Best area for milongas in BsA

[jantango]

Changing in front of everyone else is SOP around here, I'm afraid. Color us inelegant. But as I said, we can adapt.

Again, thank you very much for the advice.

Changing shoes at the table is standard operating procedure at dance venues in the United States where the tango culture of Buenos Aires is neither present nor practiced. That's not to say that you won't find locals changing their shoes at the table in Buenos Aires. Last Sunday at Lo de Celia Tango Club, I saw three women seated in the front row changing their shoes at the table during a tanda. They could have easily gone to the ladies' room to do so, then groomed their hair, and washed their hands. One went directly to the ladies' room after changing her shoes at the table. I've heard comments from men as well as women about those who change shoes at the table. For the most part, Argentines were street shoes for tango. Men never change their shoes. Half the women show up in the shoes they will dance in.

As Lilly of the Valley points out, it is best to know the local rules in practice before you arrive. You will be expected to know and practice them. See codigos in my blog. If you sit with your wife in a milonga, dancers will assume that you are going to dance exclusively with each other. It will take time observing to learn all the standard operating procedures of the milonga in Buenos Aires. Advance reading will only help the process for you.

Think of the milonga as you would the theater. The actors don't dress on stage; they change in the dressing room.

 

[Lilly_of_the_valley]

And no, toilets in BsAs are not larger than everywhere else, and if by chance they are large, some seller of tango shoes/cookies/roses/whatever will take the space.

LOL. Last November, when I was in Buenos Aires, the sitting at some milongas was so tight, that one would have significantly more room for changing shoes in the tiniest toilet stall. But I suspect the OP won't encounter milongas overcrowd in February.

(Seriously I do not see why it is such a problem. I saw some women, probably coming from work or a long trip on a rainy day using a public transit, bringing along a backpack and changing their clothes in the ladies' room, let alone shoes).