Tango and Vienna
Chapter 1 of 3 · 1914–1919
The ban and the fiasco
Officers forbidden in January 1914; a dancing master explains the failure in April.
Innere Stadt
On 3 January 1914 the military authorities in Vienna forbade officers to dance the tango in uniform at public balls; as a result the dance was prohibited at the city-council ball and at other prominent public New Year festivities.1
In April 1914 a Dutch paper reported that in Vienna the tango, in great contrast to Paris and London, had made an absolute fiasco.2 At the Austro-Hungarian dancing masters' congress the Viennese dancing master Viola explained that the tango had come to Vienna by surprise, whereas in other cities its import had been properly prepared and a fair number of dance experts were on hand; the result was a Babylonian confusion at the tango performances.2
What happened, and where
No placed, sourced line for these years yet.