The History of Tango in London

By Paul Lange

I don’t suppose for one minute that it might have crossed Margaret Thatcher’s mind that her political aspirations and machinations regarding The Falkland Islands would have an indirect effect on the early days of tango in London and the UK in general.  Anyway…  she would have made a terrible milonguera; no following skills at all… always wanting to lead.

Teddy Peiro and his brother Hector as “The Peiro Brothers” were a very successful comedy juggling vaudeville act, learning their trade as children in their father’s travelling circus in Argentina. However, they made a big name for themselves in the 1950’s when they moved from Argentina to the USA. Once there, they worked on television and stage, in Las Vegas and every other major centre of entertainment in the country and appeared on the same billing with all the famous celebrity acts of the time, including the President himself.  Eventually they came to London where their success continued on television and on stage, notable at the famous London Palladium theatre.

Teddy fell in love with one of the chorus girls, Gillian, and so the history of tango in London was born, albeit with a rather long gestation period. Hector decided that he wanted to return to Las Vegas and settle there, but Teddy and Gillian wanted to stay in London, so “The Peiro Brothers” was no more.  Although Teddy carried on with a solo act the days of this type of entertainment were numbered and the offers of work dwindled.  However, Teddy had another skill which he had learnt in his childhood; that of playing the bandoneon. So, together with Gillian on vocals, they started to put together a small show in the late 70’s/early 80’s naturally featuring tango from Argentina, which was, to all intents and purposes, unknown to the general public in the UK at that time.   No doubt there was knowledge of it in the small Latin community in London and also amongst the membership of the Anglo-Argentine Society, but as far as we know, the involvement was academic; that is, just in listening to tango music, but not in dancing.

In 1982 Mrs. Thatcher and the Generals had their disagreement, and so Teddy and Gillian’s show became a “Latin Extravaganza” and whilst the show that brought tango to the world, “Tango Argentino”, became a smash hit in its European tour debut in Paris, it was understandably not considered prudent to include London in its schedule at that time.  However, by the late 80’s memories had faded and for most people Argentina was no longer considered “the enemy”.

In January, 1986 the Arena documentary “Tango Mio”, made by Jana Bakova, was broadcast by the BBC. The documentary traced the origins, history and popularity of the tango in Argentina through the work of poets, dancers and musicians.   Having seen it just by chance, and completely fascinated by this unknown culture, a call to the Argentine Embassy in London resulted in, “Sorry, we know nothing of tango. Call the Anglo-Argentine Society”.   Eventually, this resulted in a visit to a small theatre in Palmers Green, a suburb in North London, where the show “Teddy Peiro and his Amigos” was playing.

 It was quite a while before anything happened on the dancing side, but by 1987 a small group developed, with limited knowledge mostly gained from videos (I’ll let your imagination envisage how good we were) and mostly directed towards performing informal small shows in the Latin community and at a very small Spanish restaurant called the “Marbella” in a small road just off of Oxford Street in the West End of London, backed by Teddy Peiro and his trio plus Gillian.  As time went on through 1987 – 89 the shows got bigger (and hopefully better) and now there was always a tango performance at London’s Annual Latin Festival culminating in the biggest at a packed Royal Albert Hall.  By now, the dancing side had a small community of its own with a few regular classes given by the performers, and the format of a social evening generally consisted of a small performance followed by a milonga for the students.  At that time there was little knowledge about leading or following or line of dance, so we all tended to dance our figures on the spot or in whatever space was available.

On the music side, a small trio/quartet had also been formed and this was the beginnings of “Los Mareados”, perhaps the best of London’s tango dance bands in current times and in 1990, together with “Los Mareados” we took a tango show to The Edinburgh Festival.  In 1992 another tango performance actually appeared in the festival in the form of a play by Manuel Puig entitled "Lipstick Tango", which won a Perrier award and which later was also staged at the Warehouse Theatre in London.  I was fortunate, with my dance partner, to be the choreographers for this show. 

In 1991, at last, the show “Tango Argentino” came to London complete with its tremendous publicity machine. Suddenly, the small tango community that had developed between 1986 and 1991 found itself with a music/dance genre that was being splashed across the pages of every major newspaper and of every glossy magazine. Tango was suddenly the talk of the town… the fashion of the moment. On the back of this phenomena, in 1992 we also formed a tango music/dance company called "Tango Tiempo" which successfully staged a show in the Waltham Forest Theatre in Walthamstow and Dorking Halls in Dorking, Surrey. Sadly personal ambitions and politics split the company up and future engagements had to be cancelled.... but that is another story for another time.

However, it was fortunate for the newly smitten that there was in London, albeit in a small way, a readymade community, some of whom were to be found thrusting leaflets for classes, etc., into the audience’s  hands as they left the theatre with a smile on their faces.

