Tango Dancers For Rent

Giving the occupation of taxi dancer a new buff and polish, in the last two years male tango dancers in Buenos Aires have taken to the job of dance-partner-for-hire, which pays $10-15/hour (a princely sum when translated into pesos). According to an article from the WaPo, a jump in tango tourism ("tangorism"?) by people who know how to dance but not how to figure out the code of gestures that rule the tango hall has led to taxi jobs for folks like Pablo Tamburini, who spends four nights a week ho'ing himself on the dance floor.

A common scenario, [Tamburini] said, is this: A woman comes to Buenos Aires, perhaps accompanied by a tango-phobic husband or a group of female friends. She dutifully learns her tango steps, then heads out to a milonga to put them to the test. She takes a seat at a table, sipping her Malbec wine as couples float about the dance floor. An hour later, she is still sitting there, with the sole of her new strap-at-the-ankle tango shoe tapping the floor impatiently, vexed by her apparent invisibility and cursing the terrible truth in the old cliché about this dance: It takes two.

A Lesson in the Steps That Lead to the Dance [Washington Post]

[Ian Mount]

Previously: Tango Kvetch, Yo Adrian, It Takes Two to Tango, The Swanktastic BK Lounge, Palacio Duhau, Club647, Nandu: It's What's For Dinner