La Milonguita

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El Beso and La Milonguita SOHO

April 18, 2012

Happy Tango travellers, alas I am very sorry to report that El Beso, one of the most well-known tango venues in Buenos Aires (and one of Happy Tango’s 7 Traditional Places to Try First) closed it doors at the weekend, and as of today Wednesday 18th April, it remains closed. The exact reasons I do not know, but it seems it’s to do with permits and paperwork relating to the requirements of the city government. Naturally we are all hoping that the matter gets resolved and that El Beso opens its doors again prontísimo. Meanwhile no classes or milongas are being held in El Beso.

I will update this post as I hear more news of El Beso.

Update! For news of where the milongas are moving to, click here.

On a happier note, La Milonguita opens a new milonga on Wednesday nights, starting 7pm tonight 18th April, at Armenia 1353, Palermo. Its name is La Milonguita SOHO (not to be confused with Milonga SOHO, by different organisers, in Villa Malcolm on Thursdays). La Milonguita was forced to move from its original home in Centro Montañes (also due to various bureaucratic matters outside of its control) earlier this year, and happily it re-established itself in La Nacional on Sunday nights. How great to hear that there will now be both a Sunday night La Milonguita in La Nacional and a Wednesday night La Milonguita in Palermo! For full details see milonguitabaile.com.ar

So, changes are always afoot in Buenos Aires. I will continue to keep you informed here and on the book’s Facebook page of any that affect the content of Happy T. so you need never be out of date. A second edition of the book is in the making, but the majority of the content will not change; my advice remains the same, only some of the hard facts require an update.  I am hoping that both El Beso and La Milonguita will be a part of it!

Sallycat

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La Milonguita, Fruto Dulce in Villa Malcolm, Plaza Bohemia at Alsina 2540, and Taconeando tango shoes

February 2, 2012

This is a summary of a few recent changes to places mentioned in my book Happy Tango: Sallycat’s Guide to Dancing in Buenos Aires. Post updated 24th February to reflect a new home for La Milonguita.

If you want these updates faster than I post them here on the Updates Blog, please join the Happy Tango Facebook Page or visit it regularly; I post things there as soon as I hear of them. These Updates Blog posts tend to come a little later when I have enough news to warrant a full article.

There’s another reason to click the ‘Like’ button on the Facebook page. This blog is for updates to the content of Happy Tango. On the Facebook page I also post news of events in Buenos Aires and of places that aren’t in Happy Tango; so, if you want even more than I offer you in the book, you will find it at facebook.com/happytango, and to get the status updates direct to your Facebook feed you need to ‘Like’ the page.

So, here’s my latest round up of updates at the beginning of February 2012.

La Milonguita (Sundays, page 138 of Happy T.) has a new home! Find this Traditional-style milonga in La Nacional at Alsina 1465, 1st Floor from Sunday 19th February 2012, start time 8pm till the early hours. It is no longer being held in Centro Montanés; don’t travel there for tango. Keep in touch with La Milonguita on Facebook here and at their website here.

Fruto Dulce Tangos is the new and very popular Informal-style* milonga in Club Villa Malcolm on Wednesday nights (replacing TangoLab, mentioned on p143 of Happy T. and which left Villa Malcolm some time ago).

I can’t help loving the Fruto Dulce Tangos brand image of sweet and delicious looking fruits. I have visited the milonga and I think it would be a great place to go with a few friends, or perhaps in a couple as it definitely has a romantic air… low (and disco-style from time to time) lighting. I thought the music seemed a rather romantic selection too, though that may just have reflected my mood, so go with an open mind! Dress is smartish and there is usually a dance exhibition later in the night. You can snack on pizza and the like from the Malcolm kitchen; because the floor is hard-tile not springy-wood you could need a pick-me-up to power your tired feet. Fruto Dulce Tangos have a Facebook page where they publish their events.

Fruto Dulce in Club Villa Malcolm

The new Plaza Bohemia at Alsina 2540 is gradually filling all the nights of the week with milongas and other dance events. Of the milongas mentioned in Happy Tango, Sentimental y Coqueta (Tuesday from 6pm) and Lujos (Sunday from 6.30pm) – both Traditional-style*, are gaining in popularity in this venue. Find out what’s happening on each night here at the venue’s website, and there are also lots of photos to give you an idea of what to expect.

Finally, if you are tango-shoe shopping for ladies shoes and want to visit Taconeando, their showroom has moved from Arenales Street in Recoleta to Avenida Cordoba 4030 on the edge of Palermo. Their website still has the Arenales address (today 2nd February) so perhaps it’s best to friend Taconeando Zapatos de Tango on Facebook for the latest news.

