Same-sex tango rocks Argentina

CLARISSE DOUAUD


BUENOS AIRES—It's a classic Argentine tango scene with only one obvious difference: it's gay tango night. Here, whether you will lead or submit in this sexualized dance is never assumed by your gender.

Seduced by the pulsing strains of tango music, the clientele at "La Marshall" in Buenos Aires are lured to the dance floor. Man-to-man, woman-to-woman and mixed-sex pairs weave around each other enveloped by the red light beams that break the smoky darkness.

Same-sex tango may appear to be the modernization of Argentina's traditional dance, but in reality it goes back to where it all began in the steamy brothels of the late 1800s when men danced with men.

Augusto Balizano, a professional gay tango dancer and organizer of La Marshall, has been giving classes to homosexual people for six years and started this gay milonga a year and a half ago after seeing a demand for it.

"People came to me and said they had a place to learn, but not their own place to dance," says Balizano of his students.

The term milonga refers to a social space for dancing tango. In the case of La Marshall, it takes place every Wednesday, with venues varying over time. The other gay milonga takes place at "El Lugar Gay" on Sunday evenings.

Diego is a regular here. A university music professor by day, he decided to take lessons after watching others at La Marshall.

Although Diego won't reveal his age, he says he is tired of what he sees as the youth-oriented gay nightlife in Buenos Aires, characterized by wild discotheques that are open until dawn.

"You have to be young, good-looking and `fashion,'" he says of the atmosphere at typical gay clubs in the city, "Here (at La Marshall) you just have to be nice and you meet nice people."

Lessons at La Marshall are open to everybody, gay or straight, on a pay-as-you-go basis. They start before the milonga, which goes from 10 p.m. until 3 a.m.

Another regular, Dario, sips a beer and discusses the advantages of learning tango in a gay-friendly atmosphere.

"Here you can learn to lead or to be led," says Dario, an architect, referring to the obstacle of traditional male-female roles in tango. "You can't learn that in other places."

Tango is thought to have originated in the 1880s among working-class European men in and around Buenos Aires. The passion evoked by tango dancing in Buenos Aires is steeped in sexuality, representing machismo and female submissiveness.

At La Marshall the steps are no different — one dominates and the other submits — but each can choose the role they prefer.

Balizano avoids the term "gay milonga" because he wants La Marshall to be everybody's space.

For the gay tourist in Buenos Aires, this milonga complements the regular club scene, which (for those who are so inclined) should not be missed either. In this city, renowned for its nightlife, clubs don't start filling until 2 a.m. and don't empty out until long after sunrise.

Carlos Melia is the owner and manager of Pride Travel, an agency in Buenos Aires catering to gay tourists. He opened it two years ago because of a surge of gay tourism in Argentina, which has replaced Brazil as the No. 1 Latin American destination for this tourist sector. Pride Travel offers insider information for gay tourists who want to see the gay community first-hand in Buenos Aires. Buenos Aires does not have a gay village. .

Clarisse Douaud is a Buenos Aires-based freelance writer.