Tango at Salon Canning

(Katherine) Go Team USA! We were extremely excited to root on our futbol team at Plaza San Martín, and hoped that we might have a decent gathering of Americans to sit with. However, our plans were foiled again by the rain because we neglected to look at the weather forecast before leaving the house. We then decided to head to Shoeless Joe's, which we should have done in the first place since it's a bar owned by an American and caters to Americans (duh.) We arrived about 20 minutes into the match and the place was completed packed with our fellow comrades. It was the first time we had seen so many Americans in one place here in BA! It was a great sight, but the lack of seating forced us to move on.


We found another bar along the Recoleta Cemetery wall called New Port Pub, and ended up watching the rest of the match with about 6 other Americans. Not quite the rowdy atmosphere of Joe's, but it was a huge screen and we had a clear view. The game didn't turn out as we had hoped though – USA lost to Ghana 0-2. We now plan to cheer on Argentina and Brazil (since we're headed there next) but if it came down to it, we would ultimately support Argentina since we have thoroughly enjoyed pretending to be Porteños!

After the game, we trudged through the rain to check out the Design Center that Robert had discovered earlier. This is a great place to play house and decide what kind of furniture and bathroom fixtures we would want in our dream home – too bad we have no home to speak of right now! We checked out the Hard Rock, and then walked back through our neighborhood to get a bite of delicious dolce de leche ice cream before heading home for dinner.

In our effort to do “old people things” (i.e. not going to a club with a bunch of 20-year olds) I had done some tango research so that we could have another experience. I learned that there are 2 different kinds of tango in BA – the show halls, which are designed for tourists, and the milongas, which are the social halls designed for people who tango for recreation. Having seen a show last weekend, I really wanted to see what it was like to be a local who tangoed for fun. We went to a milonga called Salon Canning close to Palermo, and was a huge room with tall ceilings and a large dance floor surrounded by tables and chairs. Our host seated us in the 2nd row along the side, which was perfect because I wanted to hide and blend in as much as possible. I didn't want us to look like tourists who were “crashing” or disrespecting people who take this dance so seriously, although I did sneak some photos (no flash though!)

We had learned that unless you walk in as a couple, it is expected that you are available to dance with anyone, provided that the man asks and the woman accepts. This can even be done from across the room with head gestures, and we witnessed a few partnerships using this technique. Tango is a very sultry dance – it requires you to get extremely close to your partner and dance face to face. It is also complex because the female has to put full concentration into following her partner, and the male needs to make sure he is directing her around the dance floor while avoiding the other couples. It reminded me a bit of a reverse game of bumper-cars. People also get quite dressed up since this is a rather formal gathering, and most women were were wearing the traditional T-strap tango shoes which helped to emphasize their precise dance steps.

Although we thoroughly enjoyed watching the couples, we decided that tango might not be the dance for us to learn when we return to the states. Number one, because there aren't a large number of venues where we could tango in SF, and number two, because I'm not sure we posses the grace to avoid knocking over other couples on the dance floor