Yesterday I went for my second Fileteado Porteño class at 6 pm. As I said last time, Martin plays tango in the background as we work, which already adds to the Argentine feel of it all.

Just around the corner from his studio is a lovely old square called Plaza Dorrego, and every Sunday night when the weather is fine they hold an open air milonga. I’d never been, and I decided to give it a try. (Mind you, I don’t think I’ll do it again until my course is finished, because I had to go there dressed for tango and I kept worrying about dropping orange paint on my black skirt!)

Anyway, the milonga was lovely. This barrio, San Telmo, is very old and steeped in tango history, and yet it had quite a contemporary feel to it. Instead of older people dressed in more traditional tango gear, there were lots of young people in shorts and shirts — although I honestly don’t know how you can dance tango in flipflops or Birkenstocks!

The best thing I saw there, and in fact the best thing I’ve seen in a long time anywhere, was this young woman in a wheelchair “dancing” tango! This picture shows just one of her partners, as she was whirling around the dance floor for every dance. Isn’t that fabulous?

But I have to tell you about my surprise. When I arrived, lots of people were watching, but it was actually a tad early to dance, so I decided to walk back to the main part of the plaza where there are tables and have a glass of wine. As I approached the area, I saw a woman waving frantically at me and calling my name.

It turned out to be Lena and Bulent, the couple who run the tango school I went to in Toronto in the summer of 2016! Can you imagine? I had no idea there were there and they didn’t know I was here, and what were the chances of us choosing the same milonga on the same night? Actually, they were just having drinks and were going to a different place, but it was so nice to find familiar faces like that. Small world, eh?