Antonio todaro tango dancer silhouette

 

Celia Blanco is an important person in tango. She is the Profesora de Tango Salon in Argentina’s official school of culture and dance (Teatro San Martin), she is a famous tango choreographer, and she is a woman of the milongas as well. In fact, she runs one of the best tango clubs in Buenos Aires. In the clubs it’s common for the walls to be covered with pictures of well-known tango dancers… but in Celia’s club there is only one: Antonio Todaro. 

If Petroleo’s tango was characterized by exuberance and quick and complex cadences, Todaro’s style was a catalogue of modern tango movement. Petroleo broke tango out of the old restrictive embrace of the 1920s (more about that later), and gave both partners more freedom to move. But even though both partners were freed up a bit, the woman was still more or less a prop for the man. Her job was to hang on, and match Petroleo’s steps, while his feet flew. It was with Todar