The Wake

About twenty students gather every Wednesday night on the third floor of Coffman Memorial Union. Starting at 7 p.m. they each pick a partner and begin to dance. They move around the room slowly at first, leaning into each other, spinning counterclockwise occasionally. Every now and again there is a small collision, one couple bumping into another unsuspecting pair of dancers.

They begin to move a little closer as the night goes on, their bodies becoming loose and the steps becoming more familiar. Once or twice a toe is crushed or a cue is missed, but they never get frustrated with each other. They are all about learning and having fun, each member contributing to his or her neighbors experience. They are Utango.

The Argentine Tango Club was founded in the summer of 2004, in their words to “promote Argentine culture and dance specifically geared towards the University of Minnesota community.” The group got off to a slow start. Most students were unaware of its existence, and they had trouble recruiting new members. The fact that they couldn’t get a permanent room for their weekly lessons didn’t help much either.

“We would put up flyers saying we were going to meet in a certain room on campus, and then find out we were moved at the last minute,” says secretary James Regan. “People would show up looking for Utango and end up wandering around the building lost.”

Regan, an Italian Studies senior, has been with Utango on and off since September of 2004. He says getting people to come back regularly is one of the group’s biggest challenges. “Sometimes new dancers are nervous to dance with people they don’t know. And it is a little difficult to learn, but once you get to a certain point it really is a lot of fun.”

The tango started in South America at the end of the 19th century. During this period, immigrants from Africa, Russia and Western Europe were coming in mass to the southeastern coast of South America. Dancers in Buenos Aires, Argentina and Montevideo, Uruguay fused the steps and music of the varied cultures together to form a new type of dancing. The tango caught on first in bars and brothels, but soon made its way out of South America to London, Paris and New York.

Like most popular dances before it, the tango was met with some resistance. The close holds and provocative steps and rhythms shocked the uninitiated. Not surprisingly the tango experienced a few modifications as it is moved further away from Argentina. In what has come to be known as ballroom tango, European and America dancers stepped back a little, limiting the amount of body contact between couples. In order to promote the dance as a competitive activity the steps became standardized to enable the judging of tango performance.

In Argentina though, the tango has stayed true to its roots. There it is an improvisational dance, one that has continued to evolve since its inception. Three major styles of tango have developed. Salon tango is one of the oldest and most recognizable forms of Argentine tango. In this style the dancers practice tight close holds and slow, deliberate steps. Stage tango features larger and more complex steps, and the dancers stand a little further apart, freeing up their movements. Utango practices what is called Nuevo or Neo tango. Nuevo combines steps and holds from all forms of tango and is very popular with the younger generation of tango dancers.

In the spring of 2006 Utango began to gain a little momentum. Sabine Ibes began making guest-teaching appearances with the group. When the new school year started in the fall senior Lindsey Stratton took over as Club President. Ibes and Niko Salgado became the full-time instructors for the group. Now in what Stratton calls a transition year, the group is growing every week.

“People are starting to hear about us, the word is spreading,” Stratton says. “More people join each semester.”

Part of the reason for the spike in new members is instructors Ibes and Salgado. Both are experienced in a number of dances, including swing, ballroom, salsa, and ballet between them. Ibes discovered Argentine tango about five years ago and was immediately hooked.

“After my first lesson I dropped all the other dances I was doing and started regularly going to tango lessons and workshops,” Ibes says. Many aspects of the dance attracted Ibes. “Tango is not based on sequences, but rather musicality and partnership. It is about taking some risks on the dance floor, and with the right person there is a little sensuality.”

According to Ibes one of the keys to tango is being comfortable and being able to trust your partner. The tango is an improvisational dance, and one you become competent in the basic steps you can dance with just about anybody to any music.

Stratton joined Utango three years ago. Her love of dancing led her to try the dance after discovering the group during orientation. Like most students in the group she had never done the tango before. Now she is club president and during lessons she works with the more advanced students, and often is chosen by Ibes to help demonstrate steps in front of the class. Both Stratton and Regan credit Ibes and Salgado for the group’s recent resurgence.

“We have very good instructors this year,” Regan says. “They are very organized and build on what we have learned each week.”

For the remainder of the semester Utango will continue to hold their weekly lessons at Coffman Memorial Union. The group also participates in community dances, and is planning a partnership dance with the salsa club. They’ll also continue to put up flyers to promote their group. And watch out for their newest recruiting weapon: the Tango Bomb.

“We’re just going to walk around campus with a portable CD player,” Stratton says. “Randomly we will turn on a song and show people Argentine Tango.”

Utango meets every Wednesday at CMU room 325 at 7 p.m. The first lesson is free. Membership for students is $25 a semester.