Milongas - Where to Dance Tango in Buenos Aires

Milonga - that is the keyword to use when looking for a good way to learn Tango in Buenos Aires. Milongas are basically all-night Tango dance parties that are usually prefixed with a Tango lesson.

It's been way too long since I've been to a dance studio. I'm obsessed with dancing and I haven't had my fix for about a month.

Now that I'm in Buenos Aires, the Tango capital of the world, I knew that I could get into a good dance studio and learn me some Argentine Tango (which they just call "Tango" here).

The Milonga that I went to was held at a dance studio called La Viruta. That place was hopping - full of locals and foreigners alike.

I have been to tons of ballroom dance parties in Kentucky, Michigan, Nevada, and all over the States and they are all pretty much the same. Don't get me wrong, they're awesome, but they all have the same format and the same type of people that go to them. Mainly middle-aged to old people who like to dance a good, easy-going Foxtrot. Boo-erns.

Not so with Milongas in Buenos Aires. Here's a few ways in which Milongas are different from ballroom dance parties in the States:

1) There are actually young people there.
This is a very strange concept to ballroom dance parties in the States. The most young people (20-30 years old) that I've seen at a ballroom dance party in the States at one time was about 10 - and that's really rare. These Milongas are PACKED with young people.

2) It's big business.
Most dance studios in the States are just barely hanging in there financially. In Buenos Aires, dance studios are money-making machines.

As I write this, I'm sitting in a McDonalds that's located in the "Times Square" of Buenos Aires. I'm looking out the window across the street and I see huge metal letters that spell the word TANGO. A dance studio located in a the most prime real estate in the country. Wow.

3) It's all in Spanish...
...and half of the people there speak some other language.

4) The ladies - holy crap.
Yeah. To say that the young Argentinean ladies at these Milongas are beautiful would be lying. They are drop-dead gorgeous. No, seriously. I had to pinch myself to make sure I wasn't dreaming - gorgeous young ladies who actually like to dance? Yeah, they exist in the Sates too, but a whole room full of them! Dude.

I even got to dance a West Coast Swing with some chick from France who didn't know the dance, but was able to follow my lead.

There shall be more Milongas my friend, oh yes, more Milongas indeed.

Comments