I boarded this train called ‘Tango’ a few years ago. I was going through a low phase. A friend of mine took me to this gathering called ‘The Milonga’. Somebody came and asked me for a dance. I accepted, as I was not new to partner dancing and also, I knew a bit about weight change. I could follow. As in, I din feel like a fool dancing. I din feel any out of the box emotions either. But something did happen that day. For those 3 mins I closed my eyes and my body relaxed. I hadn’t slept for days before that. I liked the way my body relaxed. I decided to start learning Tango.

‘Cabeceo’ the art of inviting to dance Tango according to me is the most important part of dancing in a milonga. End of the day, milonga is not just about dancing but also is about the culture that surrounds it. It is controversial, confusing, dreadful and regressive to some but an important tool that makes life easy and empowering for others. Points I am going to make here are my opinions. They are solely based on my experience in Buenos Aires and what I saw first-hand. Cabeceo is the most used method to ask for a dance in BA traditional milongas. Thus it is very important to know how it works and learn it before travelling to BA.

I travelled to Buenos Aires in December of 2016 for Tango. I stayed there for almost 3 months. It is peak season for Tango travellers. All the teachers are in BA at this time for holidays. I had to do a lot of research, ping lot of friends and friends of friends to get all the information I needed. My stay there was super smooth. I got everything that I had hoped and more from the trip. All thanks to few teachers and friends in BA I knew from before and the friends I made later. I am sharing here my experience. Hope this will help people going there to plan well and experience Tango in BA like I did.