Tango and Finland
Chapter 1 of 4 · 1900–1928
The fever
Dance schools in Helsinki, a matinée at the Apollo, and the first Finnish tango.
Helsinki · Turku · Tampere · Vyborg
Tango is held to have reached Finland in the autumn of 1913.1 That September and October, Helsinki dance schools offered tango lessons; their teachers, Bertha Corander and Hilma Liiman, had met the novelty that was conquering Europe in Paris and Berlin.1 A newspaper notice of 12 October sent readers to the Apollo operetta theatre, where a very funny operetta was given and Tango was danced.2 On 2 November about 600 people came to watch Niskanen and Elsa Nyström.1
The result was a huge enthusiasm for tango in the largest towns: Helsinki, Turku, Tampere and Viipuri.1 The first Finnish tango was written by Emil Kauppi in 1914 for a film called Salainen perintömääräys, The Secret Testament.3 In 1915 the singer Iivari Kainulainen mocked the craze with a song he wrote and recorded, "Tanko-laulu".1
The music of these years, most danced first
What happened, and where
No placed, sourced line for these years yet.