Tango reflects every aspect of Argentine culture, said the vice president of a school dedicated to the dance.

Gabriel Soria, who helps lead the Academia Naciónal del Tango in Buenos Aires, gave a lecture to about two dozen people at the Texas Union on Wednesday about the history of Argentine tango and its relationship with film. The UT Argentine Tango Club and the Dean of Fine Arts Office hosted the lecture, which recounted the birth of tango in the barrios of Buenos Aires, and the subsequent transformation of the musical style into an international genre in the late 1930s and early 1940s.

Soria shared films to serve as an overview of the singers and orchestras considered most influential to this “golden age” of tango.

“It’s very important that tango be preserved as something that represents essential Argentineness,” Soria said. “Not only is it a way of singing, dancing, and composing, but it also entails a way of living.”