At the beginning, tango was simply danced anywhere: the courtyard of the homely conventillo, the streets, bars…. In the 1890’s, tango started to move from the poor neighbourhoods of Buenos Aires to posh salons with smooth wooden floors.
This presented a momentous point for tango – the birth of pivots!
With pivots, a halt in movement was introduced, in which the man would stand still while the woman would dance aside him in a rotating style – in other words, creating the infamous and sensual ocho.
A pivotal turn in tango – as verytango put it! 🙂
Bye for now!
Abrazo, Nati y Bruno
Source: http://www.verytango.com/tango-history.html
