The future of tango

Yesterday I was paying for my shopping in the supermarket when the cashier turned to me and said, "el precio está errado". I didn't get what he was saying at the beginning but I then found out that since they had printed the price on the label the table prices had gone up. I didn't bother to argue over half a peso but it shows what many are fearing. With an estimated inflation of 35% in the end of the year (meat is 24% more expensive now than 4 months ago), prices change every week. What does this have to do with tango?

Tango as we know it, a growing world-wide ever present dance, is relatively new. It was in the nineties that the first tango schools started outside Argentina but mainly it was in the 21st century that the boom, well... Boomed!

Buenos Aires (BsAs) has always welcomed this sudden growth. Even the most traditionally fanatics (and anti tango globalisation) welcome the pesos of the tango tourists. Hypocrite but the money tastes good. So, the last ten years saw an unprecedented growth in tourists flying to BsAs in expensivc flights but rebating those costs in cheap classes, milongas and steaks. All in all, by the end of the two weeks, the trip wasn't all that expensive, because life in Argentina evened out the price of the prohibitive flights...

What's happening now is that prices are getting out of control. The average price for a milonga is AR$20 (about £4 or $6) and although it may sound cheap to you, two years ago the average price would be AR$5. Many locals can't afford to go regularly to milongas anymore, let alone having classes. So, many milongas in BsAs are turning into collection of tourists who ventured into the tango mecca. This makes that promise of floors with nice rondas, no clashes and fantastic dances become a bit of a scam. Some floors here are worse than Europe or States.

I was recently talking with a few milongueros (the true ones) and they told me that they could not see BsAs holding on to its status for very long. Maestros are lured away for most of the year to Europe and USA where they earn fortunes (I heard some "stars" charge £2000 for a performance) and the old milongueros run away from tourists like the devil from the cross. Tourists dance with tourists, just like at home... So what's the point? Good level of dancing? You're starting to get that in Europe and, I believe, the States, as well as South Korea, China, Taiwan and so on... Will those start to be more attractive than a transatlantic flight to the mecca? Some people I know don't bother with BsAs anymore. Maybe more will follow. I think we are in a turning moment, BsAs will never be the same.