Complejo Tango

My husband Don, and I attended a marvelous “tango lesson/dinner show” called Complejo Tango Cena-Show (Escuela de Baile-Canto-Musica, Av. Belgrano 2608, C1096AAQ, Buenos Aires, Argentina; phone [54] [0] 11 4941 1119, fax 43082106 or visit www.complejotango.com.ar) in Buenos Aires in January ’06. It was one of the best events of our 24-day trip to South America.

Our travel agent prearranged the evening, which costs $60. It included a hotel pickup and return. Our group was small, 10 to 12 people.

The lesson took about 30 minutes. My young teacher was very patient with my two left feet.

Then we were taken to a surprisingly small dining room with a small stage. I did not record the menu, but our meal was excellent and included a bottle of good wine at our individual table. We have been to other dinner shows in many countries, and we would rank this dinner very high! There were many servers and waiters. We were delightfully pleased.

After dinner, we watched a performance by about 12 young attractive dancers. We were next to the stage, but there were no poor seats; some tables in a shallow balcony were unoccupied.

We totally loved the show. It was all in good taste and beyond expectations. We are not tango experts, but we were entertained. The dancers also came down into the audience and danced briefly with us.

When the dance team started to return to the stage, my husband, Don, pretended to refuse to stop dancing. His partner was lovely. The men dancers instantly jumped into the act and made a “big scene,” vigorously taking him out of the dining room. Once out in the hall, they laughingly shook his hand and slapped his back for adding another delightful element to the evening’s entertainment.

Don snuck back to our table via a rear entrance to the dining room. Other customers expressed their delight to us.

We even bought the photos of each of us with one of the performers — and we never do that!

NANCY ADOLPHSON

Danville, CA