Category Archives: Buenos Aires

Buenos Aires, Milonga, Private lesson, Tango

Feeling like a tango god or tango toddler; rarely anything between the two

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This city can make me feel like a tango god. When I get the right milonga, the right atmosphere, the right music, the right follower, the right floorcraft … when everything flows effortlessly, my partner and I reading each other perfectly, and I feel like I own the floor.

It can also make me feel like a tango toddler. When I’m at a milonga where the music is relentlessly fast, where everyone is spinning in high-speed circles, and I wonder what the hell I would do even if someone was looking in my direction …

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Buenos Aires, Milonga, Not Tango, Tango

A dangerous visit to Perfume de Mujer at El Beso; go to dinner with Ale, but never travel with her!

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A tango lesson we all learn rather early is that there are never any guarantees. You can go to the same milonga in the same place with the same DJ – even dance with some of the same people – and have wildly different experiences on different occasions.

While our head may know this, however, it can still prove difficult to convince our heart that we haven’t found the secret formula …

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Buenos Aires, Thoughts

Two-tier pricing controversy: One milonga entry fee for residents, a higher one for foreign visitors

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This was originally part of another blog post, but as there have been a number of developments, and it’s turning into something of a major source of contention between milonga organisers, I’ve now separated it into its own post.

I’ll begin with the background; then the various developments; offer my own thoughts (and sums); and share an opposing view from a friend …

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Buenos Aires, Milonga, Tango

A tale of two milongas: Muy Lunes, with one success; and a perfect Champagne Tango Club

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Given that Alessandra and I generally enjoy different milongas here, it may say something that we were both in agreement on the most recent additions to the list: Muy Lunes at La Comedia, and the Champagne Tango Club at El Beso.

The former was a nice atmosphere, and we both had a good sociable evening, but virtually none of the music appealed. The latter was a complete contrast music-wise, and was for me that rarest of tango species: an absolutely perfect milonga …

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Buenos Aires, Milonga, Tango

Sans Souci lacking the king of sound engineering; a few tandas at La Comedia; and bed at 6am

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Being Argentina, there are some complications around time. The country is located at a longitude that would properly put it either four or five hours behind GMT. But the place decided to temporally relocate itself some considerable distance to the east, and have a time zone just three hours behind.

Additionally, Argentina may or may not observe daylight saving time, depending how it feels. The national government decides this on a year-by-year basis, perhaps by rolling dice or flipping coins – but, either way, individual provinces are free to either go along with that year’s result, or adopt their own daylight savings policy …

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Buenos Aires, Milonga, Tango

The fickleness of tango finally shows up: An empty Parakultural, and a dancing desert at Pipí Cucú

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It had to happen at some point. Tango wouldn’t be tango without the downs as well as the ups, and my stay had been so amazing to date, it was inevitable the tango gods would eventually notice they hadn’t had their fun with me for a while.

It had seemed like a promising night: the reliability of midnight to 2am-ish at Parakultural, followed by the fun of trying out a new milonga at Pipí Cucú from 2am-ish to 4am …

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Buenos Aires, Milonga, Not Tango, Tango

A sleep-deprived mistake turning into a wonderful surprise, at Milonga en lo de Balmaceda

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Diego has been encouraging me to cabeceo more and more advanced followers, and I have been doing this – very happily here, and with a little more trepidation in London. I did, however, draw the line at teachers and performers.

Until last night, when I danced with at least two, and I suspect more. Entirely by mistake, mind, but hey …

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Buenos Aires, Milonga, Private lesson, Tango

An Argentine embrace, and a wonderful night at Muy Martes and Parakultural

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I have a dozen identical white linen shirts, which you might think sounds like a lot. But given that I generally need a change of shirt during a milonga, and am sometimes doing two milongas a day, dropping and collecting laundry is a regular task.

The hours of my local laundry are clearly shown as 11am to 9pm. Of course, this being Argentina, that doesn’t mean 11am to 9pm. It means ‘We do, broadly speaking, have the general ambition of operating hours which may perhaps bear some resemblance to these. Oh, and we may randomly close for half an hour to an hour at any point.’ Which explains this sign when I got there at 5pm …

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Buenos Aires, Milonga, Tango

Discovering the downside of my new-found friendship with D’Arienzo, at Los Domingos and La Lucy

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Life has been pretty stressful of late, so one of my goals for this trip was a take a more relaxed approach to my stay. Instead of spending all my time zipping from milonga to milonga, to dial things down, and focus on quality over quantity. Also, to curb my FOMO and feel relaxed about re-visiting milongas I know I love, as well as exploring a few new ones. Oh, and get some sleep!

I’ve been … somewhat successful at this, mostly sticking to one milonga per day, and taking some downtime just to rest and relax at home. However, I discovered that making friends with D’Arienzo has had one downside …

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Buenos Aires, Group class, Milonga, Tango

Cafe Tortoni; Pablo & Noelia class; and a sociable night at Bilongón

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I was awake and out of bed at the crack of noon, as I had a packed afternoon schedule ahead of me: drinking a hot chocolate at Cafe Tortoni, one of the city’s Grand Cafes.

While most of the city virtually defines ‘faded grandeur,’ there’s nothing faded about the grand cafes. They’ve been beautifully maintained or restored, and the impressive settings leads to queues of people at the door …

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