A Milonguero will always break your heart

A word of advice to the ladies: A Milonguero will always break your heart.

Doesn't matter if you just had a great time dancing with him last night, and he had a great time dancing with you.  Doesn't matter if it's the first time you have danced with him, doesn't matter if you had been dancing together for eons.  The heartbreak is inevitable.  It's as bad as those damn Tango Shoes.

You've got to wait for his cabeceo.  Who knows whether he will look your way tonight?  You might have had the most marvelous Di Sarli together on Friday, D'Agostino on Saturday... They'll play those orchestras again tonight and there's another happy lady in his arms.  Or he's gone to some other milonga on the other side of town, even though he knows well enough where you were going to be. 

Oh, but there's always another one I can dance with, you say.  The milonga is filled with willing and talented gentlemen. No-one is irreplaceable.  Yes, no-one is irreplaceable, but if he is a Milonguero, and a true Milonguero, his style is all his own.  Unique.  No one hears and dances and feels and embraces to the music exactly the same way.  If you are looking for the same magic in the arms of another man - good luck, you aren't going to find it.  You may find less magic, or more magic, but the fact is, never will you find the same magic.

Even if he can't wait to dance with you, will never tire of you, has been dancing with you the same favourite tandas for decades as if you had signed and sealed a contract with blood for the next 99 years - he will still break your heart.  What if he moves to another city?  What if he becomes sick and cannot dance any more?  And there's always a chance he will finally find a nice girlfriend who forbids him to dance with other women.  And even if you are that favoured girlfriend of his, even if you marry him and tie him down ball and chain with blinkers so he can never cabeceo another woman ever again - my goodness, there's always a chance that he might die.  And if he dies, he'll take that special unique magic away with him for good. 

Who wants a broken heart?  What is a Tanguera to do?  No, I will not give my heart away, you say, I don't care if he dances like Fred Astaire (or Fino, or Portalea, or Gavito) - I will never give him all of me.  We will dance politely, more of a handshake than an embrace, I will follow as smooth as silk but you'll never going to get more than 50% of me, maybe 60% at the most.

Yes, let's do our 50%, 60% at the most...but then you won't be dancing Tango.

Yes, a Milonguero will always break your heart but that's why we have to give our 100%, 200%, 1000% every dance.  There is no guarantee what will happen the next tanda, or next year.  Tango at it's purest and deepest can only be found in the arms of a Milonguero and all you have in Tango is now.  He may break your heart into a million pieces tomorrow, but now, you will live and dance your savage and passionate Tango as if it is the last Tango on earth - for you will know that this moment, you have truly lived.  Life is sweet and cruel.