Buenos Aires, January 2020

Jean-Charles, a Reunion Island native, has travelled to Buenos Aires more than 20 times, constantly amplifying his knowledge of tango. I met him during one of his visits, in Villa Malcom milonga, more than 8 years ago, and our friendship has been growing ever since.

Although he has done it once before in his own organization a few years earlier, he knows very well how hard it is to organize a long vacation for a group of people  from a distance. He needed a reliable parter. the first time Jean-Charles expressed the desire to bring some of his tango students to Argentina was in 2017.  I offered him our 2 week all-inclusive tango holidays package. After discussing his needs and budget, we did the necessary adjustments to come up with the perfect holiday program and received his first group in 2018.

 

A reliable partner – Discover Tango

We spent 2 incredible weeks in their company and all his students returned to Reunion island delighted from the trip! From that day on,  Jean-Charles was enthusiastic to pursue his collaboration with us for future groups.

For the majority of the first group, it was their first time in Buenos Aires, and they were eager to live their holidays to the fullest! Private tango classes with Oscar Casas and Pablo Nievas  enabled them to learn how to dance in small spaces, as this was the only directive requested by Jean-Charles.  In fact, dancing in milongas in their own country where space is plentiful, has lead the community to dance making large movements. In Buenos Aires however, where milongas are packed and the dancefloor not always very big, you have to be able to adapt your dance to the available space.

So during the 2 weeks with our guests, the focus of the classes were to teach dancing tango “milonguero” style. I have to say that those who were uncomfortable moving on the dance floors the first days,  were able to put into practice what they had been taught by the maestros, and efficiently navigate any milonga by the end of their stay.

After the success of the first group, Jean-Charles brought another group to Buenos Aires in 2019, for whom we planned a slightly different program, as we always look for new cultural activities to put forward. This group consisted of ladies only, so we asked some of our male friends that we’ve met in our regular milongas, to participate in the holiday program. This permitted the women to have local partners for their private tango group lessons, a factor  that was highly valued by our guests.

It’s always very important for us that our groups get to meet locals during their holidays, as this is the best way to trade cultural differences. With this perspective in mind, we also  organized an exclusive tango cultural night for Jean-Charles’ students, where we had a historian acquaint them with the beginnings of tango in a city that was being developed by immigrants. Together with the information  given by the historian, we put together a video presentation to illustrate the narration with archived films and photos , thus creating a very informative and lively experience.

One of the other highlights of the holidays with Jean-Charles’ group, was our full day in Tigre. We spent the afternoon discovering the canals of the Tigre delta with dinghy boats, thus allowing us to reach the less traveled sections of the canal labyrinths. When we stopped on one of the virgin islands only inhabited by wild birds, a spontaneous mud bath occurred with a couple of guests, which spread into a group mud fight that had us all laughing hysterically! According to our guides, the mud is filled with beneficial minerals good for the skin, so we all rolled in it hoping to look a few years younger!