“Con corte y quebrada”

Tango Triumphant in Buenos Aires, 1904-5

The Cake-Walk

At the beginning of the 20^th century, a dance that had gained popularity in the United States made it across the Atlantic and was enthusiastically picked up by dancers in Europe and South America: the cake-walk. It stirred up enthusiasm as well as controversy as it broke with traditional dance conventions. The dancers did not keep an upright posture but marched side by side, bent back- and forward, raised legs, etc. It was the first dance at the beginning of the 20^th century to start a lengthy discussion about the aesthetic qualities that a society dance should adhere to.

French postcard, about 1903

After the cake-walk caused sensation in Paris, it quickly spread across Europe and eventually reached Buenos Aires. It was first mentioned in the press as a novelty in March 1903, apparently having gained popularity among dancers during the carnival dances in the preceding month.

Interestingly, the cake-walk was associated with tango. In the fictitious conversation that accompanied the above illustration, two gentlemen talk about the new dance:

—Well now, let's see. Would you mind telling me how it is to be danced?

—It's simply a tango.

—Then it is an old thing.

—The pair starts out slowly. Then the man picks it up and approaches the woman, neighing gently. They make gestures, contortions and unusual genuflections, move back and forth. Then they lift the leg and without ever getting tired—provided they are people who suffer it—they proceed like this sometimes forward, sometimes backward.

From Caras y caretas, 1903

—Now, I for my part wouldn't like to see one of my daughters dancing so ungracefully.

—Look, in the end, the woman isn't that bad, the graces are usually five. But a man only cuts one poor figure.

Four month later appeared a full-page, illustrated article in the same magazine that also refers to the cake-walk being derived from tango:

News reaches us from Europe, pleasant to those who know about cortes and hamacadas [that is, tango], that the yankee tango—which is our tango translated into English—causes a sensation at the dance events of the Parisian aristocracy, where it was imported by the Americans under the name of cake-walk.

There is, of course, no relationship between tango and cake-walk, but there are similarities: both dances are based on the march, and both—the cake-walk with its “contortions and unusual genuflections”, the tango with its cortes and quebradas—break with the movement and posture of traditional dances.

The Carnival Dances in Buenos Aires, 1904-1905

Newspaper reports of the carnival dances until 1903 do not mention what kind of dances were actually performed at the balls. Rather, they report who attended and describe the most notable costumes. This changed after the appearance of the cake-walk. Starting in 1904, the carnival reports explicitly mention tango as one of the dances performed—at first again with comparison to the cake-walk—and make clear that it was danced and watched with enthusiasm.

One can say that in this carnival, the “tango criollo” has been glorified. It made the highest choreographic grades, arousing enthusiasm and being applauded in theater and society dances.

Undoubtedly, this time the Opera has been the theater most favored by the cultured devotees of Terpsichore. And even though its dances are no longer social events—because of the quality of the female element that used to attend them before—, they always maintain their traditional composure, framed by playful and enthusiastic happiness. Even politics were made this year at the dances of the Opera: there were costumes, which conceals behind anonymous guise, bringing to light the doings of political parties with scintillating and sharp expression, generating general cheerfulness.

The “cake walk”—that dance in which some claim to see the symbol for the struggle for life—has been the clou of the dances at the Opera. Amid cheerful laughter and loud applause, it was danced in every possible way from the most correct one to that of greatest exaggeration. The yankee dance imposed itself so much that even tangos were danced in cake-walk style.

Second place belongs, as always, to the dances at the Politeama, where an enormous audience, ready to enjoy itself within the reasonable boundaries, spent pleasant events among appropriate jokes, scintillating and inoffensive pranks and an abundance of tangos. Among the popular theaters most favored by the native [criollo] element was the Argentino. Tango with corte and quebrada was the prevailing dance there, showing some truly outstanding dance pairs that drew enthusiastic applause from the audience in the boxes. The hall decoration of the Argentino was done in good, exquisite taste, giving it supremacy over the other theaters.

Dancers at the Politeama, 1904

One also danced enthusiastically at the Marconi, Apolo, Victoria and the Nacional theaters. There were moments were it was impossible for the dancing couples to move from their spot, so large was the crowd. At some of these places there were punches thrown, even fights, but fortunately without major consequences.

In 1905, the cake-walk is no longer mentioned in press reports. Tango, however, has become the dominant dance at all theaters.

The continuous drizzle that spoiled the feast in the streets gave more splendor than imagined to the fancy dress dances at the theaters, which commenced last Saturday. Our photographers captured views of those that were held at the Argentino and Victoria theaters. There, liveliness and animation were the greatest, to such a point that it was almost impossible to get access. There were juries in both ballrooms to award prizes for the most elegant costumes, which proved to be an excellent lure for the fair sex.

The popular tangos with corte and quebrada were all the rage with the dancers. At the Victoria, an older woman stood out for her wonderfully executed choreographic abilities. It shows that Martín Fierro's saying, “the devil is wiser for age than for being a devil”, holds true even in tango.

At the Opera one danced without enthusiasm, the female element standing out.

Tangos, which are fashionable like the national theater, predominated in the programs of all the theaters. Even the 'sophisticated' women [las francesas] adapted their heel-bones to the capers.

The Fashionable Dance

Tango had become so popular in 1905 that the magazine Caras y caretas added a full-page illustrated report on Tango by Goyo Cuello, entitled “Baile de moda”, to its coverage of the carnival dances.

Carnival having arrived, the tango becomes the lord and master of all dance programs. The reason is: being the most libertine dance, it can only be tolerated in these days of folly. There is no theater that does not announce new tangos, which is a great enticement for the clientele of dancers that wants to impress with the boastfulness and flamboyance this bawdy dance engenders. It attracts them like honey does flies.

As a spectacle it is something original. One has to admire it most at the Victoria, above all. The hall is filled with cheerful people and from everywhere one hears phrases that would make the helmet of a police man blush. In the back the villainry of the suburbs in improvised costumes, in the boxes well-off young men and (even better off) women. Suddenly the orchestra starts up a tango and the pairs compose. The fellowships of chinas and compadres join in brotherly embrace and the dance gets underway. The dancers display such artfulness that it is impossible to describe the contortions, swaying, stumbling, and stomping that tango incites.

Compadritos and chinas dancing tango at the theater

And rhythmically, sensually swinging, the pairs glide to the meter of the dance as if here and now all their desires had been... Yonder in the background people gather in a group to watch a china orillera perform a quebrada, a difficult art of which she is master without rival. And the crowd applauds this marvel of quebrada and laughs boisterously as her companion says to her: “It gives me pleasure, china!”

This is the lower-class dance par excellence. It lets the compadre show off his cynical capabilities, demonstrate the agility of his body and the endurance of his feet. This is why it is in fashion during carnival. Even the titles [of the tangos] run over with compadre originality—like “Don't wrinkle my skirt”, “Knock and they will open”, “Grease the blinds”, “Get some nicotine”, and others alike—so that they may be remembered more easily by the dancers.

The author, objecting to the kind of language spoken and and describing the participants as lower class people, does not appear to be very much in favor of the event that he is describing. But perhaps he was just paying the participants a compliment. Since the dances described in the papers were events scheduled by the best theaters of Buenos Aires, one can assume that the attending audience came from social classes that could afford expensive tickets. Furthermore, the dances were costume balls, and the “compadrito con el chambergo en la frente” might have been a respectable gentleman working at a bank. At any rate, people who could afford to attend a carnival dance at the best theaters in town enjoyed dressing up as criollos and to dance tango, pretending to be compadritos and chinas. Tango had become a popular dance indeed.