Soccer and Tango?

I’ve never been a big fan of watching buff grown men chase relatively tiny balls around a huge field. The rules always elude me, I never know which team to root for, and in truth I usually don’t care.

The one exception is basketball. Since childhood I was always fascinated by and loved watching the slow motion replays, which I found lyrical, graceful, and much like dance. The high jumps of the players grabbing the hoop and dunking the ball, their arms and legs akimbo, their lanky bodies in flight… This always struck me as stunning.

A Soccer ball awaits its moment in a couple's street Tango
A Soccer ball awaits its moment in a couple’s street Tango

As such, it never would have occurred to me to combine Soccer and Tango. However, as demonstrated in this clever commercial, the fancy footwork of this archetypal Latin dance form meshes well with that of the world’s most beloved international sport. And given that every four years World Cup fever seemingly seizes a large majority of the world’s population, I thought I would tip my hat to the sport herein. This longer form commercial from 2010 was conceived of to unite Argentinians via their two most favored passions, Tango and Soccer, in view of that year’s World Cup in South Africa. As is frequently the case in Argentina, it takes the form of a spontaneous crowd gathering around a couple tangoing in the streets. The film quality has a great color palette, it is artfully choreographed – both with the dance and with the soccer ball – and I especially love the moments in which the passing or catching of the ball integrates with the movement of the dancers, and serves to augment it. A fresh spin on integrating dance and sports. Enjoy.

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