Top Five Argentina Dances

Dance is an important part of Argentina’s culture. Although Argentina is basically famous as the exclusive the birthplace of the tango, the country is home to various music and dance styles from its many geographic regions.

Apart from the tango, Argentines also have some traditional rural dances and cuarteto, chamame and folk dances are still performed in the country. Argentinian’s dances symbolizes the people’s emotions and lives and below are the top 5 most popular Argentinian dances.

Argentine Tango

The most popular Argentine dance is the Tango and is perfect for smaller settings. The Argentine Tango was born in Buenos Aires in the late 1700s and is loved by dancers of all ages. Argentina’s Tango still holds the intimacy of the original dance and is more intrinsic than the modern Tango.

Samba

Once thought of as Argentina’s national dance, the samba is a slow dance played mainly on guitar and bombo legüero. The samba is believed to be the as the Dance of Love and performed by couples who seductively and romantic play with each other. In this routine the man shows his masculinity and the lady reveals her love and shyness.

Chamame

Chamame is a quite popular and one of Argentina’s traditional styles which blends in with the Native American traditions and African beats. Chamame is performed with people dancing in a cheek-to-cheek embrace. This dance originated in the late 19th century in the northeastern region of Corrientes by immigrants from Poland, Austria, Czechoslovaki and Germany. Some of its different styles include the Vals or waltz and polca.

Cuarteto

The cuarteto dance was named after its first performer Cuarteto Leo. The dance is done with dancers moving counter clockwise in a big circle to a solo singer accordion, violin, piano or perhaps a bandoneon. Dancers gather in a large circle and move counter-clockwise to a rhythm called tunga-tunga. The 1980s has seen a rebirth of the dance in middle-class society with the singer Carlos ‘La Mona’ Jimenez leading the way.

Chacarera

The Chacarera is another popular style which originated in Argentina. This dance goes back to the 19th century and is of folk genre and emerged from north western Argentina. The Chacarera is believed to have originated from the province of Santiago del Estero.