Reality Tour, South America: Taking in a Show

After our Porteños city tour yesterday, we had the afternoon and evening free! As much as I enjoy the guided parts on tour (where else can you learn so much covering so much ground in such a short time), the free time is exciting because you have a chance to see things that interest you. Some will always choose to shop, others might visit a museum, and others will just walk the barrios and soak up the local atmosphere.

Deb and I did a bit of both. We ate like locals at a place that Kevin knew of near the hotel and did some shopping—I bought a leather purse; Debbie, a leather jacket. Armed with postcards, magnets and other essential junk to lug home, we then opted to go to an authentic tango salon (milonga) with Kevin, our tour manager, who was accompanying one of our passengers. Throughout the tour, Maggie had expressed interest in seeing the tango performed; and although our farewell dinner this evening includes a tango lesson and dance performance, this was an opportunity to see the locals dance their melancholy away in a less Broadway-like setting.

The salon that Kevin found for us could have been a VFW hall but its one open room on the second floor of a non-descript building did feel authentic. Small round tables were set around a large dance floor and an equally large bar anchored the back wall. The music was loud and alluring; tango music usually involves a piano and bandoneón (something like an accordion). There were very few patrons being the middle of the afternoon but there was a young couple and a much older couple who were quite good although their styles were very different. Don’t worry, Kevin, we won’t post the video of you doing the tango!

 

A bit about the tango

When most people think of Argentina, the tango comes to mind. How it began is generally believed to be by African slaves who were brought to Argentina in the mid-1800s. Later, massive immigration brought about a melting pot of cultures including African, Spanish, Italian, British and native-born Argentines with each borrowing dance and music from one another.

Tango originated in brothels and was deemed unacceptable even for “working” women. It was danced mostly by poor men as I way to express their loneliness over loved ones left behind in Europe. The global spread of the tango came in the early 1900s when wealthy sons of Argentine society families (who apparently weren’t averse to slumming it once in a while) introduced the dance to Paris and by 1913; the tango had become an international sensation in Paris and New York. The Argentine elite now began to accept the tango with a sense of national pride.

Does it take two to tango?

The dance itself is improvised based on a series of long walks, heartfelt turns, dramatic stops and little embellishments that I find myself looking forward to as they are what contribute to the excitement and unpredictability of the experience. Even though dancers follow certain conventions like dancing counterclockwise around the floor in typically an eight-step format, women and men bring their own unique style. Because both partners contribute their own embellishments, it really is a dance made for two. We can’t wait to see how we tango tonight (there are less than a handful of men in our group), but first we’re off to la Pampa region…

~Melissa



posted by Melissa McKee

Collette Vacations

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