The words „Tango“ and „Tambo“ are derived from the head of the drum (tambor in Spanish) and also represented musical gatherings of coloured people in Argentina and Uruguay, who were slaves from the Niger-Congo/Bantu region of Africa, where „tamgu“ means „to dance“.
Tango itself is indebted to multiethnic contributions, due to the colonial past in these South American countries and the successive immigration contribution. It revolutionised popular dance by introducing a sensual dance with an embracing partner, that proposes a deep emotional relationship of each person with their own body and the bodies of the dancers with each other.
It has been declared an Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO (2009).
It was the people of African descent in Rio de la Plata, who took forms of music and dance to Buenos Aires, which would be of decisive importance for the birth of the Tango. The power of generations of ancestral rhythms - which brought a sense of magic to Afro-Latin music - built the relationship between body and psyche, and simultaneously expresses the stories of its people, who only had their drumming rhythms to hold on to, to make them feel free. It’s these elements that are the true secret to the success of this special type of music, one that bears the mark of its African origin, although the western world extinguished the black roots from its own official and dominant culture.
Gotambó unveils those rhythms and their heritage and transforms them into exciting and vibrating entertainment experiences.
GOTAMBÓ UNITES:
CULTURES, PEOPLE, DANCERS, AUDIENCES, MUSIC STYLES, CONTINENTS.
Everything begins with a Rhythm.
Gotambó is the result of a personal search as an artist and dancer, intimately connected with the events that I have gone through in my artistic career, since the first Tango class when I was 15 years old until my adult age of 40 today.
Gotambó is how Tango entered into my life, the way in which I’ve struggled to become a dancer and also my strongest reason to move forward...
© ® Andrés Sautel 2018
Photo by Isadora Tast
