Country Article / Postcards

First Tango

Date: 04/21/2003

With Argentina in continuing economic crisis, now is the time for serious tango studies at the source. While in Buenos Aires a few weeks ago, we met tango students from the U.S., Switzerland, Japan, Germany, and Britain, all brushing up their skills on the cheap.

Tango has been international since about 1920, when the French-born Argentine singer Carlos Gardel sang tango to the world. Gardel was killed at a young age in a plane crash, adding to his appeal. Today his tomb is visited almost as often as that of Evita Peron.

If you speak English, the best tango experience might be to work with the classically trained ballerina we met who now teaches tango (and belly-dancing). Jessica is the manager of a bed and breakfast in the Barrio Norte called Tango Gardens, with two dance studios. Jessica rents rooms for $60 to $120 per week. Our double at $120 was equipped with its own shower-bath and a wall-safe. You pay in dollars, in cash. And along with your room, you get kitchen privileges and access to the patio garden and telephone and fax (local calls only).

Plus, you can arrange private lessons in tango from Jessica and her male partner for $20 per hour.

Another tango-themed guesthouse in San Telmo is called Tango Guesthouse, and costs about twice as much, also payable in cash. Its manager is another tango dancer, Lina.

You can take a tango tour without going to a tango guesthouse, with Lihu Expeditions or Eternaua. These programs are more aimed at tourists. Or you can plan to be in B.A. in October or late January and February, when the world tango festivals take place.

The hostelries are the way to go, though. You have the chance to peek at top dancers practicing. We watched a pair of brilliant dancers making a publicity film. It was better than the tango shows we went to see at the Café Tortoni downtown (Avenida de Mayo 892). And we were taken by Jessica to two "milongas" (dance salons). These take place starting at 10 or 11 p.m. and run until the wee hours.

Named after the Argentine style of country dancing with close links to tango, but faster and more informal, these are tango mixers. They cost about 6 pesos per person ($2). The men sit on one side, the women on the other. If a man wants to dance with a woman, he signals with a raised eyebrow, and the woman can shake her head to accept or decline. Then they dance together, customarily three rounds. They do not talk during the dancing, which is much too serious for that, but they may tell each other their names between dances.

A milonge is a relic of an earlier era, but is now quite respectable. You see older dancers who are brilliantly light on their feet, plump old grandmothers with perfect control. All ages, all social classes, all colors, dancing away. To access the milonge world, it helps to have a Jessica or a Lina to guide you. The more public professional dance sites are aimed at the tourist trade. Since the word about where to gather depends on the tango grapevine, you have to plug in through your hostess. But if you insist on going it on your own, you can pick up a guide at the newsstand or at your hotel called Guia Trimestral, published by the Academia Nacional de Tango.

Or you can check the Friday edition of the newspaper La Nación.

For more tango resources, click here.

Vivian Lewis
for International Living