How does it feel to fulfill a dream you didn’t even know you had? For me, that dream wasn’t in Orlando or in fantasy castles. It was in Buenos Aires, on a dance floor full of young souls with old hearts, dancing Argentine tango as if time had stopped.
Tango: My Cultural and Emotional Journey
I never went to Disney as a child. It was a luxury my family couldn’t afford. But recently, I had an experience that brought me to tears of joy. I entered a milonga in Buenos Aires that at first glance looked like any ordinary nightclub. But instead of reggaeton or electronic music, tango was playing. And not just any tango: the real tango, the one you feel in your body and your soul.
The dance floor was full. Young people danced with a passion that seemed inherited from another era. I felt like a child on her first trip to Disney, seeing her favorite characters come to life. I didn’t take many photos or videos. I wanted to record it all in my mind, in my body. I wanted to learn it, touch it, dance it, live it.
Argentine Tango: An Addiction I Didn’t Know I Had
Tango has always been present in my life thanks to my father. I listened to it occasionally, and he even took me to a place in Bogotá called La Esquina del Tango. I enjoyed watching him dance, but I never imagined it would captivate me as it did in Buenos Aires.
Today, tango is my drug. My body aches if I go days without dancing. Where I live, there are no daily milongas or young people who truly understand it. Sometimes I dance with gentlemen who’ve taken three classes and think they already master the art. But those of us who truly love tango know that you never stop learning.
Milonga in Buenos Aires: Where Tango Lives
In Buenos Aires, tango is not just music: it’s culture, a language, an identity. New generations dance it, feel it, respect it. And even though I was born in Colombia, a land of rhythm and folklore, my soul found its home in Argentine tango.
I’ve never been addicted to anything. Not sweets, not coffee. But tango… that “treacherous feeling that takes over my body with strange movements I haven’t mastered yet but dream of mastering.” I smile when I dance it. I respect it. I love it.
My ignorance led me to dance it. My boldness, to desire it. My will, to learn it. And my soul, to belong to it. Because I truly believe I was born for tango.
Argentina, dear land, of your tango I am addicted. There is no tango more tango than the one danced amidst your sorrows.
Sara Rengifo 