Monday El Maipú milonga moves from Plaza Bohemia to La Nacional

Following on from my last update on the subject of the closure of the venue Plaza Bohemia at Maipú 444, I have news that the Monday milonga El Maipú (organised by Dany and Lucy) has a new home from today, Monday 7th February, at La Nacional, Alsina 1465 (first floor), in the barrio of Monserrat. You can see the confirmation at the website

lanacionaltangos.blogspot.com.

The milonga runs from 6pm to 11pm, and reservations should be made by calling 15-5317-0257.

La Nacional had just been renovated when I wrote Happy Tango and milongas were only just re-opening there; I gave it a brief mention in 10 More Places to Explore, on page 151, but perhaps it will need to be one of my 20 Places to Try First in the second edition of the book (planned for 2012).

La Nacional (the Club Italiano) is an historic building well-suited to Traditional-style tango of the type offered by the El Maipú milonga, and absolutely worth visiting at least once, whether you dance or not. The dance floor is of hard wood and can be a bit slippery (dusty), so you might want to wear suede rather than leather soles. The space is not as intimate as Plaza Bohemia. The salon is bigger and quite long and arrow, has a higher ceiling and can be pretty chilly even in summer (due to mega-strong aircon) so take a wrap, ladies, just in case you get seated in an icy blast. I often wonder about the ghosts in La Nacional, as the place can feel a little cold to me in other ways; while you are sitting out a tanda or visiting the restrooms, see if you can sense a spooky energy seeping from the nooks and crannies and hooking you back into times past.

Do stop outside in the street before you go in and stare at the stunningly beautiful entrance. It’s art nouveau and pretty impressive. I like the staircase too, makes me feel grand. In a way, it will be great news for keeping the historic buildings of Buenos Aires alive, if this venue gets filled with the buzzing energy of more milongas in 2011.

La Nacional is in Monserrat, on Alsina between Luis S. Peña and San José, and the zone can feel a little edgy and deserted after dark. But it’s very close to Plaza Congreso where it is really easy to get a taxi; turn right out of the venue on Alsina and take first right down Luis S. Peña and walk one block to the Plaza. The 60 bus also travels back into the city down S. Peña, so that’s a possibility for those who want to bus it in the direction of Barrio Norte, Recoleta and Palermo.

There’s no doubt that I’m feeling a bit sad at the closure of Plaza Bohemia, Maipú 444, and I am kinda wishing that perhaps it has not disappeared from our Buenos Aires ‘milonga map’ forever. But meanwhile, let’s support the Plaza Bohemia milongas as they embrace change and move into fresh spaces. More as I hear it.

Big thanks to the super-knowledgeable-on-all-things-tango-BsAs Rachel and Eduardo at TangoTaxiDancers for letting me know about the El Maipú move to La Nacional.

Buy Happy Tango online and start planning your tango adventure to Buenos Aires, today!

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Please buy before travelling, as Happy Tango is not generally available in Buenos Aires.