Tango roots in Belgrade
- extract from the book “Belgrade in memories 1919-1929“
“Dance schools“
“Immediately after the First World War, new dances were introduced for the entertainment of people from Belgrade; we could hardly say they were “ballroom dances“, but rather “modern“, in comparison to folk dances. These dances captivated the younger population quickly. The dances were fairly eccentric for beliefs of that time, perhaps because they did not resemble polka or waltz.
Since there were no other ways of learning how to dance modern dances, dance schools began to be established. Petar Stojić was the first to advertise his studio. Then Rozenberg, Raša Milutinović, Stajić and many others followed.
It is remarkable that both young and older people learned dancing. The latter were most often the ones whose youth passed in wars.
Roughly speaking, modern dances appeared in Belgrade in the following order: first, there was one step dance. Dancing resembled strolling upon the marching beat, with just few figures. Foxtrot was danced in place by trotting. Shimmy dance did not differ greatly from foxtrot, but dancers were moving heels more. Boston waltz had succeeded in displacing the waltz in a short period of time. However, it was rapidly forgotten, and waltz persisted until now. In the beginning, tango was danced with many figures and it appeared eccentric, but hardly elegant. Tango was “advertised“ by Rudolph Valentino the most. He danced tango perfectly in one film. Soon, tango underwent some corrections and thus stylized it survived until now…“