Tango Queer, Centro Popular de la Boca Norberto y Arrigo Todesda and La Milonga del Gordo

Tuesday night, I went to Tango Queer for the second time. The first time, there didn’t appear to be any beginners at the start of the class and I felt somewhat intimidated by the fact that most of the women appeard to be confident leaders. This time, there was a beginners’ class, but I feared it might be too beginnerish for me, so I put myself in the other one. The teacher, believing she was acting in my best interests, partnered me with an English speaker, who was an adequate dancer and whose leading level was higher than mine, but who retracted her drawbridge, now she was safely over on the other side. After the first tango, she whispered in the assistant’s ear and I was carted off to a different dancer, an Argentinian woman who, thankfully, didn’t speak English and who was a much more stylish dancer. Whilst I can understand preferring to dance with people your own level at a milonga, I hope that I shall never forget what it’s like to be a beginner, in a tango class.

It was a useful lesson and I wish I had made notes, so I could practise what we learned in the days that followed, but I didn’t and it’s all gone. I stayed on for the milonga and later, my lovely flatmate Gesa turned up. She is divine to dance with and I shall forever be indebted to her for dancing with me again and again, during the milonga, and introducing me to Soledad, who is now my guru. I have discovered that dancing with women who can lead well feels every bit as wonderful as dancing with a good male lead, but there is an indescribable difference at a visceral level and I love them both in different ways.

Soledad teaches the beginners’ class at Tango Queer and also runs a Friday night class at the Centro Popular de la Boca Norberto y Arrigo Todesca, a cultural centre that was started by the Todesca brothers in the 1930’s, providing free or a la gorra workshops in a variety of arts to the people of La Boca, which it continues to do, to this day. She is a remarkably charismatic woman with an unconventional, yet unmistakeable beauty. She studied at the University of Tango and passionately enjoys teaching it. She encourages role switching in her classes, which suits me down to the ground. When I went, I had the opportunity to dance with complete beginners as well as some of her more experienced students and I learned a huge amount in a short space of time. These days, the learning curve is so steep, I feel like attending fewer lessons and spending more time at home, practising in front of the mirror with my notes.

After the lesson, we sat around at the centre, drinking beer and munching crisps and in my case, also drinking in my surroundings and stroking Felipe (Philip, the cat.) We were just around the corner from La Boca’s football grounds and we could hear them drumming in the distance. The centre is in a century old run-down building on Pinzón, on a stretch of the street with broken street lights, which made it really hard to find. I have heard it said that La Boca is best avoided at night, but on this occasion, I found the boys in the street charming and willing to go out of their way to help me find the place. Soledad’s students were all Argentinians, mostly young people from the barrio, and I felt privileged to be the only exception.

The big, old rooms where the lesson was held were irregular in shape and had high ceilings, hung with overhead fans and jute lampshades that looked as if they grew there. The furniture and fixtures were an eccentric mishmash of styles: bourgeois antique furniture (upholstered chairs and a vast, ornate dresser,) cheap formica topped tables and plastic chairs, prints of Picasso’s Guerníca and a hunting scene, a small exhibition in glass cases about the Todesca brothers and a Todesca painting or two. There was a papier maché clock that looked like an octopus and a mirror hung diagonally, possibly by accident. We cleared the floor before the class and restored it before leaving to head off for a milonga.

Although advertised in the Tangauta, I had never noticed La Milonga del Gordo, which I understand has only just relocated to a marvellous, new location on Defensa, very near Parque Lezama and just around the corner from Torcuato Tasso. It is a superb venue with two leafy, open spaces, one with tables for drinking at the outdoor bar and a softly lit, medium-sized club room where the milonga takes place, with tango art on every wall, a sunken dance floor, a stage area and tables and chairs around two sides of the room. I liked it a lot.

I danced with one of the beginners, to give him courage. It was quiet for the first hour after that, but as soon as Soledad danced with me, and she is a dream to dance with, I got to dance with the host and a number of other people. I had a great time. Rosa was there too and we had a little natter. We left around 05:30 and the others went on to have coffee at a street café, but I was ready for bed.