Taconeando advert

I do hope that Happy Tango is continuing to bring you many Happy Tangos in Buenos Aires. Certainly it was wonderful to read the recent blog post from tango dancer and teacher Kamila Lukaszewicz at kamilastangoembrace.blogspot.com and to meet her and hear first hand how useful she has found Happy Tango to be. Kamila is using the book in Buenos Aires right now!

If my book Happy Tango has helped you, please pass word of it on to other tango dancers. You could leave a great review on Amazon here or here. You could contact me, via the Contact Us button on this page, for some Happy Tango postcards to display in your tango community. You could share this website or the book’s Facebook page. Any one of those would be absolutely great! Do tell people too that updates are regularly published here and on Facebook too, so the book never really goes out of date. There will be a second edition of the book in due course, but that will inevitably need updates too. That’s guide books for you, eh?

Thank you all for your support and wishing you joy always!

Sallycat

*For my definitions of Traditional and Informal, read Happy Tango. In the book, I define and use three broad categories in an attempt to guide visitors to the venues, milongas and prácticas in Buenos Aires that are most likely to be some of their ‘tango homes’.

Buy the guide book for tango dancers Happy Tango: Sallycat’s Guide to Dancing in Buenos Aires,and start planning your tango adventure in Buenos Aires, today!

Click a link to buy Happy Tango from:
amazon.co.uk
amazon.com
amazon.ca
barnesandnoble.com
BookDepository.co.uk
BookDepository.com

If you’re in the UK and need the book faster than the online stores can do it, or you’re already in Buenos Aires, use the Contact Us button and we’ll do our best to help.

ISBN: 9780956530608
Author: Sally Blake
Published by: Pirotta Press Ltd
Publication date: 30 June 2010

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Christmas and New Year Tango in Buenos Aires 2011/2012

December 23, 2011

Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day fall on Saturdays and Sundays this year. If you’re visiting town over the festive period, and using Happy Tango as your guide, here are a few places from the book that are promising Christmas and/or New Year tango (but with some adjustments from their normal routine), plus some definite closures.

Remember that public transport and taxi availability will be reduced, especially on 24th and 31st (the nights of the traditional family meals and celebrations in Argentina), so you might end up having to walk a bit further than usual; do take care as you go.

Make a phone call or check the organiser’s website before setting out, to avoid disappointment!

In my Traditional* category:

La Milonguita (milonguitabaile.com.ar)— Sundays 25th and 1st open for dancing from 8pm, but in Club Sunderland and not in its usual venue Centro Montañés which is closed.

Sueño Porteño (clubdetango.blogia.com) — Open on Sunday 25th, for a specially themed milonga “ROJO” – you are invited to wear red. As far as I know, also open on Sunday 1st January. In the same venue, Boedo Tango will be open on New Year’s Eve Saturday 31st for a special dinner with dancing to “todo los ritmos (all rhythms)”, for more details see their website boedotangoresto.com.ar here.

Plaza Bohemia (plazabohemia.net in its new location at Alsina 2540) — Open for a special dinner on 31st December, telephone number for reservations in the photo below:

Club Gricel (clubgriceltango.com.ar) is open on Sunday 25th December.

Cachirulo — Saturdays 24th and 31st (Villa Malcolm), CLOSED.

In my Informal* category

La Viruta (lavirutatango.com), Armenia 1366 — Saturdays 24th and 31st, offering a book-in-advance “Tenedor Libre (All you can eat buffet)” in La Viruta, details in Spanish here. Begins at 8.30pm with welcome drink. At 1am doors open to everyone else for a night of dancing. For dancing tango on the Saturday night of Christmas Eve 24th into Christmas Day 25th, La Viruta may be the only option. If I hear of others I will add them, of course.

Milonga10 (facebook.com/MILONGA10) in Club Fulgor de Villa Crespo, Loyola 828 — Saturday 24th and Saturday 31st CLOSED.

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*For my definitions of Traditional and Informal, read Happy Tango. In the book, I define and use three broad categories in an attempt to guide visitors to the venues, milongas and prácticas in Buenos Aires that are most likely to be some of their ‘tango homes’.

.

Buy the guide book for tango dancers Happy Tango: Sallycat’s Guide to Dancing in Buenos Aires,and start planning your tango adventure in Buenos Aires, today!

Click a link to buy Happy Tango from:
amazon.co.uk
amazon.com
amazon.ca
barnesandnoble.com
BookDepository.co.uk
BookDepository.com

If you’re in the UK and need the book faster than the online stores can do it, or you’re already in Buenos Aires, use the Contact Us button and we’ll do our best to help.

