Tango was born as a popular dance with musical accompaniment. Later, music and lyrics became its protagonists, but this did not mean the abandonment of the original choreography of its dance, basically made up of the embrace of the couple with very sensual and complex steps.

In the past, in the neighborhoods, the “tablados” were set up in the streets -especially in Montevideo- once carnival arrived. It was a tradition for the neighbors to take their chairs from their houses to watch the different shows that the murgas, the parodists, the humorists or the comparsas could give. Today these neighborhood shows have been taken to large open spaces and have taken on a more professional character that is accompanied by a large audience.

In its beginnings, tango music was performed only with flute, guitar and violin. With the passage of time and the consolidation of the genre, the “sextet” or “typical orchestra” will appear to become the classic form of tango interpretation. The “sextet” is composed of piano, two bandoneons, two violins and double bass.

The orchestra can also consist of more instruments. The introduction of the bandoneon did not take place until the beginning of the 20th century, but it became an essential element.

In fact, tango is an authentically rioplatense product and son of miscegenation. Both countries, Uruguay and Argentina, which in the second half of the 19th century, when we were separated by only a few tens of years of having been part of the same viceroyalty, received more immigration than the number of inhabitants born in the place. Tango is an authentic result of this situation on both banks of the Río de la Plata. And as such, it was submitted by both countries to the Intangible Heritage of Humanity List, and confirmed by Unesco in 2009.

The tango is typically urban and the way of dancing it is recognized all over the world for its sensuality. The internationalization of the tango, which in principle was the result of the travels of Rioplatense musicians around the world, installed variants of tango in different countries of the world, as is the case of Finland, which contributed its own version with a form of tango with minor tones and where Seinajöki is considered the third city of tango after Montevideo and Buenos Aires.

This tango, which has been the soundtrack of countless films, was first performed on a street corner in Montevideo by Gerardo Mattos Rodríguez. Undoubtedly, it is the most known and interpreted tango in the world. But Uruguay has registered 17,000 tangos and has produced hundreds of poets, musicians and dancers who have written, created and performed on both sides of the Río de la Plata pieces that have traveled the world.