Get a Flight Credit worth up to If you like to dance, try out Tango during your trip to Argentina. One thing Argentina is known for is Tango, and I had the great luck to be able to take a tango class at the University of Belgrano, which is where I study here, and go to a tango show with CEA!
Tango is the national dance of Argentina. Every year in August there is big tango festival in Buenos Aires. The first week I came to Buenos Aires, I walked down Florida Street and saw dancers giving an informal tango show in the street!
The tango class I am taking is a basic class, and no way will I ever be able to compete with the dancers at the tango show I saw with the CEA program. The show we saw was a dinner show that lasted about two and a half hours. The show had a live band, tango (of course), and singers. The dinner was great and the atmosphere of the restaurant was fantastic. The restaurant is called “La esquina de Homero Manzi” and it is located on the traditional corner of San Juan and Boedo.
Here are two photos from the show:
San Telmo is Buenos Aires’s barrio (neighborhood) known for tango, but all through the city there are milongas. A milonga is a place for people to go to specifically dance tango. Many milongas have reasonably priced entry fees, about 30-50 pesos. This includes tango classes beforehand and then afterwards the dance floor opens up for everyone to dance and have a good time. The milongas are generally situated with a circular dance floor in the middle with tables around the edges.
Even though I could never dance as well as the tango dancers from the show I saw, I think I could possibly hold my own at a milonga. The tango class I am taking is once a week for an hour and 30 minutes. Each student learns the mens and womens tango parts. Paso básico, ocho adelante, ocho atras are some of the tango moves I have so far learned. I only have 2 weeks left in Buenos Aires, and going to a milonga is currently on my Buenos Aires bucket list!
Plan on trying out a milonga? Here is a helpful hint. When you give someone eye contact from across the room that means you want to dance with them. If someone gives you eye contact and you do not want to dance with them, look away. This is the standard norm of the milonga, so that people know who wants to dance with whom.
Interested in seeing a tango demonstration? Well I danced one for you! Just kidding here is a video from the Tango show I saw. Trust me you would rather see them perform that me. Enjoy :)
Have fun tango dancing the night away!
- Chau Chau
Maya Sykes is the Fall 2013 CEA MOJO in Buenos Aires, Argentina. She is currently a junior at the University of Oklahoma.
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