At first tango was a hug. Some remember that this hug was like an electric spark that took his badly injured heart; Others received a hug of refuge that while they danced made them forget pain; And there are also those who accepted the open arms they found behind an unknown door. The trails bifurcan later, but that memory persists and many return, imprisoned by a fever that takes them to dance time after hour, day after day, as trophfea descendants, that woman who in 1518 began a mysterious dance epidemic in the French city of Strasbourg.
Each August Final, Tango’s Festival and World Festival attracts Buenos Aires to dancers from all over the world. There are classes, milongas, concerts and shows that add to that underground current that flows throughout the year. If someone wants – and resists – they can dance more than 18 hours in a row. In two weeks, it is an overdose of almost 300 hours.
It is four o’clock in the afternoon of a Wednesday and Corrientes Avenue has not yet ignited the lights of the theaters and pizzerias that will begin to fill at dusk. But on the first floor of the corner with Riobamba, behind curtains that prevent the passage of the sun and the look of curious, some 20 couples dance to the rhythm of the Carlos Di Sarli orchestra on the track of El Bisa. This hall in which Tango is danced is one of the most traditional in the Argentine capital, with more than 25 years of history. There are tables arranged around, on which coffee, waters and some champagne drinks are seen. From there men and women cross looks: He heads slightly from a distance; If she nods, they go out to dance.
Each couple hugs differently, dances at their own pace, but all circulate along the track in the opposite direction to the clock needles. Approaching the table to ask a woman if she wants to dance or not respect the sense of circulation here is frowned upon: it means breaking in force for decades.
The American Wayne Campbell, 48, landed on Friday from Houston to spend a week in Buenos Aires. In five days he has gone to see the World Cup and has already been in twelve different milongas, as the spaces in which tango is danced is known. From the kiss he plans to go to Belgrano’s roundabout, outdoors, and finish in the chip, a morning classic because he opens until four. Being a weekend I could continue in an after until after dawn.
“In tango I found a connection that I had never found elsewhere,” describes Campbell, a yoga professor. “It is my first time in Argentina, but I am sure I will return. How the Argentines hug, they are hugs that do not forget!, Predicted with future nostalgia before asking permission to change the talk for a dance.” I only have three days left here and Houston is more than 8,000 kilometers away, “is justified.
There are more than 350 milongas in Buenos Aires and each one is different. Part of his personality is contributed by the organizer or the organizer, who is the one who receives the guests. It controls that they go through the box if you have to pay admission, greet the usual ones, guide the new ones to somewhere free, ensure that everyone is comfortable and a half in case of conflict. Even in the same dance hall, according to the organizer, the public changes. There are milongas with strict and more relaxed codes; some in which the average age exceeds 60 years and others, in which it is half; those that bring live orchestras and organize dance exhibitions and those that avoid it; free milongas, with tickets ranging between 4 and 7 dollars and others “to the cap” in which each one pays what they want; some queer in which there are couples formed by two men or two women and alternate the roles, others that give rise to folklore and also those in which the Peronist march is sung, to give some examples of a very long list.
Fertile land for arrows
Paula Crosa is the organizer of the Milonga Perfume of Woman who works on Wednesdays on the kiss from two in the afternoon to eight at night. He comes from family: his mother organized the nightlife of the sitas, on the periphery of Buenos Aires, and it was there that he met his partner and co-organizer, Ricardo de la Cuadra. “It was a love story. We met in La Milonga and we never separated,” he recalls from the block. This fertile land for arrows resists the progress of virtuality and alters the order of the factors that impose the appointment apps: it is started by a hug danced and, then, between tango and tango, a first (and brief) talk arrives.
The usual make the milonga into their second home, with friends of years and even decades. “I danced from Monday to Monday, afternoon and night. Now I went down a little, but here I don’t miss, it’s my house,” says Robert, 74, while the tie knot that is in sight under the vest is touched. Only the pandemic stopped that passion to which he has dedicated half a life.
