La Viruta

I went home last night after a dance class, had some food, chilled out on my terraza, had a nap then got up and got ready to go out at 3.00 am. Can you imagine doing that in London? I danced from 3.30 till 6 a.m., went to a café in Barrio Norte for some coffee and conversation and finally got to bed at 7.30 a.m. It's a hard life!

On Friday nights, people pour out of Canning, which closes around 3.00 a.m. and head for nearby La Viruta, for a moratorium on beddy-byes, for a few more hours of tango. And not just tango. Today, while I was there, there was also chacarera and rock. I'd been meaning to go to La Viruta for some time. I had come across it in the lyrics of a tango and the venue had also been mentioned to me in the context of dancing salsa.

When I arrived, there was a band playing and I sat alone at the front at a table marked Reserved, though not for me. I immediately recognised the double-bass player as someone I had danced with one evening at Negracha, in London and when I saw there were six musicians in the band, I knew I was not mistaken, as I frequently am. It was none other than the Sexteto Milonguero, one of the most popular bands in Buenos Aires. I went up to say hello, when they stopped playing and no, he didn't recognise me. For a splinter of a second, I saw an omelette on my face. Then I mentioned Negracha and he remembered and was sweet. Phew! A moment later, a couple of guys I had danced with in Cochabamba came up to greet me and I was absorbed into the milonga. I danced with lots of lovely people. The demon dancer was there. We didn't dance. He danced beside us: See what you are missing, girl. I think it's called an entente cordiale. That story is on hold. Faces from other classes. Everybody in high spirits, smiling at familiar faces across the crowd. Moments of intensity. And finally, the Cumparsita. This is how I imagine Judgement Day. It's when you find out you have been in heaven all along. Only you didn't know it. Not unless you ran away to Buenos Aires for a sneak preview. The milonga is heaven on earth.