It takes two types to tango

As the Nuevo Tango trend packs more dance floors, the Bay Area's formal milongas take up the challenge with grace and tradition.

Lessley Anderson

Dance classes may once have been for reluctant lonely hearts and awkward first-timers, but tango defies all that. Its formalized sexuality can be more overt than what goes on at the wildest clubs, and it requires more grace than the basic booty shake. New fans are drawn by the emergence of Nuevo Tango, which combines swing and hip-hop moves with the untraditional sounds of rock, blues, and world beat. Still, some tango clubs, or milongas, like the Mission’s El Valenciano remain strictly old-school, tapping into a growing nostalgia for a time when courtship followed rituals, women embraced their sensuality, and men took the lead.

El Valenciano
12:57 a.m.

THE LOOK
A sleek, sexy sea of red and black, spiked with stilettos.

THE UNSPOKEN
Men offer only meaningful glances as an invitation to dance. Women simply hold their gaze.

THE SET
An ornately carved oak bar and dim lights evoke the feel of a musty, proud European hotel.

THE SOUND
Scratchy recordings from tango’s golden age of the ’30s and ’40s.

BEWARE
The “tango trance” gets enraptured dancers whirling about in an ecstatic, almost hypnotized stupor. Injuries have occurred.

Tuesdays, 1153 Valencia St., S.F., 415-826-9561

Elsewhere

Mission neohippies embrace Nuevo Tango with improvised salsa moves and classic rock at Cellspace on Wednesdays. 2050 Bryant St., S.F., 415-648-7562.

Adding rave to ballroom, dancers tango until dawn at the all-night Argentine-style milonga held every fourth Saturday at the Beat. 2560 9th St., Berkeley, 510-548-5348.

Settled types romance their dates with practiced moves on Saturdays at the Golden Gate Yacht Club. 1 yacht road, S.F., 415-346-2628.

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