Hola! There’s music playing on Thursday night in Wanaka...and it's tango time. For a decade now local salons, ranging from restaurants and bars to people’s living rooms, have hosted a small but passionate local outpost of the tango diaspora.

Sousa Jefferson is one of the area’s most enthusiastic participants of the Argentinian dance, hosting weekly ‘milonga’, or tango social events, at her home.

“Argentine Tango is a social dance that has been danced for a hundred years,” Sousa told the Wanaka App. “Tango is danced in Buenos Aires at many late-night venues and on the streets.  It is a dance that connects people through a close embrace and lilting or rhythmic orchestral tango music.”

Sousa has a polished concrete patio specifically crafted for an outdoor dance floor during summer months, and her living room is cleared during winter for indoor sessions.

She said the group started  in Wanaka in 2009 when Kasha Szot,a ballet and contemporary dancer, opened a dance studio.

It began with a weekend intensive session with Kasha and Sanjay Pancha, a Wellington-based tango dancer. Weekly beginner and improver classes and "practilongas" continued for a year.   Raul Faustino partnered with Kasha for some of the teachings. Several New Zealand tango teachers visited and taught at K DANCE as well as two famous international tango performers and teachers, Fabio Robles and Ana Andree. 

“The small but dedicated group of dancers learned, trained and performed together at local events. Many of them continue to share their love of tango today, in Wanaka, New Zealand-wide and around the world, after starting their journey in a humble Wanaka studio. Kasha left Wanaka to follow her love of tango around New Zealand, and overseas. One of Kasha's students was Stella Senior who five years later took up the role of teaching tango in Wanaka.

“Stella Senior and Andreas Peckwitt then taught tango for 18 months between 2014 and 2015.  They started the Wanaka Tango Facebook page and classes were held at various venues around town including the Lake Wanaka Centre, Gin & Raspberry, Patagonia Chocolates and private residences. They also performed at Art in the Park.”  

Since their departure for further training in Buenos Aires in 2015, Sousa took up the role of coordinator for the group.

As well as hosting a local ‘practica’ which supports peer learning, she organises classes with visiting tango teachers, hosting them at her home.

Graham and Gloria Whittingham from Christchurch come twice a year to teach weekend intensives. Chris Corby from Motueka came two years ago and taught an eight-week course in tango and returns at times to also teach a weekend intensive, Sousa said..  

Currently Koen Michiels, a Belgian with a long involvement as a tango dancer and coach has been helping the group with a winter series of classes.

Working the winter as a ski instructor at Cardrona, Koen (pronounced Kuhn) has been involved in dance since early childhood and said he was introduced to tango by visiting groups from Argentina in his home town of Schoten, near Antwerp, which holds a renowned international dance festival he worked at.

After lessons in Belgium and Amsterdam, Koen followed what appears to be a familiar pathway for many tango aficionados, dancing in Paris, Italy and finally the pilgrimage to its origins in Buenos Aires and meeting the legends of the dance.

“My best tango memories are probably the ones I have from dancing in the salons in Buenos Aires and the clinics I had there with Roberto Leiva,” he said. 

“Working with the Wanaka Tango community is great. I get out of the ski bubble once a week and I get to know a lot of nice locals.”

He noted the “positive energy” of the small group and projecting energy and intimacy seems to be at the heart of tango.

“I just love to teach and pass on my knowledge and passion.”

It definitely forms a bond. The Wanaka Tango group now has almost 200 members on its page including many former locals taking their enthusiasm elsewhere,with tango community groups all over the country and overseas, Sousa says.

“Rumour has it that Kasha Szot may soon return as a visiting teacher. At the end of November, Wanaka Tango is excited to announce the arrival of two world-class tango performers and teachers from Buenos Aires, Ariel Yanovsky and Gisela Vidal. They will also be giving a public performance at a venue yet to be determined.”

“Glamourous "Show Tango" with its dramatic bold moves is really the making of performance tango dancers,” she said. “Social tango is for the pure enjoyment of the common folk of a community. Community is found wherever you happen to be, where people are dancing tango.”  

PHOTO: Supplied