen ja Elsa Nyström, but it was dance teacher Inkeri Kare who launched the idea of dancing Tango with Foxtrot steps, and this style became stable after 1930's. In fact, Finland might be the only country where Tango is danced like this. Since the steps were quite simple, the rhythm slow and the beat easy to hear, Tango became an idealistic dance for beginners.

During the 1980's Finnish Tango, especially Tango music, started to attract lots of business activities. The fact that Tango was actually danced with Foxtrot steps didn't, however, sound that glamorous so the dance was marketed as an independent dance style. As an result, attempts were made to differentiate Tango and Foxtrot from each other and a range of different proposals for Finnish Tango were born. Even though some of these different styles of Finnish Tango will drop, Tango is still rather heterogeneous collection of individual ways to dance than a clear and uniform dance style. Therefore Finnish Tango is quite new dance and still going through its developing process. Unfortunately nowadays Finnish Tango is regarded as a difficult dance and it has lost its role as an easy starting dance in dancing events.

Tango Dancing in Tangomarkkinat.

Also Finnish Tango music has developed into its own version that is a combination of original Tango, Slavic melancholy and German march music. One special characteristics of Finnish Tango is that the chorus' rhythm changes to Beguine that is more Rumba like rhythm. One sign of the popularity of Tango in Finland is a Tango festival, Seinäjoen Tangomarkkinat, that is organized every summer and is one of the biggest summer events in Finland having more than 100 000 visitors every year.

We learned only the very basics of Finnish Tango but the dance is definitely different from ballroom Tango. Basic steps goes slow-slow-fast-fast, as in Foxtrot, but the tempo is slower, steps longer and you keep your balance lower. For each slow step you almost stop for a while and kind of drag your feet along the way. I found it hard to keep the ballroom Tango stance when dancing Finnish Tango so I guess I have to forget that too. As I said, we didn't go that far with the dance and I would have wanted to keep up dancing for a bit longer after the one hour of teaching.

After the Tango we decided to skip our Wednesday practice because we were heading to one Salsa party later that evening. The party was held in Caisa Cafe and Terrace in the centre of Helsinki. It was some kind of birthday party of someone we didn't know, but the entrance was free and we hadn't been dancing Salsa for a long time so we wanted to check it out. What I liked about the place was that it was divided into two different spaces both of which had its own music and dance floor. It was quite hard to dance outside though since the floor was made of tile and didn't glide. Inside the DJ was cool and played nice mix of Latin music in the beginning, but in the late hours he turned more to disco Salsa that I don't fancy that much. The place was full of people speaking Spanish/Portuguese and the atmosphere was warm. If I went there alone I might have felt an outsider since it felt like all the people knew each other there (well, surprise if it was a birthday party!). Anyway, in total it was a fun night and I think I learned again some new moves from watching others.