“The wonder is that you come to a party that is already armed,” Patricia takes over. “Someone organized it for you, thought about music, lights, brought drinks and you arrive, you pay a mode and find men who know how to dance,” continues this flirtatious woman who prefers not to say age or last name. Wear heeled shoes, black skirt, a stamped shirt and colorful pending and matching white necklace. Among those men who know how to dance are veteran milongueros and also five variators – or taxi dancers – hired by the organization so that no woman stays without dancing.
Almagro, Almagro of my life
You were the soul of my dreams …
How many moon and faith nights
To your amparo I knew how to love
Carlos Gardel sang to his neighborhood, Almagro, at the beginning of the 20th century. There, a hundred years later, on another moon night, the spicy and quarrelsome essence of the old tangos is still alive in Roberto’s bowling alley, where a crowd is crowded to listen to Juan Azar and David Gordon’s duo. In the nearby milongas of the Sanata Bar, at the Macedonia Cultural Center and in the Cathedral, the shirts tie the shirts, the jeans replace in many cases the dress pants and see women with heels, but also with dance shoes and comfortable boots. At the tables, beer, wine, laughs and confidences run. On the track, two women dance hugged.
In Sanata this Wednesday La Milonga with Fusa, to the cap and organized by the musician and Coach Nes Gutman. Sometimes it plays with his band, fierce tango, but most often he will take the stage with his classic guitar and touch at the request of the public, which can choose them from a menu. Chance, playful goblin, causes Crazy luckby Roberto Goyeneche, sounds twice.
“I studied day and danced at night”
The only foreigner in Sanata that night is the Italian Manuela Bragagnaro. This young historian came with a scholarship from the University of La Plata in 2022 and fell in love with Buenos Aires nights. “I studied by day and danced at night,” he recalls about the frenzy of that first stay, to which he has followed four more. “This time I came for three weeks and they are not enough,” he admits, while a couple’s feet continue with his eyes. Take classes and then dance in milongas, a common practice for both beginners, intermediate and for those who seek excellence with the intention of making a living with this dance. During the festival, the best teachers in the world offer free classes, you just have to be fast to reserve place when the quotas open.
850 couples in the Tango World Cup
Winning the World Cup is a passport that opens the doors of any country. This year, 850 couples around the world compete for the top of the podium in two categories: Tango Track, with a style similar to that dances in the rooms, and tango scenario, designed for the exhibition. The previous reasons to go out to dance could not be more different from those lived in the milongas. The qualifying rounds begin at noon. In the tour that the country made for the dressing rooms, the dancers are tense and concentrated. They do heating exercises, the choreography rehearse for the umpteenth time, they help the partner to fasten the dress if they need it and approach the poster every few minutes to see how many partners they have ahead before they go on stage.
The Chilean marriage Héctor Tobar and Yael Toporowicz won in his native country and directly classified the quarterfinals of Tango stage, but believes that there is an abyss between the level in Chile and on the other side of the Andes mountain range. “It is difficult to classify because the technical level of Argentines is very high,” admits Tobar. But even within Argentina there are great differences: Buenos Aires is not the same, where there are classes from eleven o’clock in the morning to eleven o’clock at night, than the rest of the country. Two of the youngest dancers of the competition, Ignacio Fonseca, 21, and Julieta Yanes, 23, from the distant Río Gallegos, 3,000 kilometers south of the capital, know it well. “It takes a long time to get the information about the new fashions of tango, which always arise in Buenos Aires,” they tell and give as an example that this time they have seen an increase in speed in dance.
The Italian Matteo Antonietti, 36, competes for the sixth time in the World Cup, but this is the first to do so with Argentina Añes Arredondo, 22, his partner on the track and in real life. “It is very difficult to separate things,” confesses Antonietti, telling that there are many hours of classes, essays and trips together. Despite his young age, Arredondo part with advantage, because tango is in his memories since I was a child: “When I was a baby my dad sang me tangos and my grandfather also sang.” It is in its DNA, as it is in the streets of Buenos Aires.
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