I do not agree with my friend when she says the tango has not changed. In many ways it has. In 2000 when I first came here I would never have dared to wear pants to a milonga, let alone jeans. Now you see both. People came to Buenos Aires to dance tango because it was Mecca. You came because it was the heart of tango. It was the only place where tango was danced the way it was danced here. People had traditions and codigos that were strictly observed and it was expected that the extranjeros (foreigners) would observe them as well.
In 2004 the government of Buenos Aires was determined to capitalize on the tango for tourism. Shoe stores sprang up on every corner. Quality was no longer an issue. The shoes were made of cardboard and plastic, with prices as high as those in Europe and the USA. Tourists wanted “authentic” tango shoes. Tango shows charging outrageous prices for a dance that hardly resembled tango, prices no Argentine could ever hope to pay, were all over the city. Everyone became a tango teacher. Academias del tango were in every barrio. Tango hotels, tango clothes, tango everything, and at prices no local who danced tango could ever afford.
They came from all over the world to dance tango. But when they got here, what they found was not what they expected. People spoke Spanish. You were not supposed to go to the tables to ask women to dance. Women were not supposed to accept dances from men who came to the table. And the people, they were so old. Where were those people who danced in the shows? Why was everyone dancing close?
People used to come to Buenos Aires to dance the “real tango.” Now they were coming to party. Women hired taxi dancers hoping to get more for their money. Men offered young women in the milongas a nice daily rate for “showing them around town.” Many locals became resentful. Others found a goldmine to capitalize on. Nobody can deny it: the tango has changed.
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