Tango Time

Tango is the national dance of Argentina and much loved by the local Argentines. It would be a crime not to see a tango show whilst in  Buenos Aires, so I went to Cafe Tortoni, the oldest cafe in the city. Its a rather grand cafe with tango shows taking place in the basement each night. Its a very small, dimly lit stone cellar with a very intimate atmosphere. My expectations of a tango show were, one woman, one man dancing to tango music. My expectations were wrong! A tango show in Argentina consists of numerous dancers, a storyline, a musical narrator and a five piece band. The dancers were incredible and I was amazed at how fast paced the dance was. Some of the dance moves could rival an olympic gymnastic and how the women managed to spin and jump in 8 inch heels is beyond my understanding. The story line was rather difficult to follow as it was in spanish and my spanish skills arent quite good enough just yet but I managed to get the jist of it.  It was an interesting, but quite unusual show, the dancers were amazing to watch but it was not quite what I was expecting from Cafe Tortoni. I would like to see some more traditional tango, so maybe I will have to search the city for just one man, one woman dancing to tango music.