ISBN: 9780956530608
Author: Sally Blake
Published by: Pirotta Press Ltd
Publication date: 30 June 2010

Join the book’s Facebook page for all these Happy Tango updates from Buenos Aires direct to your Facebook feed; click here and then click ‘Like’.

If you’ve enjoyed reading Happy Tango, please recommend it to someone else who would enjoy it too. Thank you!

Maipú 444 milongas (El Maipú, La Marshall, Cachirulo, Sentimental y Coqueta and Lujos) plus a word on La Milonguita in Centro Montanés

February 24, 2011

***Updated 21 April 2011 to reflect recent changes***

A Happy Tango reader comments on the Happy Tango Facebook page,

I feel sick to my stomach and heartbroken. My favorite venue has closed and I never gave it a proper goodbye.

And I reply,

Neither did I. Just breezed out of there after some incredibly intense tango with some of my fave dance partners, changing my shoes and laughing with my girlfriend in the ladies, kissing the organisers and saying I’d see them in 5 weeks (UK trip), winking at the last man I danced with (very naughty), letting the dark curtain fall back behind me, chattering excitedly as I clomped down the carpeted stairs towards my Monday night pizza… Maybe, giving the space my passion for tango on that last night was the best goodbye of all; it knows that it was loved by our tango hearts and perhaps it is good that there weren’t goodbye tears there, just joy and the energy of the music filling the air. I will be keeping my ear to the ground for its future and will let you know. Just so grateful to have danced there at all.

Me and C. dance merengue in Maipú

Yes, it seems that Maipú 444 (Plaza Bohemia, page 140 of Happy Tango) really has closed. Sold, and with no plans for tango there in the future. I’ll walk past when I’m back in Buenos Aires to pay my respects and whisper my thanks through the doorway and up the stairs that were climbed, over the years, by so many expectant tango-hearts and stepped down by so many tango-tired feet. I’ll tell you what I find there, but, until I’ve actually seen its locked door for myself, there’s a teeny part of me that won’t quite believe it’s over. Perhaps you feel the same.

Meanwhile, here is a quick summary of the state of play for the milongas that were most recently being hosted in the place so often fondly referred to as ‘Maipú’, and that now continue life somewhere new.

Monday: El Maipú has moved to La Nacional at Alsina 1465, first floor, in Monserrat (6pm-1am, reservations 1553170257).

Wednesday: La Marshall (gay-friendly, and featured on page 147 of Happy T.) moves to Club Independencia, first floor, Avenida Independencia 571/2 from Wednesday 2nd March; from April 2011, La Marshall no longer operates on a Saturday, instead they hold a Friday night class and milonga in El Beso, 416 Riobamba; see their Facebook page.

Saturday: Cachirulo moves to Club Villa Malcolm, Cordoba 5064, from Saturday 5th March and continues in El Beso on Tuesdays. You can see the Facebook status update from the organisers of Cachirulo confirming this, here, and you can see the ad for the new Saturday Cachirulo in Villa Malcolm on page 79 of the B.A. Tango magazine edition 206 (in PDF) here. This YouTube video, by Tango Zen Chan Park, showcases the inauguration of Cachirulo in Malcolm: Inauguración de Milonga Cachirulo en Club Villa Malcolm, el 5 de marzo 2011, by Tangozenhouse; you will see why it is always a good idea to reserve a seat at this popular milonga.

Lujos has no new home for Sundays yet, but continues in El Beso (as usual) on Thursdays, and Sentimental y Coqueta (previously Tuesdays) has no new home either.

Off the subject of the Maipú milongas, other little change to the milongas in Buenos Aires is that La Milonguita (Centro Montanés, page 138 of Happy T.) now only operates on Sundays, not Fridays; Sunday was perhaps always its most popular night, and can be packed; it has a strong local vibe, and unless you are arriving after midnight (when a few people start leaving), you’ll need to reserve. Stay in touch with La Milonguita, via the website milonguitabaile.com.ar. Rather splendidly La Milonguita hosted a contest to find the most bewitching piropos (compliments with touches of smarm and even a flash of thinly-veiled lust) in honour of Valentine’s Day 2011; if you speak Spanish, you can enjoy the fabulous entries and winners here. You can also see that I got a little mention for my excited enthusiasm for the event, here on Facebook. It’s so good to support ventures that seem to me to be absolutely in the spirit of ‘Happy Tango’. Centro Montanés is now home to the new milonga Vida Mia on Friday nights.

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

Click a link to buy Happy Tango from:

amazon.co.uk
amazon.com
amazon.ca
amazon.fr
amazon.de
amazon.co.jp
barnesandnoble.com
BookDepository.co.uk
BookDepository.com
whsmith.co.uk

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