Meet Tango Dancer Lucila Chifflet
"connect and talk using your body"
When you go to South America with your family, you might not find yourself having the same adventures as you do, say, when you take a girls trip to Vanuatu. During the last three weeks in Buenos Aires, I would have loved to stay out late into the evening enjoying the part of the world that claims tango and Malbec, but I found myself hesitant to do so without a partner in crime and my not-great Spanish, which feels particularly maladapted to the strong Argentinian accent. If I had prioritized it more, I would have undoubtedly found someone to go tango dancing with, but what I did instead was sign myself up for a quick tango lesson with a lovely woman named Lucila Chifflet. I met up with her on my last full day in Buenos Aires.
We were both in Villa Crespo, so it was easy to meet for a Sunday afternoon coffee at Mamina Cafe before my tango lesson.
Lucila has French heritage and understands a little bit of the language, but she’s never left Argentina. She’s always lived Buenos Aires and has enjoyed dancing tango and jazz since she was 17. She’s now 37 and loves body movement of all kinds including circus tricks! But it was only when she experienced the milongas, ten years ago, that she became passionate about the tango she does now. A long with performing, she also teaches.
”I’m going tonight,” Lucila told me of the milongas, and I was welcome to join her. I also had to a 5:45am flight to catch the next morning.
“Maybe!”
The milongas, Lucila went on to explain, are like the tango clubs of Buenos Aires. When she was younger she thought the milongas were just about people looking for hook ups, and she wasn’t interested. She just wanted to dance, she wasn’t seeking love or a relationship. But once she started going, she realized her perception was wrong.
“Milongas are really late at night. People from other countries sometimes can't go with the same rhythm,” she jokes. “So Milonga starts at 9:00 or 10, and end at 4am. At some milongas, you can also have breakfast.”
I’d been in Buenos Aires a while, but I was unaware of the Milongas. I also now know that along with being a place where people dance, Milongas also means a type of music; it precedes Tango.
She’s talking about me when she says about people from other countries can’t go to the same rhythm. In the Newcastle Herald I wrote an article about another Argentinian city, Monte Hermoso and how I cannot believe how late into the evenings Argentinians party. They stay out until 2am, even with their young children, even in small beachside towns! Lucila tends to begin her dancing at Milongas at 10pm.
Like many creative people I know in the US and Australia, Lucila has several jobs. When she’s not teaching and performing tango, she’s a biology researcher, researching ants! If she had to pick a career, it would be tango, she said without hesitation.
”Because you can connect with another person, connect and talk using your body. Tango involves an embrace, because it's social dancing. All the Tango dancing, you will embrace the person, and the connection that appears in that embrace, that movement together, and in that dialogue that we make together, for me, it's happiness,” she says. “It makes me present with the thing I'm doing right now and I don't have any thoughts or things that worry me, nothing. It's all present. I'm all my body and my mind and my spirit in that moment, and for me that is very valuable.”
She usually dances with her partner, but he’s currently recovering from an injury, so now she enjoys dancing with others. In the last few years she’s learned how to dance as either a lead or follower, and she likes both. With tango dancing, it was once more common for a man to lead and woman to follow, but now dancers often swap traditional roles or have same sex partners.
”Sometimes you don't want to think anything. So I like following. As a follower, you don't have to pay attention to yourself in the space, just receive the dance. You really can express yourself, without thinking about anything,” she says. “The leader has the responsibility of not pushing other people, taking care over dancing with because sometimes, especially here at Buenos Aires, milongas ae really crowded. They can be dangerous.”
We discussed the interesting cultural and political history to tango, which originated in the late 1800s. It began in marginalized, poor communities, but slowly spread to all people of all classes.
I had just returned from a brief trip to Montevideo, Uruguay where a tour guide had told me that tango originated in Argentina AND Uruguay, but Lucila told me it was more Argentinian.
She said while you can find tango dancing with modern music playing, it’s only orchestra at the milongas. With tango it’s very important to step with a beat, and when she teaches, she plays a lot of 1940s orchestra classics.
When she’s not performing or researching ants, she teaches group classes in Abasto; this is the famous neighborhood of 1920s tango singer Carlos Gardel.
Lucila told me about one of her favorite Tango dancers, Javier Rodriguez, and I’ve included an example of him for some inspiration.
After our coffee, we went to my brother’s apartment and she gave me a lovely little lesson. I was awful, but I had fun!
Now that I’ve had a tiny taste (sadly I did not make it out for a dance that evening) I’m way more curious about tango. Back in Newcastle, I realize there is actually a Tango group here, although it appears they don’t get started at 10pm.
”A lot of people from other countries, when they discover tango, they don't want to quit,” Lucila says. “They want to continue on. It’s an addiction.”
I can’t say I’m addicted, but I’m keen to learn more. I have to go back to Buenos Aires and have a night out on the town with Lucila.
What I’m learning about this week.
-On the plane home I watched Argentina,1985, which offered more interesting insights to the Argentinian dictatorship I mentioned when I wrote about the Falkland Islands.
-I also watched Selena with Jennifer Lopez, and it was so good but also so sad. There’s a great scene when her Dad is talking about the struggle about being Mexican American.
-I read a super disturbing/compelling article on child psychopaths in The Atlantic.
-And also learning about the history of Malbec, lol.
Another really interesting article Alex!
Excellent article!