The appearance of "Tango Argentino" was the point at which milongas as we know them began to develop in London, and particularly in respect of what is now London’s longest running regular milonga.  Accompanying the show “Tango Argentino” was the boyfriend of one of the dancers, and to occupy his time he hired a small URC Church hall and every Friday night started running classes and then a class followed by a milonga. When he eventually returned to Buenos Aires he left his Friday night milonga to a committee formed from some of his students and they called their organisation “Tango the Argentino Way”.   At that time all the other regular classes were just that, with maybe a bit of practice time after.  Now however, the class followed by a milonga became the format for other organizations that followed soon after and exist to this day, notably El Once Club and Zero Hour on Saturday nights and Wednesday nights respectively.

Two important changes began in this period of the early 90’s.  The first was that “Tango the Argentino Way” started to occasionally bring Argentinian teachers to London:  Pablo Verón and Teresa Cunha,  Gustavo Naveira and Claudia Rosenblatt, Federico Moreno, Pepito Avellaneda and Suzuki, Rodolfo and Maria Cieri, Pupi Castello, “Teté” and Silvia, Alejandro Aquino and Mariachiari and Claudia Codega and Esteban Moreno amongst many others.  This was a very exciting time for the small tango community of perhaps 80-100 people that had developed.  Each visiting teacher was looked forward to with relish and classes were easily filled to capacity.  How times have changed…. but, back to the past.

The early 90’s also brought Carlos Gavito to London with his wife and child. Carlos told us that he and his wife wanted their daughter to have an English education so they had come to settle in the UK.  Carlos’ plan was to have a base milonga in London (his wife’s family was in Scotland) and then travel as and when the work of teaching and performing demanded.   He made an arrangement with a man who was running a milonga in a dance studio under the railway arches near to Waterloo station so that whenever Carlos was in town he would host the milonga.  Needless to say, Carlos being the charmer that he was, the milonga was full on the nights he was there.  This arrangement lasted until the show “Forever Tango” came to town when Carlos saw and took an opportunity to join the show when it left London for the USA.

Joining “Forever Tango” changed the image most people today have of Carlos Gavito.  When he arrived in London his classes involved teaching long… very long… sequences of steps, but In the show he certainly found a style that suited him much better… slow and smouldering with the “Gavito” exaggerated volcada position…. And of course, he had partners to complement him to perfection.

It would be safe to say that all the teachers coming to London up to 1994 had taught figures in an “open” style, although that was not the case when Rodolfo & Maria Cieri gave classes in their “Canyengue” style of dancing.  It was not until Susana Miller came to London that we suddenly saw a completely different way of dancing tango, and following first visits to Buenos Aires some of the local teachers began to impart their newly found knowledge of “close-hold” and “ocho-cortados”.

It would be safe to say that the rate of growth of the tango community at this stage was quite slow, and that you would find the same people attending all the major milongas.  However, more milongas began to appear in the outer suburbs of London which brought more people into the community, and this provided local venues for some of those who had previously to travel into the centre of town.  New milongas started to open in central London, each providing its own flavour and atmosphere.  At first, this meant smaller numbers in all the regular milongas as the dancers were spread around, but eventually the community grew to mostly accommodate the new venues.   Many new milongas opened and closed as the organisers discovered that the financial aspects of running a milonga in Central London were very difficult.  Not only was it hard to find a venue that would open past 11pm due to noise restrictions but when one was found, the rent was usually prohibitive.

In the early years of the milongas there was an idealistic thought that the organisers would work together so that nobody clashed, either with days or performances. But that was unrealistic.  However, it would be fair to say that even to this day organisers are generally polite to and tolerate each other whilst going about their own business.  Some do co-operate in certain ways and some may have questionable ethics… but that is fairly standard in any business.

So, what of tango in London today?  Nowadays you can dance every night of the week, and sometimes visit several milongas on one night.  The main regular weekly milongas are still run by “El Once Club/Dancetango” at The Crypt (Saturdays), “Tango the Argentino Way (now renamed Carablanca)” at Conway Hall (Fridays) and “Zero Hour” at The Dome (Wednesdays), and in the last few years with the addition of “Negracha” at Wild Court (Fridays) and “Tangology” in The Langley (Sundays).

Naturally each milonga has its own flavour and atmosphere.  A very good and unbiased description of the London milongas can be found at http://mshedgehog.blogspot.com

At the beginning of the article I mentioned that it was an exciting time when visiting teachers came to give workshops and performances, and it is in this area that there has been a great change.  I would suspect that tango communities around the world are also experiencing the huge number of young, and not so young, teachers and performers visiting their cities in search of work.  London is no different, and we seem to have so many each week that classes and performances come and go almost unnoticed. 

Compared to the dance scene, the music side of tango in London has been slow to develop.  Teddy Peiro is no longer with us, but we still have “Los Mareados” to carry the flag for dancers and there is soon to be the debut of the UK’s first orquesta tipica… 12 musicians put together from three bands.  There is also the duo “Mazaika” based in London and Tango Siempre, and of course they are all supplemented by visiting bands from Europe and Argentina.

So, all in all, from the humble beginnings in a small restaurant in the West End, tango now has a firm and large foothold in London’s world of culture and entertainment.

 

© Paul Lange

El Once Club de Tango