Tango Milonguero

Tango milonguero. What is it? I can describe it by it's history. I can describe where it is danced today. I can describe how it feels to dance it and maybe that's the best place to start. The essence of tango milonguero is a brief, meaningful relationship between two people. Nine minutes. These two people may never have met, yet they share one thing in common: a dedication to the connection, both emotional and physical, that is made possible by a partnered immersion into the extraordinary, evocative music that is tango. I will use the terms lead and follow because those are the roles in the dance, but that is not to imply a strict hierarchy of control. Better would be the terms suggest and respond. There is no gender implied in lead and follow. The dance is improvisational. Both dancers will interpret the music in their own subtle way while being exquisitely aware of the movements of their partner. But to be held, to be held respectfully, tenderly. May I say lovingly? Even though this moment may be the one and only time they are together. Longing is the essence of the music, of the tango. And so that one moment is enough.
My tango journey began in 2009 with a local teacher who taught a perfectly respectable open-embrace tango salon. Respectable, because Salon is a tango that traveled from Buenos Aires to Paris in about 1911. There in Europe it was cleaned up from it's more earthy original form and returned to Buenos Aires to be danced in the larger halls where space was available. But the original form remained, danced locally in the port and downtown areas of Buenos Aires (another name for the dance is tango El Centro). By today's standards tango milonguero, or close-embrace tango isn't very racy but back in the early 1900s it was. Hence tango salon.
So that earthy, racy dance continued to be danced. Because of the small dance spaces some of the larger moves from tango salon weren't danced. But there's another reason tango milonguero eschews the larger, more showy moves. In a nutshell, tango milonguero is more about how it feels on the inside, less about how it looks from the outside. Yes, other forms of tango have connection, have the interplay between partners, have closeness. But just take a look at videos of traditional milongueros dancing. Comparatively, the milonguero dancers might look a bit more like they are shuffling around (if you don't know what to look for). Now these are broad generalizations but they are also true. Ricardo Vidort y Ilona on YouTube (Ricardo Vidort, a much revered milonguero dancer passed away in 2006, so his videos are not of the highest quality). Smaller steps, tight turns, rhythmic steps in place. Perfect for a crowded dance floor. Paola Tacchetti y El Chino Perico. Tango Salon. Large moves, lots of space. See the difference? Most (though not all) expeerienced dancers can, in my experience, dance both salon and milonguero. There was a lovely woman from Seattle who once asked me why I never asked her to dance. "I dance milonguero, you're a fantastic Nuevo dancer." "Oh!" She said, I love milonguero!" And she did!
So which is harder to learn? I'd say both are about equal. Both require training, practise, attention to the music, connection with partner. They both use the same basic steps, though fewer in milonguero. I've heard that you can have a good dance in milonguero style with three different steps, well executed. There are literally hundreds of tango steps and many of them can be adapted to milonguero style, but why? Depends on your personality and what your goals are in tango. If you love the challenge of learning and mastering complex steps, executing those well with your partner. Looking great on the dance floor, dancing maybe to a variety of music including but not limited to tradition tango, dance salon style. If you're more interested in a small improvisational dance on a crowded dance floor, with a very close connection to your partner. Milonguero. That being said most dancers move between the two styles. Milonguero, because the moves are smaller, can be easier on the knees. It's a more contemplative, almost zen-like dance. I love it.
I have previously described tango as a many braided stream, rivulets of styles separate, join together downstream, separate again. Styles come and go in popularity. Denver used to be a hotbed of milonguero. Not sure that's the case anymore. Victoria used to host Nuevo instructors. I washed out pretty fast with my bad knees.
One thing I can guarantee, you will find a lot of milonguero style dancers in Buenos Aires. But there, they don't call it milonguero style. They call it tango.