Random Acts of Tango

I call them tango outbursts. If you’ve never been to Buenos Aires you likely imagine that people there spontaneously dance tango in the streets, the parks, the cafes and even while waiting in the check-out line at the grocery store. They don’t. I have never seen anyone dance tango anywhere other than a prescribed location at a specific time. You do see tangueros in the streets performing for tourist dollars – not because they are struck by the passion of the moment, the beauty of the music heard in a restaurant, or while walking by a music store.

So far, it’s only happened to me twice. Once on the sidewalk after a class – trying to work out the move we just learned and once in an ice-cream shop unable to resist the music being played. That’s not near enough – I’d like it happen a lot more. You have to be walking with, or at least within close proximity to, a willing partner when the mood strikes.

He calls it guerrilla tango. In his hometown the email or text message would go out to the tango community, the sender would bring a boom box, and the group would gather within the hour at a central public location and dance. This shakes up an otherwise monotonous workday.

In BA this kind of subversive activity would not only be tolerated, but encouraged. Elsewhere, I’m guessing, there would be rolls of red tape: necessary permits, public safety issues, liability insurance, people’s sense of propriety and all kinds of other bureaucratic bulllshit – not to mention – people’s internal barriers. Unless we take them by surprise, dance without permission and be gone before the authorities ever arrive.

Let’s give it a try. Let’s meet in the Devonian Gardens – or – whatever the appropriate (or inappropriate!) public central location is in your city – and let’s perform random acts of Tango.

Let’s make a New Year’s resolution: everyday, everywhere, whenever the mood strikes us – DANCE. And maybe, if we remember to hold each other close, shut up and just move to the music, we can stop the fighting.

Is There a Tango Mafia?

As of this week the Buenos Aires Club (Peru 571) has been deemed “unfit for tango” and permanently closed. There was no official Health Inspector’s notification on the door – only a handwritten notice from Mariana saying that Tango Queer has moved to a new location at Perón 2450 (La Capilla). According to El Afronte’s website they have suspended both Bendita and Maldita Milongas. That leaves a huge void in the San Telmo area for dancing tango in the first half of the week.

What exactly does “unfit for tango” mean? It’s true that the wooden floor could be detrimental to those in spiky heels but for the most part, Peru 571 was a very casual venue where most dancers wore flat shoes. Is the building a fire hazard? Are the kitchen and bathrooms unsantiary? Or, were these milongas taking precious tango tourist dollars away from other milongas? If any of those is true, I can assure you that there are other venues that will be, or should be, shut down.

After the Cro-Magnon fire in 2004 all dance venues were closed. Some never reopened. Although Club Español somehow miraculously stayed open during that time, the popular venue has since closed its doors. Other milongas have been ‘frozen’ in the past until money gets put into the right hands. Confiteria Ideal remains “scandalously dilapidated” even after a huge financial infusion by the government to spruce up the historic building went mysteriously missing. I’m sure there are many more stories like this that I, an outsider, am not privy to.

Tango is big business in Buenos Aires. With the current global economic crunch only the most dedicated tangueros are making their annual pilgrimage to the southern milonga circuit. The organizers are suffering from the lack of tourist dollars and it seems it might be time to get mean.

UPDATE: Within less than a week enough money went into the right hands and Peru 571 will reopen Monday, Dec. 21. Even without renovations – 10,000 pesos apparently makes the Buenos Aires Club now fit for Tango.