Anahí Viladrichto surrender if they wish to succeed. Consequently, it is not enough to
intellectually learn the steps, or even to practice the coordination of
figures and routines. The body must develop its own tempo to achieve
mastery because tango dancing (more than any other ballroom style),
depends on the partner’s embrace to inscribe the harmonized knowl-
edge into a sensorial schedule of ritualized bodily motions.
I have always secretly admired tango dancers who surrender them-
selves, with almost an irrational zeal and draconian commitment, to a
cause that seems to lead to an aimless routine that repeats itself night
after night. With the exception of summertime milongas, which take
place in the day in eclectic and spontaneous places, such as Central
Park (by the Shakespeare statue) or at the seaport, tango dancing is a
nocturnal event that occurs in a “different dimension” on the “dark
side” of life (see Savigliano 2003 ). Committed tango practitioners (Ar-
gentines and non-Argentines alike) spend countless evening and early-
morning hours dancing and practicing, as evidenced by the all-night
practices periodically run in New York City.
I have also been surprised by the ways through which an informa-
tional economy is widely reproduced and shared in the tango field,
including the knowledge (and cognizance) of different dancing styles
according to distinctive Argentine tango orchestras. A complex philo-
sophical lingo also characterizes the tango capital, through a language
that often tends to mystify (rather than clarify) what tango dancing is
or is supposed to be. Tangueros speak of making enlightening, inner
discoveries through the tango embrace, unique experiences of meta-
physical selves, raptures of emotional involvement that come to life
within the collective tango conscience (in Durkheim’s terms), as a supra-
entity that gets turned on at the culmination of the milongas. It is not
surprising therefore to find poets, writers, bohemians of all sorts, want-
to-be journalists of passion, and tango dancers who try to be all the
above in the tango crowd.
Nevertheless, time spent at the milongas has many more meanings
beyond practicing the tango and achieving higher states of conscious-
ness. Above all, milongas are camouflaged social fields that allow dis-
tinctive social worlds to be intersected, shared, and even created. As
I have argued elsewhere (Viladrich 2003 ), people from different so-
cial geographies and educational and professional backgrounds who