Tango dancing has been a staple of dance since the later days of the 19th century, originally pushing the boundaries of what was considered socially acceptable in a society that had only recently begun to dance in closed forms.

The Waltz, only recently accepted into popular dance, was a new revelation, having been considered too scandalous for public display. This, the first openly accepted close stance in dancing did not become a standard on dance floors until an 1850 Parisian Opera made it famous. So, in the 1890s, when the Tango first began to leak out of the seedy back alleys of Buenos Aires.

In its original form, Tango dancing was popular in the Buenos Aires suburbs. It was danced among many other casual dances until it started to spread in popularity and reach the slums where thousands of European immigrants were living and working. The dance, with its close form, and intimate encounters was danced to bawdy music with lyrics about sex and other scandalous acts. It was popular both for its complex style and its socially progressive undertones.

It was not until the 20th century that the Tango began its immigration from Buenos Aires to European venues though. Argentine dancers and orchestras brought Tango dancing and music to Paris where new forms of culture would spread like wildfire. The dance then spread to London, Berlin and eventually New York and Finland.

While Tango dancing was not uncommon in the United States before 1913, it was a more rigid, slower form of the dance. By 1914, the Rio de la Plata Tango had arrived, using the more authentic style of tango dancing that other countries had so recently caught on to.

Tango dancing declined rapidly in the 1920s and 30s because of the Great Depression. In Argentina especially, where the government was in a state of turmoil after the recent overthrow of Yrigoyen. The repressed, monetarily challenged country would remain in a state of regression until Juan Peron took hold of the country and brought a new measure of prosperity and national pride back to Argentina, reigniting the Tango.

Meanwhile, ballroom tango dancing had been codified in 1922 and was starting to appear in international competitions around the world. While the ballroom form of the tango was not as loose or free as its South American origins, it spread the popularity of the dance and created multiple new forms of popular dance in the United States and Europe.

Tango dancing would continue to rise and decline in cycles as the cultural and political climate changed. The 1950s saw a sharp decline with the rise of Rock and Roll music and another economic depression that struck South America. The dance would enjoy its greatest success in Finland during the 1950s, as the country discovered the form of dance following the end of World War II.

Elsewhere in the world, tango dancing remained a small but popular form of dance until the 1980s when Claudio Segovia and Hector Orezzoli opened their show, Tango Argentino in Paris. The show was popular around the world and led to a new found interest in tango dancing in nearly every country.

In the 1990s, tango dancing continued its revival, led by traveling companies of tango dancers who would put on shows around the world. Broadway musicals, off-broadway shows, and international competitions have created a newfound spark of interest in a younger generation that may have never experienced or seen tango dancing before.

The Nuevo Tango developed in this time, taking the traditional style of dance and instilling it with modern music and a looser, freer form of dance, similar to the early Argentine styles of the dance that populated the suburbs and bars of Buenos Aires. The tango has taken on an entirely new life in recent years, growing in popularity as it becomes better known across the world, and utilizing its historical roots to revitalize the art form of dance in clubs and ballrooms everywhere.