Tango passion and the rules of the game

In this book, the strict rules, códigos, and behavioural patterns at the traditional milongas (dance halls) of Buenos Aires are described. They constitute a frame around the tango, which in its unique embrace, el abrazo, is danced here with more devotion and passion than in any other tango environment in the world. Interspersed with the running text are the author’s personal diary notes from her intensive tango dancing sessions in Buenos Aires during the first decade of the twenty-first century. These diary entries add immediacy, local colour, and capsule descriptions of the capricious life lived in these tango salons, where circumstances can produce both tears of disappointment and intense pleasure.