Tango, Tango, Tango!

When in Buenos Aires, the tango capitol of the world, one must go to a tango show. So we are told. I had actually forgotten about the prospect of a tango show until Justin asked me which night we should go… So, with the help of Trip Advisor and online discounts, we booked a tango show for Saturday night. Now, this isn't just any tango show. Included in the price of the tickets were taxis to and from the venue, a one-hour introduction to tango class, dinner, and the show. Yep, our tango adventure lasted about six hours!

When we arrived at Complejo Tango, we were crammed into a tiny dance studio with about 100 other tourists. We were pretty much the last ones to arrive, so the lesson started about 5 minutes after we got there. Our maestra was hilarious, and split us up into boys and girls to learn the basic tango steps. Because there were so many people in the tiny, steamy room, we couldn't all dance together. It was very entertaining to watch others learn to tango, and I'm sure people thought the same thing about us! But we made it through the lesson with lots of laughs and no injuries, and we had worked up an appetite in the process. By the end of the lesson, we knew how to do a very basic tango (notice that I did not say we were good at it…) and we had mastered our “tango faces”. This is the face you make when you do a tango pose; it's supposed to be a sexy, sultry, come-hither face, but it morphed into more of a blue steel / what's the smell / try really hard not to laugh face. Very entertaining. And we got certificates! I guess our masetra thought we were good enough to pass, despite my doubts.

Next on the agenda was dinner. We were herded from the dance studio into the tango hall. One of the reasons we booked this tango show was the size: only about 120 people can fit into the hall, so it's much smaller and more intimate than a lot of the stadium-style seating tango shows. We were shown to our table and thought, there must be a mistake: we didn't pay the extra money for the premium seats! We were seated at a table for two, literally at the foot of the stage. If we stuck our arms out too far or put our wine glasses to close to the stage, we could have lost some fingers or stained our good clothes! Apparently, there was no mistake, and we enjoyed dinner and the show from some of the best seats in the house.

Dinner was edible, but nothing remarkable, so I will spare you the details. The tango show, on the other hand, was definitely remarkable. There was a full band, two singers, three male and three female dancers. The tango show took us through the different eras of tango, from 1900 to the present, with different costumes, styles of dance, and music for each act. It was great! Each dancing act was separated by a musical number, and while entertaining, these were more filler. One number involved a very convincing drunk singer, and that was quite entertaining.

The tango was wonderful. The dancers so talented, and being so close to the stage made it a very memorable experience. I mean, we could smell the sweat! I know, kind of gross, but that's how close we were. We could also see the facial expressions clearly and enjoyed both the seriousness and the humor the dancers brought to the show. At one point, the dancers all went through the audience and picked people to dance the tango with! Our maestra (who was one of the performers in the show) made Justin get up and dance with her. Although his face was bright red, he had every step right and a big grin when he sat back down after the ordeal was over.

The tango show was probably the most quintessentially touristy thing we've done on this trip, but it was so much fun. Highly recommended: the dancers were great, the food was fine, the wine flowed, and the live music was the perfect accompaniment. And now, we can tango! Sort of…

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