Sunday nights are complicated. It is a free day, but most people have to work the next day. After dancing fridays, saturdays most people want to continue that grooving momentum.
Nonetheless, it is still a very good dancing night.
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Best Place to Go: El Beso without a doubt. It is on Riobamba 416, a dimly lit, small salon with the dance floor about half the size of a tennis court. It is a 'singles' milonga. Dancers are seated such that along the perimeter of the sqaure dance floor, the ladies occupy two rows and the guys, the adjacent two rows. This facilitates the 'eye invitation' (cabeceo) between the the two gender.
Its one of the most popular place to go on the sunday night. Even tango dancers who are partners, sit apart so they can dance with other people.
The milonga, organized by Susana Plazaola, starts at 2300hrs. Just before the milonga, there is an intermeadiate and advance tango milongeuro class by Susana Miller. As such many students stay back to dance. The place has a good mix of old milongueros and young tango milonguero dancers.
Dancers: High level of dancing. That the old milongueros dance very well, goes without saying. Even the students of El Beso have quite a decent level.
The old milongueros like Dany, Tete, Cacho, Abel, Muma and Alicia Pons etc, frequent the place.
Floorcraft: No crazy and big figures. But from 12 midnight till 0130hrs, the floor could get crowded. Even so, the milonguero style of dancing ensures pretty much a safe and peaceful dancing experience.
Music: A relatively young deejay, decent music from the golden age of tango. No nuevo tango music. But sometimes the energy from the deejaying can be relatively flat.
What I Like Least: If you come after 2330hrs, and do not have reservations, it is almost impossible to find a seat. It is so popular and crowded. You will have to wait at the bar area together with a huge traffic of people. Some people like the energy of the bar, but not me. It is difficult to settle down and start the night peacefully when you are at the bar with the influx of the crowd.
Memories: I was approached by Irene from United States, she had been reading my blog about tango and singled me out at El beso, that was quite a surreal experience.
Also I had my first dance with Rosana at El Beso.
Other Nice Places: Porteno y Bailarin (Riobamba 345) which is just one street away from El Beso. In fact many dancers leave El Beso around 0230hrs and continue on to Porteno y Bailarin to dance till the wee hours of the morning.
Hi Isaac,
Great to meet you at El Beso, yes, it was pretty surreal meeting you there. We recognized you right away by your similarity to your photo and also the fact that you dance like Javier Rodriguez.
By the way we are from Canada. Our teachers in Bs As are Marta Anton and El Gallego Manolo, you seemed not too sure who they are when we were talking, so their website is here:
http://www.abctango.com.ar/martanton/
Marta is world famous for her Canyengue and her footwork, and Manolo is world famous for his style of milonga. Manolo is a tango brother to the reknowned tango teachers Rudolfo Cieri and Juan Bruno (both passed on), and keeps their style of dancing alive.
You are right about the milongueros hanging out there, we had a chance to hang out with the great Alberto Dassieu at El Beso, he is a fabulous Villa Urquiza style dancer and his dancing is not to be missed.
Nice to meet you and thanks for the dance! Hope to bump into you in the tango world sometime, and have a safe trip back to Singapore.
Irene
P.S. Ladies, Isaac's extensive tango training in Bs As has paid off and I wholly endorse his wonderful dancing! By all means flag him down or cabaceo him if you get the chance.