Let’s continue the tour of the most renowned tango salons in Buenos Aires. We have already talked about La Viruta, today a few words about Salon Canning.
Salon Canning has been home to tango for decades. It is situated on Avenida Scalabrini Ortiz in Palermo, very close to La Viruta, which makes it very convenient to have a classic Buenos Aires Friday tango night: first Milonga Parakultural in Salon Canning and after that, a small walk – about 200 metres to the after milonga in La Viruta, like a small promenade. Despite being in Argentina where it is probably not the best idea to walk around in the middle of the night, it is completely acceptable (and also fun) here as you are not alone and many others share the same idea of changing milongas in the night.
The salon itself is really beautiful, but what I really love about Salon Canning is that it has a lot of history, and the old wooden floor only knows how many tango shoes have already been dancing on it. Yes, thousands! Being there is just like a time travel to the old times.
Different organizers are in charge of milongas in Salon Canning on different nights; the best and the most famous, like a Buenos Aires institution, is Milonga Parakultural on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Fridays. You can dance to live music from the best orchestras like Color Tango, Sexteto Milonguero, La Juan d’Arienzo and many others and enjoy shows by the best tango dancers.
If you are either a tango band, a tango dancer or a tango DJ, this is the event which really counts. You can perform on all the other milongas, but this is by far the most important one. So if you get an invitation to perform at Salon Canning, wow, you must really be good!
This milonga has always been very popular among locals, they have been sitting at the same tables each evening for years. I still remember an old tanguero called Julio who was sitting at the same table in front of the dance floor each night in every year I was there, most of the time watching, sometimes even dancing. Every night in a suit, with a white shirt and a tie, a complete gentleman from head to toe. This time I have noticed that his chair was empty, and at the beginning of a performance on 9 de julio in the middle of the night, the milonga organizers prepared a kind of “in memoriam” for this gentleman, explaining that this day would be Julio’s 90th birthday, if he hadn’t passed away last year. So he spent every single night even at 89 years at this milonga.
One of the most enchanting things in Buenos Aires tango for me is the fact that you can see elderly couples, dressed in their best suits, who are regulars at the milongas even at 80+ years. Tango has been and will be in their lives forever…
Tango DJ Alenka