The Two-Step Tango is an anonymous eight-bar sequence published in the first and second editions of F. Leslie Clendenen's compilation Dance Mad (St. Louis; both editions 1914). There are several of these tiny "tango" sequences that travel decorously around the room without much tango feel to them -- see the similar Butterfly Tango and Dixie Swirl. These short progressive sequences all appeared in the first edition, along with the somewhat better-composed and more tango-like ones (including a "Tango Two-Step") from Albert Newman. The impression I get from this is that the more authentic tango was still making its way across the country in early 1914, so the authors of these sequences were still interpreting it as "slow one-step to tango music". The second edition of Dance Mad expanded the tango section enormously, retaining the short sequences but adding twenty-two pages of more authentic Argentinian and Parisian tango steps.
The Two-Step Tango is basically a promenade, performed with both partners facing line of dance, side by side, holding inside hands. The gentleman begins on the left foot, the lady on the right. The gentleman's steps are given below; the lady dances opposite.
Two-Step Tango (eight bars/sixteen beats of tango music)
1 Forward left
2 Forward right, turning slightly outward
3 Back left, making a slight dip (against line of dance, back to back with partner)
4 Side right (along line of dance, still back to back with partner)
5 Side left (along line of dance, swinging to face partner)
6 Back right, making a slight dip (against line of dance)
7 Side left (along line of dance, facing partner again)
8 Forward right
1, 2 Forward left, slowly
3 Close right to left
4 Forward left
5, 6 Forward right, slowly
7 Close left to right
8 Forward right
Performance note
I feel that the stylishness of this sequence comes from doing some fairly snappy swiveling between facing one's partner, facing line of dance, and facing away from one's partner. Without this, it degrades into rather muddy walking-and-rocking. Specifically, I would suggest that step three should be somewhere between second and fourth position, while step four is fully in second. Step five is a half turn to face partner, then on step six, a quarter-turn to face line of dance and step back to fourth. Steps seven and eight are more quarter turns, snapping to face one's partner on seven, then facing line of dance again on eight.
The second part is more relaxed and I believe that it should be performed languidly for contrast, with a slight turn of the body away on the "close-step" combinations on three-four and seven-eight.
Since this is such a short sequence, for dancing it could be combined with the Dixie Swirl, doing the Two-Step Tango twice (16b) and the Dixie Swirl once (16b). The dancers would need to change from hand-in-hand to closed position and vice-versa when switching sequences, which is not terribly difficult at tango tempo.
Reconstruction note
While the style points above are my own, there is also one major point of ambiguity in the instructions: the "close-step" combination in the second part. The original instruction is "make two-step movement, C. 3-4." Generally a single two-step would be counted and notated "3&4", but "two-step movement" and the 3-4 notation seem to signal something different. I have therefore interpreted it as being only the chassé movement, "close-step" -- technically, just a close and a step, since it lacks the "&beat" timing of a true chassé. That fits the counts given and accounts for the odd phrasing of the instruction.
If they did mean simply a two-step, and unaccountably decided to give incorrect counts and confuse the reader with "movement", the second part would be:
1, 2 Forward left and hold
3&4 Two-step forward, right-left-right
5, 6 Forward left and hold
7&8 Two-step forward, right-left-right
The best argument in favor of this interpretation is that the dance is called the "Two-Step Tango", so it would be reasonable to have some actual two-step in it...if only the instructions said so explicitly!
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