541  Finnish tango - the thread continues

Date: Mon, 29 Apr 2002 22:08:56 -0400
From: "Irwin L. Singer" <singer@NRL.NAVY.MIL>
Subject: Finnish tango - the thread continues

Two years ago I visited Finland. I heard several types of
tango: modern (mainly by Russian buskers) and traditional. Once, when an
accordion player began to crank out a Finnish tango, I asked a 'native'
to show me how it was danced. She began to dance "slow-slow-quick-quick,"
a pattern ballroom dancers know as the "Foxtrot." It dawned on me that
both the "Foxtrot" and the adoption of the tango by the Finns as their
national dance came on the scene about the same time, 1914. The foxtrot,
made famous by vaudeville dancer Harry Fox, quickly became the rage of
America and Europe, because it was a fun step to dance. I speculated that
the foxtrot could have reached Finland the same time tango music was
becoming popular; thus a convenient marriage of music and dance. Of
course, it was only a guess on my part (none of the Finns knew what I was
talking about), but I've had fun with it.
PS. Legend has it that Harry Fox made lots of money selling sheet music
imprinted with foot patterns of the foxtrot. [I assume his business
interests, and not his entertainment skills, led to the formation of The
Harry Fox Agency, Inc. (HFA), which today licenses musical copyrights.]

Irwin Singer